• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1079-1087
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• 2021

Gentisic acid (GA), a benzoic acid derivative present in various food ingredients, has been shown to have diverse pharmaceutical activities such as anti-carcinogenic, antioxidant, and hepatoprotective effects. In this study, we used a co-culture system to investigate the mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory and anti-adipogenic effects of GA on macrophages and adipocytes, respectively, as well as its effect on obesity-related chronic inflammation. We found that GA effectively suppressed lipopolysaccharide-stimulated inflammatory responses by controlling the production of nitric oxide and pro-inflammatory cytokines and modulating inflammation-related protein pathways. GA treatment also inhibited lipid accumulation in adipocytes by modulating the expression of major adipogenic transcription factors and their upstream protein pathways. Furthermore, in the macrophage-adipocyte co-culture system, GA decreased the production of obesity-related cytokines. These results indicate that GA possesses effective anti-inflammatory and anti-adipogenic activities and may be used in developing treatments for the management of obesity-related chronic inflammatory diseases.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.124-134
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• 2020

Here we review the evolutionary history of radiation therapy technology through the festschrift of articles in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Korean Society of Medical Physics (KSMP). Radiation therapy technology used in clinical practice has evolved over a long period of time. Various areas of science, such as medical physics, mechanical engineering, and computer engineering, have contributed to the continual development of new devices and techniques. The scope of this review was restricted to two areas; i.e., output energy production and functional development, because it is not possible to include all development processes of this technology due to space limitations. The former includes the technological transition process from the initial technique applied to the first model to the latest technique currently used in a variety of machines. The latter has had a direct effect on treatment outcomes and safety, which changed the paradigm of radiation therapy, leading to new guidelines on dose prescriptions, innovation of dose verification tools, new measurement methods and calculation systems for radiation doses, changes in the criteria for errors, and medical law changes in all countries. Various complex developments are covered in this review. To the best of our knowledge, there have been few reviews on this topic and we consider it very meaningful to provide a review in the festschrift in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the KSMP.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.124-134
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• 2021

Purpose: The study examined the effects of personality factors and the perceived nursing organizational culture on workplace bullying of nurses. Methods: The participants were 110 allied general hospital with more than 300 beds. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and stepwise regression analysis with the SPSS program. Results: Workplace bullying differed significantly by marital status (t=-2.43, p=.017) and clinical career (F=3.82, p=.012). Statistically significant positive relationships was observed between workplace bullying and hierarch-oriented culture (r=.24, p=.031), and task-oriented culture (r=.26, p=.006), negative relationships was observed between workplace bullying and relationship-oriented culture (r=-.37, p<.001), and Innovation-oriented culture (r=-.24, p=012). A total of 23.7% of workplace bullying was explained by clinical career and relation-oriented culture. Conclusion: These results could be used in the development of workplace bullying preventive programs and caring programs for nurses considering clinical career by focusing the organizational efforts on relationship-oriented culture creation.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the effects of organizational culture, organizational silence, and organizational commitment on the intention of retention as perceived by nurses Methods: The research model was designed on the basis of the PROCESS Macro model 6 proposed by Hayes. The participants were 142 nurses from general hospitals. Measurements included the scales of organizational culture, organizational silence, organizational commitment, and intention of retentione. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis, and Hayes's PROCESS macro method for mediation. Results: Retention intention showed a significantly positive correlation with relationship-orientated culture (r=.32, p<.001), innovation-orientated culture (r=.30, p<.001), and organizational commitment (r=.48, p<.001). However retention intention showed a significantly negative correlation with organizational silence (r=-.42, p<.001). Furthermore, organizational silence and commitment had a mediating effect on the relationship between organizational culture and intention of retention. Conclusion: The impact of organizational culture on intention of retention in general hospitals was mediated by organizational silence and organizational commitment. Considering the mediating effects of organizational silence and organizational commitment on the relationship between nursing organizational culture and retention intention, a strategy should be developed to enhance organizational commitment and weaken organizational silence by strengthening related and innovative nursing culture.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.9-19
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to the investigate the relationship between nursing organizational culture, stress coping, bullying, and turnover intention among Korean hospital nurses; and to identify factors influencing turnover intention. Methods: The participants were 264 nurses working at three general hospitals in a metropolitan area in; South Korea. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from March 20 to June 21, 2021; and analyzed using the SPSS/WIN program. Results: Nurses' turnover intention was positively correlated with hierarchical -oriention (r=.28, p<.001), work -oriention (r=.14, p=.012), and bullying (r=.48, p<.001), whereas turnover intention was negatively correlated with relationship -oriention (r=-.41, p<.001), innovation -oriention (r=-.39, p<.001), and stress coping (r=-.09, p=.009). The factors influencing turnover intention were nursing organizational culture, bullying, age, position, and total working period; these had 44.0% explanatory power for turnover intention (F=14.00, p<.001). Conclusion: According to this study, addressing bullying and strengthening nursing organizational culture is essential to lower turnover intention among clinical nurses.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.8-10
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• 2023

삼킴장애는 음식물이 입에서 식도로 가지않고 걸리거나 기도(Trachea)로 흡입되는 문제를 갖는 상태이다. 특히 노인이나 신경계 질환을 앓는 환자의 경우 기도로 흡입된 음식덩이가 폐렴을 일으키고 결국에는 사망으로 이어지기에 적절한 치료와 관리가 요구된다. 보통 영상으로 판단할 수 있는 삼킴단계는 구강준비단계(Oral Preparatory Phase), 구강단계(Oral Phase), 인두단계(Pharyngeal Phase), 식도단계(Esophageal Phase) 4가지로 분류하고 삼킴장애는 침습(Penetration)과 흡인(Aspiration)으로 크게 2가지로 분류한다. 본 논문에서는 이러한 6가지 클래스를 가지는 삼킴장애 환자 비디오 파일을 라벨링하기 위한 웹 애플리케이션을 제안한다. 이를 구현하기 위해서 대용량 멀티프레임 이미지를 수신해서 분리하여 저장하도록 개발하였다. 또한 음식덩이를 정교하게 분할할 수 있도록 GrabCut 알고리즘을 적용하여 라벨링할 수 있도록 하였다. 차후 라벨러와 전문의 간의 협업이 가능하도록 라벨링 데이터의 상태를 관리할 수 있도록 개발하고자 한다.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.326-341
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that leads to the progressive destruction of articular cartilage. Current clinical therapeutic strategies are moderately effective at relieving OA-associated pain but cannot induce chondrocyte differentiation or achieve cartilage regeneration. We investigated the ability of wedelolactone, a biologically active natural product that occurs in Eclipta alba (false daisy), to promote chondrogenic differentiation. Methods and Results: Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemical staining, and immunofluorescence staining assays were used to evaluate the effects of wedelolactone on the chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). RNA sequencing, microRNA (miRNA) sequencing, and isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation analyses were performed to explore the mechanism by which wedelolactone promotes the chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs. We found that wedelolactone facilitates the chondrogenic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived MSCs and rat bone-marrow MSCs. Moreover, the forkhead box O (FOXO) signaling pathway was upregulated by wedelolactone during chondrogenic differentiation, and a FOXO1 inhibitor attenuated the effect of wedelolactone on chondrocyte differentiation. We determined that wedelolactone reduces enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2)-mediated histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation of the promoter region of FOXO1 to upregulate its transcription. Additionally, we found that wedelolactone represses miR-1271-5p expression, and that miR-1271-5p post-transcriptionally suppresses the expression of FOXO1 that is dependent on the binding of miR-1271-5p to the FOXO1 3'-untranscribed region. Conclusions: These results indicate that wedelolactone suppresses the activity of EZH2 to facilitate the chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs by activating the FOXO1 signaling pathway. Wedelolactone may therefore improve cartilage regeneration in diseases characterized by inflammatory tissue destruction, such as OA.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.8003-8008
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• 2015

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate whether family history of cancer is associated with head and neck cancer risk in a Chinese population. Materials and Methods: This case-control study included 921 cases and 806 controls. Recruitment was from December 2010 to January 2015 in eight centers in East Asia. Controls were matched to cases with reference to sex, 5-year age group, ethnicity, and residence area at each of the centers. Results: We observed an increased risk of head and neck cancer due to first degree family history of head and neck cancer, but after adjustment for tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking and betel quid chewing the association was no longer apparent. The adjusted OR were 1.10 (95% CI=0.80-1.50) for family history of tobacco-related cancer and 0.96 (95%CI=0.75-1.24) for family history of any cancer with adjustment for tobacco, betel quid and alcohol habits. The ORs for having a first-degree relative with HNC were higher in all tobacco/alcohol subgroups. Conclusions: We did not observe a strong association between family history of head and neck cancer and head and neck cancer risk after taking into account lifestyle factors. Our study suggests that an increased risk due to family history of head and neck cancer may be due to shared risk factors. Further studies may be needed to assess the lifestyle factors of the relatives.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.1409-1419
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• 2021

A growing number of healthy dietary ingredients in fruits and vegetables have been shown to exhibit diverse biological activities. Phloretin, a dihydrochalcone flavonoid that is abundant in apples and pears, has anti-inflammatory effects on ulcerative colitis (UC) mice. The gut microbiota and metabolism are closely related to each other due to the existence of the food-gut axis in the human colon. To investigate the interplay of faecal metabolites and the microbiota in UC mice after phloretin treatment, phloretin (60 mg/kg) was administered by gavage to ameliorate dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced UC in mice. Gut microbes and faecal metabolite profiles were detected by high-throughput sequencing and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis, respectively. The correlations between gut microbes and their metabolites were evaluated by Spearman correlation coefficients. The results indicated that phloretin reshaped the disturbed faecal metabolite profile in UC mice and improved the metabolic pathways by balancing the composition of faecal metabolites such as norepinephrine, mesalazine, tyrosine, 5-acetyl-2,4-dimethyloxazole, and 6-acetyl-2,3-dihydro-2-(hydroxymethyl)-4(1H)-pyridinone. Correlation analysis identified the relations between the gut microbes and their metabolites. Proteus was negatively related to many faecal metabolites, such as norepinephrine, L-tyrosine, laccarin, dopamine glucuronide, and 5-acetyl-2,4-dimethyloxazole. The abundance of unidentified Bacteriodales_S24-7_group was positively related to ecgonine, 15-KETE and 6-acetyl-2,3-dihydro-2-(hydroxymethyl)-4(1H)-pyridinone. The abundance of Christensenellaceae_R-7_group was negatively related to the levels of 15-KETE and netilmicin. Stenotrophomonas and 15-KETE were negatively related, while Intestinimonas and alanyl-serine were positively related. In conclusion, phloretin treatment had positive impacts on faecal metabolites in UC mice, and the changes in faecal metabolites were closely related to the gut microbiota.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.35-42
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• 2017

The purpose of the present study was to explore the features of Emotional Intelligence(EI) in psychiatric patients in terms of the ability model. EI scores of patients, measured by performance-based test and self-report inventory, was compared. The scores of performance-based test(Emotional Literacy Test) and self-report inventory(Trait Meta-Mmood Scale) of patients(30 with psychotic symptoms, 32 without psychotic symptoms) who had a appropriate literacy were analyzed by means of independent t-test. There was a no significant difference of IQ between two groups. Our results indicated that psychotic group had significantly lower EI in performance-based test than non-psychotic group. In contrast, non-psychotic group showed lower EI in self-report inventory than psychotic group. This inconsistent results might be attributable to the differences in method of measurement. Thus, these results suggested that it may be important to adopt a convergent using of both performance-based test and self-report inventory while assessing EI of patients with psychopathology.