• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.220-225
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• 2019

Studies based on microbial community analyses have increased in the recent decade since the development of next generation sequencing technology. Associations of gut microbiota with host's health are one of the major outcomes of microbial ecology filed. The major approach for microbial community analysis includes the sequencing of variable regions of 16S rRNA genes, which does not provide the information of bacterial activities. Here, we conducted RNA-based microbial community analysis and compared results obtained from DNA- and its cDNA-based microbial community analyses. Our results indicated that these two approaches differed in the ratio of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, known as an obesity indicator, as well as abundance of some key bacteria in gut metabolisms such as butyrate producers and probiotics strains. Therefore, cDNA-based microbial community may provide different insights regarding roles of gut microbiota compared to the previous studies where DNA-based microbial community analyses were performed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.5
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• pp.599-610
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• 2021

Early detection of small concrete crack or reinforcement corrosion is necessary for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). Global vibration based methods are advantageous over local methods because of simple equipment installation and cost efficiency. Among vibration based techniques, FRF based methods are preferred over modal based methods. In this study, a new coupled method using frequency response function (FRF) and proper orthogonal modes (POM) is proposed by using the dynamic characteristic of a damaged beam. For the numerical simulation, wave finite element (WFE), coupled with traditional finite element (FE) method is used for effectively incorporating the damage related information and faster computation. As reported in literature, hybrid combination of wave function based wave finite element method and shape function based finite element method can addresses the mid frequency modelling difficulty as it utilises the advantages of both the methods. It also reduces the dynamic matrix dimension. The algorithms are implemented on a three-dimensional reinforced concrete beam. Damage is modelled and studied for two scenarios, i.e., crack in concrete and rebar corrosion. Single and multiple damage locations with different damage length are also considered. The proposed methodology is found to be very sensitive to both single- and multiple- damage while being computationally efficient at the same time. It is observed that the detection of damage due to corrosion is more challenging than that of concrete crack. The similarity index obtained from the damage parameters shows that it can be a very effective indicator for appropriately indicating initiation of damage in concrete structure in the form of spread corrosion or invisible crack.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.585-594
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• 2020

At present, aging-related degenerative muscle diseases are considered a serious problem. However, the drug effect on the treatment and prevention of sarcopenia has not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of extract of Pu'er tea as a remedy to alleviate the symptoms of sarcopenia. Pu'er tea extracts showed excellent radical scavenging ability. The expression of Myh3 was promoted and myotube formation also was increased by treatment of Pu'er tea extracts. These results suggest that Pu'er tea is a natural substance that promotes myogenesis, and is valuable as a material for pharmaceutical research on the prevention and treatment of various muscle diseases, including sarcopenia. And It is necessary to confirm specific indicator substances of puer tea and further study on this.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2021

Kerma Area Product (KAP) is best indicator of radiation monitoring on radiographic examinations. KAP can be measured differently depending on the X-ray irradiation area, air kerma, souce-skin distance, type of equipment, etc. The major factors are exposure area and the air krema. The KAP currently used only considers the exposure area with X-rays and has a problem that KAP is always excessively overestimated from the dose received by an actual subject. Therefore, in this study, in order to measure the accurate KAP, a new area dose calculation that can be calculated by dividing the area where the actual X-ray is irradiated is presented, and the KAP is the real area. We compared and analyzed how much it was overestimated compared to the dose. The Skull AP projection and seven other projection were compared and analyzed, and the KAP was overestimated in each test by 52% to 60%. In this way, the effective KAP (EKAP) calculation developed through this study should be utilized to prevent extra calculation of the existing KAP, and only the accurate patient subject area should be calculated to derive the accurate area dose value. EKAP is helpful for control the patient's exposure dose more finely, and it is useful for the quality control of medical radiation exposure.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.205-211
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• 2021

Objective: This study aimed to identify the effects of assuming different knee angles and hip abduction during bridge exercise and hip thrust exercise on lower body muscle activity. Design: Cross-sectional study Methods: Thirty-three healthy adults (18 men and 15 women) were instructed to perform the bridge and hip thrust exercises while randomly assuming 120°, 90° and 60° of knee flexion and 0° and 30° of hip abduction. EMG data (%maximum voluntary isometric contraction) were recorded three times from the erector spinae (ES), gluteus maximus (GM) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles of participant's dominant side and the mean values were analyzed. Results: The results showed that, during the hip thrust compared to the bridge exercise, there was significantly greater gluteus maximus muscle activity in all hip conditions while the biceps femoris activity was significantly less, and the erector spinae muscle activity was significantly greater with 30° of hip abduction (p<0.05). With all exercises, the erector spinae and the biceps femoris exhibited significantly greater muscle activity with 60° of knee flexion compared to 90° and 120° of knee flexion (p<0.05), and significantly greater muscle activity with 90° compared to 120° of knee flexion (p<0.05). In the case of the gluteus maximus, greater muscle activity was exhibited with 120° compared to 60° of knee flexion with all hip abduction conditions (p<0.05). Conclusions: It was effective for muscle activation of main agonists such as the gluteus maximus and erector spinae during thrust exercise, and the change in knee flexion angle was effective for muscle activation of the gluteus maximus. Therefore, it is considered that this study can be used as a selective indicator of the target movement angle during hip strengthening exercise for specific muscles.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2022

Purpose : This study was conducted to assess the status of sarcopenia and locomotive syndrome in the Korean elderly population over 65 years of age by applying the recently updated screening tool for diagnostic evaluation of sarcopenia and locomotive syndrome. Methods : Sarcopenia and locomotive syndrome (LS) were diagnosed and evaluated in 210 Korean elderly people over 65 years of age. There were 36 patients in the "sarcopenia group", 164 in the "locomotive syndrome group", and 10 in the "normal group". The collected data were analyzed using the chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results : The diagnostic evaluation of sarcopenia and LS showed the presence of sarcopenia in 9.05 % of males and 8.10% females among the Korean elderly population over 65 years of age. Prevalence of stage 1 locomotive syndrome (LS 1) was 95.24 %; stage 2, (LS 2) 36.19 %; and stage 3 (LS 3), 16.19 % among the study population. Both the sarcopenia diagnostic indicator and the LS evaluation indicators showed significant differences between the three groups. All the subjects in the sarcopenia group had LS; further, on comparison of the detailed composition ratio of each patient with LS, the prevalence of LS in the sarcopenia group was found to be: LS 1 41.67 %, LS 2 41.67 %, and LS 3 16.67 %, whereas in the LS group, it was found to be: LS 1 66.46 %, LS 2 16.46 %, and LS 3 17.07 %. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant. Conclusion : It was confirmed that sarcopenia is correlated with LS incidence. This suggests that the evaluation of motor LS can be used as a tool for the early diagnosis and prevention of sarcopenia in cases of functional decline due to aging in the elderly population.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.67-72
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• 2018

Objectives : Natural extracts have been extensively studied to replace single agent drugs that cause a variety of side effects. However, studies of changes to the formulation of natural extracts has not been nearly proceed. We aimed to investigate whether pharmacological stability of hyeonggaeyeongyotang gagambang (HYT) is altered by formulation changes for foaming tablet. Methods : In this study, we performed freeze - drying of HYT, which is known to have antioxidant and anti - inflammatory properties, and then changed the formulation by foaming. Results : As a result, the foaming reaction appeared normally when HYT foamed tablets were put into water, and almost all of the substances were dissolved in the aqueous solution. In addition, we confirmed using high-performance liquid chromatograph that the geniposide used as an indicator material of HYT was stable in most of the formulations. It was confirmed that the change of HYT formulation did not affect the antioxidant efficacy by the 2,2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid assay. Moreover, quantitative real-time PCR confirmed that the inhibitory effect of HYT on IL-$1{\beta}$ mRNA expression induced by lipopolysaccharides treatment in murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells was similar in the solution of foaming tablet. Conclusions : These results suggest that the materials with various pharmacological effects can be stably maintained even when the formulation is changed by the foaming action of HYT. Our results are expected to provide important basic knowledge on formulation changes using various natural extracts.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2019

Objectives : Decrease in muscle mass and loss of muscle function due to aging are associated with various diseases. As interest in healthy aging increases, efforts to prevent and treat muscle hypoxia as an illness are increasing. Considering the physical limitations, a pharmacologic approach to the treatment of myopenia is needed. Methods : Terminalia chebula Rets has a wide range of pharmacological effects and is used as a medicinal product in traditional medicine. However, the drug effect on the treatment of muscle disorders has not been revealed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the value of water extract of Terminalia chebula (WETC) as a therapeutic agent to relieve symptoms of muscle hypoxia. Results : WETC showed strong radical scavenging ability. In addition, WETC increased cell activity of myoblast, and we observed that WETC induces myoblast differentiation by immunoblot analysis using differentiation protein markers as well as cell morphology of myoblast. Based on these results, we examined the effect of chebulic acid, chebulagic acid, gallic acid, geraniin, and punicalagin on cell activity and differentiation of myoblasts. Gallic acid significantly increased cell activity of myoblast, and it was found to be an effective substance which not only induces myoblast differentiation but also promotes proliferation. Conclusions : We suggest that the WETC with antioxidant effect and its indicator gallic acid on cell activity, proliferation and differentiation of myoblast can be studied and developed as a food and medicine for prevention and treatment of various muscle diseases.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 2022

Background: It is known that hand strength and fingertip force are used as an indicator of muscle strength and are also highly related to the various chronic symptoms and even lifespan. To use the individual fingertip force (IFF) as a quantitative index for clinical evaluation, the IFF should be measured and analyzed with various variables from various subjects, such as the normal range of fingertip force and the difference in its distribution by disease. Objects: We tried to measure and analyze the mean maximum IFF distribution during grasping a cylindrical object in healthy adults and patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods: Five Force-sensitive resistor (FSR) sensors were attached to the fingertips of 24 healthy people and 13 patients with SCI. They were asked to grip the object three times for five seconds with their maximum effort. Results: The mean maximum IFF of the healthy adult group's thumb, index, and middle finger was similar statistically and showed relatively larger than IFF of the ring and small finger. It is a 3-point pinch grip pattern. All fingertip forces of patients with SCI decreased by more than 50% to the healthy group, and their IFF of the middle finger was relatively the largest among the five fingertip forces. The cervical level injured SCI patients showed significantly decreased IFFs compared to thoracic level injured SCI patients. Conclusion: We expect that this study results would be helpful for rehabilitation diagnosis and therapy goal decision with robust further study.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.170-178
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the factors influencing post-traumatic stress disorder in intensive care unit nurses in dedicated hospitals for coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) during the peak of the outbreak. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional correlational design. A total of 100 participants completed questionnaires comprising the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), coping strategy indicator, social support, and post-traumatic growth. Post-traumatic stress disorder was classified as normal, mild risk, and high risk. Data were analyzed using 𝛘² test, Fisher's exact test, Kruskal-Wallis test with multiple comparison analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multinominal logistic regression analysis. Results: Fifty seven nurses (57.0%) had a high risk of post-traumatic stress. Higher levels of post traumatic stress were associated with higher levels of social support seeking, and higher levels of avoidance, and lower levels of social support from supervisors. Higher post traumatic growth was correlated with higher social support for seeking coping, and problem solving coping strategies, and social support from supervisors and colleagues. Post-traumatic stress risk was associated with social support seeking and supervisors' social support. In addition, a higher risk of post-traumatic stress was related to COVID-19 work duration and supervisors' social support. Conclusion: Supportive programs, including increasing social support and building coping skills, may be suggested to safeguard the mental health of critical care nurses during the pandemic.