• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.249-256
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• 2024

This study aimed to verify the healing effect through brain and pulse wave analyses before and after a forest walk to the university students. Bio-signals of brain and pulse waves were measured using Omnifit Mindcare. After analyzing four brain wave items such as concentration and four pulse wave items such as heart health, it is identified that the stress level of university students was higher than that of the general public, and the brain stress level was approached to the normal range for 19 people with clear improvement. For pulse waves, a statistically significant decrease in sympathetic nerve activity (%) was confirmed. Although the slight fluctuations within the normal range were caused by short term and individual differences, it showed that the forest walking is partially effect on the relieving stress.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.191-199
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• 2009

Recently general hospitals in Korea are focusing on healing environment which care for patients on the side of spirit and psychology without medical treatment. For the reason, architects are planning a public space on a large scale in which can be held cultural performances and artistic events. Those of social activities can be effective healing environment according to the "Anthroposophical medicine" studied by Rudolf Steiner. To the patient, Social healing environment is relation with normal life and back to the life. The case of a large-scale public space on hospital in foreign country shows the effect of healing environment through social community. So it is valuated as a social healing environment and community space. Even though the large-scale public space has been being increased in our circumstance, there is no evaluation of use on it. So there is no idea how people are satisfied with public space to stay and form a concourse by themselves. The purpose of this study is to find out the desire of people, who use the large-scale public space by analysis of observation research and interview in the general hospitals. And finally this study suggests the factors which can realize social healing environment on the planning of public space in hospital architecture.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.974-985
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• 1999

Osteoporosis is defined as a decrease in bone mass that leads to an increased risk of fracture. The therapeutic effect of $1{\alpha}$,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol, the hormonal form of vitamin $D_3$ that mediates calcium translation in intestine and bone, on the healing process of fracture has still been controversial. These studies were designed to understand the healing process of normal fibular fracture, the osteoporotic changes after ovariectomy, and the therapeutic effects of $1{\alpha}$,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol on the osteoporotic fracture in rats. The simple transverse fractures of rat fibulae were produced with a rotating diamond saw. The changes of the biochemical and mechanical indices of rats were investigated. The mechanical study based on bending test revealed the healing of the fibular fracture in the 5th week after simple transverse fracture. The osteoporosis impaired more the healing of osteoporotic fibular fracture than normal non-osteoporotic fibular fracture. The healing process of osteoporotic fracture was facilitated by the treatment with $1{\alpha}$,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol, however, was delayed more than the healing process of normal fracture. The bone strength based on the bending test also confirmed this tendency. The bone strengths in the 5th week after fracture of normal bone, osteoporotic bone, and $1{\alpha}$,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol-treated osteoporotic bone were 75%, 41%, and 67%, respectively, in comparison with those of intact bone. In conclusion, $1{\alpha}$,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol was effective in promoting the osteoporotic fracture healing.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.492-498
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• 2017

A thermal barrier coating (TBC) with self-healing property for cracks was proposed to improve reliability during gas turbine operation, including structural design. Effect of healing agent on crack propagation behavior in TBCs with and without buffer layer was investigated through furnace cyclic test (FCT). Molybdenum disilicide ($MoSi_2$) was used as the healing agent; it was encapsulated using a mixture of tetraethyl orthosilicate and sodium methoxide. Buffer layers with composition ratios of 90 : 10 and 80 : 20 wt%, using yttria stabilized zirconia and $MoSi_2$, respectively, were prepared by air plasma spray process. After generating artificial cracks in TBC samples by using Vickers indentation, FCTs were conducted at $1100^{\circ}C$ for a dwell time of 40 min., followed by natural air cooling for 20 min. at room temperature. The cracks were healed in the buffer layer with the healing agent of $MoSi_2$, and it was found that the thermal reliability of TBC can be enhanced by introducing the buffer layer with healing agent in the top coat.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.727-741
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• 2019

A reinforced concrete water tank is a typical functional liquid storage structure and cracks are the greatest threat to the liquid storage structure. Tanks are readily cracked due to seismic activity, thereby leading to the leakage of the stored liquid and a loss of function. In order to study the effect of cracks on liquid storage tanks, self-healing and leakage tests for bending cracks and through cracks in the walls of a reinforced concrete water tank were conducted. Material performance tests were also performed. The self-healing performance of bending cracks in a lentic environment and through cracks in a lotic environment were tested, thereby the self-healing width of bending micro-cracks in the lentic environment in the short term were determined. The through cracks had the capacity for self-healing in the lotic environment was found. The leakage characteristics of the bending cracks and through cracks were tested with the actual water head on the crack. The effects on liquid leakage of the width of bending cracks, the depth of the compression zone, and the acting head were determined. The relationships between the leakage rate and time with the height of the water head were analyzed. Based on the tests, the relationships between the crack characteristics and self-healing as well as the leakage were obtained. Thereby the references for water tank structure design and grading earthquake damage were provided.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.290-301
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• 2022

Increasing life expectancy leads to a rise in the prevalence of aging-related mental diseases and a concomitant increase in the financial and societal pressures related to their prevention and management. This issue is attracting increasing attention from researchers. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether a healing program in a forest environment is effective for improving cognitive function, depression, anxiety, and stress in elderly people. A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The experimental group consisted of 18 males and females aged 60 to 80 years who participated in a forest healing program for seven days, while the comparison group comprised 10 people with similar demographics. For the process of data analysis, this study performed a cross-analysis to determine the homogeneity of the data and carried out the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, a nonparametric statistical test, to verify the significance of each group. Participation in the forest healing program led to a significant improve-ment in cognitive function (p=0.030). The levels of depression decreased, but this result was not statistically significant. The levels of anxiety decreased significantly (p=0.004). The mean cortisol score, a measurement of stress, decreased, but it was not statistically significant. These findings confirmed the effectiveness of this program for improving certain mental conditions of elderly people, and affirmed that the use of long-term forest healing programs can be expected to alleviate national pressures created by aging societies.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.735-747
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• 2023

This study was conducted to identify the appropriate space requirements for forest healing program for physical and mental health care of female cancer survivors in their 40s and 60s. From September to November 2023, 12 cancer survivors were surveyed at Chungnam National University Forest and Daejeon Healing Forest. One Forest Therapy instructor and two researchers conducted a forest healing program once a week for eight sessions of two hours each, Perceptions and satisfaction with the program and space were assessed using pre and post program questionnaires, and the effect of participation in the forest healing program on mood status was evaluated. The satisfaction survey results were supplemented by qualitative studies conducted through post-interviews. Result of the analysis showed that the satisfaction of the participants was very high (4.8/5.0). There was a notable increase in vigor and a decrease in total mood disturbance after participation in the program. Toilets and water facilities (11), tool boxes (9), pest control facilities (3), deck facilities (3), forest hut (3), electrical outlets (2), shade shelters (2), and shoe hairy (1) were proposed as required facilities for cancer survivors. This study demonstrated that the forest healing program is effective in reducing distress in female cancer survivors in their 40s and 60s and appropriate facility standards for the forest healing space are needed to increase the satisfaction of cancer survivors.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1661-1669
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• 2007

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid. It is well known for its role as an inhibitory neurotransmitter of developing and operating nervous systems in brains. In this study, a novel function of GABA in the healing process of cutaneous wounds was presented regarding anti-inflammation and fibroblast cell proliferation. The cell proliferation activity of GABA was verified through an MTT assay using murine fibroblast NIH3T3 cells. It was observed that GABA significantly inhibited the mRNA expression of iNOS, IL-$1{\beta}$, and TNF-${\alpha}$ in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. To evaluate in vivo activity of GABA in wound healing, excisional open wounds were made on the dorsal sides of Sprague-Dawley rats under anesthesia, and the healing of the wounds was apparently assessed. The molecular aspects of the healing process were also investigated by hematoxylineosin staining of the healed skin, displaying the degrees of re-epithelialization and linear alignment of the granulation tissue, and immunostaining and RT-PCR analyses of fibroblast growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor, implying extracellular matrix synthesis and remodeling of the skin. The GABA treatment was effective to accelerate the healing process by suppressing inflammation and stimulating re-epithelialization, compared with the epidermal growth factor treatment. The healing effect of GABA was remarkable at the early stage of wound healing, which resulted in significant reduction of the whole healing period.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.615-620
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• 2018

In order to analyze the healing effectiveness of rock salt cracks affected by the applied stresses and time, we used the ultrasonic technology to monitor the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) variations for different initial stress-damaged rock salts during self-healing experiments. The self-healing experiments were to create different conditions to improve the microcracks closure or recrystallized, which the self-healing effect of damaged salt specimens were analyzed during the recovery period about 30 days. We found that: The ultrasonic pulse velocity of the damaged rock salts increases rapidly during the first 9 days recovery, and the values gradually increase to reach constant values after 30 days. The damaged value and the healed value were identified based on the variation of the wave velocity. The damaged values of the specimens that are subject to higher initial damage stress are still keeping in large after 30 days recovery under the same recovery condition It is interesting that the damage and the healing were not in the linear relationship, and there also existed a damage threshold for salt cracks healing ability. When the damage degree is less than the threshold, the self-healing ratio of rock salt is increased with the increase in damage degree. However, while the damage degree exceeds the threshold, the self-healing ratio is decreased with the increase in damage.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.258-265
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• 2020

Objectives: Despite advances in maxillofacial surgery, impaired bone healing remains a concern for surgical teams. Many studies have evaluated the effects of sildenafil and pentoxifylline on bone healing. However, their effects on healing of bone fractures have not been well investigated. This study aimed to assess the effects of the phosphodiesterase inhibitors sildenafil and pentoxifylline on healing of mandibular fractures in rats. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 rats were randomly divided into six groups of 10. Mandibular fracture was induced in all rats. After the surgical procedure, group C1 received saline, group S1 received 10 mg/kg sildenafil and group P1 received 50 mg/kg pentoxifylline. The rats were sacrificed after 1 week. Groups C4, S4, and P4 received pharmaceutical therapy as in groups C1, S1, and P1 but were sacrificed after 4 weeks. The samples then underwent histological analysis. Results: The mean rate of bone healing of mandibular fractures in groups S1 and P1 was significantly higher than in group C1 at 1 week (P<0.001). The mean rate of bone healing of mandibular fractures in group P1 was higher than in group S1 at 1 week (P=0.04). The mean rate of bone healing of mandibular fractures in groups S4 (P=0.001) and P4 (P=0.004) was significantly higher than in group C4 at 4 weeks, but no significant difference was noted in the rate of healing between groups P4 and S4 (P=0.53). Conclusion: Sildenafil and pentoxifylline can be used as adjuncts to enhance bone healing in rats.