• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-46
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• 2019

This pilot study involved a single session of song-based music therapy to relieve the anxiety of intensive care unit (ICU) caregivers. Six caregivers of ICU patients participated in the intervention session individually. During the initial stage of the intervention, the participants' current emotional states were identified. Then they listened to familiar songs and playing a tone chime, which was intended to help them relax their body and reduce their psychological resistance. During singing experiences as an essential part of the intervention, the participants discussed the lyrics of songs in an attempt to find the meaning related to them. Also, they sang the songs with a live accompaniment in which their emotional states were reflected with changes in musical elements (e.g., tempo, dynamics, rhythm, or chords). In the final stage, they identified personal application to their everyday lives. To analyze the results, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and a visual analog scale on emotional states were completed by participants before and after the session, and participants' verbal responses during the session were also recorded. According to the results, STAI anxiety scores significantly declined following the session. Also, they showed significant increases in positive emotions and significant decreases in negative emotions. This suggests that short-term music therapy can be an effective intervention for relieving the psychological distress of ICU caregivers.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1251-1257
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• 2019

Peptidoglycan (PG) is found in atheromatous lesions of arteries, where monocytes/macrophages express inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha ($TNF-{\alpha}$). This study investigated the effects of PG on $TNF-{\alpha}$ expression and examined possible cellular factors involved in $TNF-{\alpha}$ upregulation. The overall aim was to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying inflammatory responses to bacterial pathogen-associated molecular patterns in the artery. Exposure of human THP-1 monocytic cells to PG enhanced the secretion of $TNF-{\alpha}$ and induced its gene transcription. Inhibition of TLR-2/4 with OxPAPC significantly inhibited $TNF-{\alpha}$ gene expression, whereas inhibition of LPS by polymyxin B did not. The PG-induced expression of $TNF-{\alpha}$ was also significantly suppressed by pharmacological inhibitors that modulate activities of cellular signaling molecules; for example, U0126 (an ERK inhibitor), SB202190 (a p38 MAPK inhibitor), and SP6001250 (a JNK inhibitor) significantly attenuated PG-induced transcription of $TNF-{\alpha}$ and secretion of its gene product. $TNF-{\alpha}$ expression was also inhibited by rapamycin (an mTOR inhibitor), LY294002 (a PI3K inhibitor), and Akt inhibitor IV (an Akt inhibitor). ROS-regulating compounds, like NAC and DPI, also significantly attenuated $TNF{\alpha}$ expression induced by PG. These results suggest that PG induces $TNF-{\alpha}$ expression in monocytes/macrophages by multiple molecules, including TLR-2, PI3K, Akt, mTOR, MAPKs, and ROS.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.201-213
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• 2020

Despite empirical research that the response to human risk is significantly influenced affective factors, the role of affective factors has been unexplored in information privacy research. This study aims to explore the privacy behaviors of location-based service (LBS) users from an affective point of view. Specifically, the study explored the relationship between three types of privacy threats (collection, hacking, secondary use), two affects (worry, anger), and a coping behavior (continuous use intentions). The structured survey was conducted with 552 users. In order to analyze the effect of the combination of perception of particular privacy threats and particular affects on the intention of continuous use, association rules, one of the data mining techniques, was employed. As a result, there was a difference in the intention to use according to the combination of the perception of risk and affect responses, and the most significant influence on the intention is when the second use of personal information was combined with anger. This study has significant theoretical contribution in that it includes affective factors in the research of information privacy users, complementing the biases of existing cognition-oriented approaches and providing a comprehensive understanding of privacy response behavior.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-28
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• 2020

This case study aimed to investigate changes in adolescents' awareness of the motivation behind their excessive internet gaming after group music psychotherapy. Five middle school students participated in six 60-minute group sessions over 4 weeks. The group music psychotherapy program was developed to help participants understand their implicit reasons for excessive internet gaming. Verbal responses were obtained from pre-program and post-program interviews and original lyrics created by participants during program were collected for analysis. Obtained data were analyzed in terms of emotional and cognitive aspects in relation to the participants' awareness of the motivation behind their excessive gaming. The results showed that song writing as creative musical process allowed participants to be aware of positive and negative influence of gaming on themselves and express their motivation to change their perception on gaming behavior. Also, the participants reported that the use of musical product for their daily lives could be an effective coping strategy to manage their gaming behaviors and an alternative for gaming. The findings from this study support that group music psychotherapy can be an effective approach to promote awareness of adolescents' motives for excessive internet gaming and to help adolescents better manage their gaming behaviors.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.93-112
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to compare participants' perceived emotion following harmonic changes in music. In this study, 144 participants, aged 19 to 29 years, listened to music online that included low to high harmonic progression in tonal music (major-minor). After listening to each piece of music, participants were asked to rate 4 items using a 7-point Likert scale: emotional potency, arousal, degree to which the harmony impacted the listener's emotions, and listener's preference for the music. There were significant differences between each of the four items upon the level of harmonic progression. When the participants were divided into two groups (i.e., those with a background in music and those with no background in music), there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of emotional potency, but there was no significant interaction effect. This study confirmed that various emotional responses in listeners can be induced by controlling the exogenous variables in musical excerpts. Based on this, it is expected that the harmonic progression level can be provided to the client to be used as an effective therapeutic tool in music therapy intervention.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2021

One year has passed since the pandemic of COVID-19, which occurred in Wuhan, China, in November 2019 began. Worldwide, as of January 2021, more than 95 million people have been infected, and the death toll is higher than 2 million. In Korea, there are 74,262 infected and 1,328 dead, and government policies such as social distancing to prevent infection are being implemented. Accordingly, many inconveniences occurred in the physical activity environment, such as the closure of various sports facilities. It was necessary to consider physical activities to maintain healthy life while cooperating with the national policy while preventing infection. This study investigated the benefits of physical activity to reduce the risk of trichomoniasis and diabetes, improve bone mineral density, prolong healthy lifespan, maintain activity performance with aging, and improve psychological anxiety and depression. In addition, the physiological changes that may occur in the situation of stopping exercise due to social distancing to prevent COVID-19 infection were reviewed. In addition, moderate-intensity exercise that helps strengthen immune function by activating natural killer cells, neutrophils, and antibody responses was investigated. In addition, it reduces the level and function of blood B-cells, T-cells, and natural killer cells for several hours, decreases phagocytosis of neutrophils in the nasal cavity, increases inflammatory cytokines, decreases immune function, and increases infection. High-intensity exercise was considered. Therefore, in the age of COVID-19, long-term high-intensity exercise such as marathon, which causes impaired immune function, should be refrained from. And you should do moderate-intensity regular aerobic exercise such as fast walking to help prevent infection. It is also recommended to participate in resistance exercises to prevent loss of muscle mass.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.117-148
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• 2022

The full impact of COVID-19 has yet to be felt: while it may not define the new decade, it is clear that its immediate significance was to test many of the basic operating assumptions and procedures of global civilization. Even as vaccines are developed and utilized and even as it is possible to see the beginning of the end of COVID-19 as a discrete historical event, it remains unclear as to its ultimate importance. That said, it is evident that the academic exploration of Southeast Asia will also be affected by both the global and regional experiences of the pandemic. "Breakthroughs of Area Studies and ASEAN in the Era of Homo Untact" promises to help reconceptualize the study of the region by highlighting the importance of redefined spatial relationships and new potentially depersonalized modes of communication. This paper acknowledges these issues by suggesting that the transformations caused by the pandemic should motivate scholars to raise new questions about how to understand humanity-particularly as it is defined by societies, nations and regions. Given that COVID-19 (and the response to it) has altered many of the fundamental rhythms of globalized regions, there is sufficient warrant for re-examining both the ways in which disease, health and their related spaces affect the perceptions of Southeast Asia. To achieve "breakthroughs" into the investigation of the region, it makes sense to have another glance at the ways in which the discourses about diseases and health may have helped to inscribe definitions of Southeast Asia-or, at the very least, the nations, societies and peoples who live within it. In order to at least consider these larger issues, the discussion will concentrate on a formative moment in the conceptualization of Southeast Asia-British engagement with the region in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. To that end three themes will be highlighted: (1) the role that British diplomatic and military narratives played in establishing the information priorities required for the construction of colonial knowledge; (2) the importance not only of "colonial knowledge" but information making in its own right; (3) in anticipation of the use of big data, the manner in which manufactured information (related to space and disease) could function in shaping early British perceptions of Southeast Asia-particularly in Batavia and Java. This discussion will suggest that rather than see social distancing or increased communication as the greatest outcome of COVID-19, instead it will be the use of data-that is, big, aggregated biometric data which have not only shaped responses to the pandemic, but remain likely to produce the reconceptualization of both information and knowledge about the region in a way that will be at least as great as that which took place to meet the needs of the "New Imperialism." Furthermore, the definition and articulation of Southeast Asia has often reflected political and security considerations. Yet, the experience of COVID-19 could prove that data and security are now fused into a set of interests critical to policy-makers. Given that the pandemic should accelerate many existing trends, it might be foreseen these developments will herald the triumph of homo indicina: an epistemic condition whereby the human subject has become a kind of index for its harvestable data. If so, the "breakthroughs" for those who study Southeast Asia will follow in due course.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.399-409
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• 2022

Objective: Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is the central hormone involved in mammalian reproduction, maturation at puberty, and gamete production that mediates its function by control of follicle growth and function. The present study investigated the mutations involved in the regulation of FSH receptor (FSHR) activation. Methods: We analyzed seven naturally-occurring mutations that were previously reported in human FSHR (hFSHR), in the context of equine FSHR (eFSHR); these include one constitutively activation variant, one allelic variant, and five inactivating variants. These mutations were introduced into wild-type eFSHR (eFSHR-wt) sequence to generate mutants that were designated as eFSHR-D566G, -A306T, -A189V, -N191I, -R572C, -A574V, and -R633H. Mutants were transfected into PathHunter EA-parental CHO-K1 cells expressing β-arrestin. The biological function of mutants was analyzed by quantitating cAMP accumulation in cells incubated with increasing concentrations of FSH. Results: Cells expressing eFSHR-D566G exhibited an 8.6-fold increase in basal cAMP response, as compared to that in eFSHR-wt. The allelic variation mutant eFSHR-A306T was not found to affect the basal cAMP response or half maximal effective concentration (EC₅₀) levels. On the other hand, eFSHR-D566G and eFSHR-A306T displayed a 1.5- and 1.4-fold increase in the maximal response, respectively. Signal transduction was found to be completely impaired in case of the inactivating mutants eFSHR-A189V, -R572C, and -A574V. When compared with eFSHR-wt, eFSHR-N191I displayed a 5.4-fold decrease in the EC₅₀ levels (3,910 ng/mL) and a 2.3-fold decrease in the maximal response. In contrast, cells expressing eFSHR-R633H displayed in a similar manner to that of the cells expressing the eFSHR-wt on signal transduction and maximal response. Conclusion: The activating mutant eFSHR-D566G greatly enhanced the signal transduction in response to FSH, in the absence of agonist treatment. We suggest that the state of activation of the eFSHR can modulate its basal cAMP accumulation.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.227-239
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• 2023

Major depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability in more than 280 million people worldwide. Monoamine-based antidepressants are currently used to treat depression, but delays in treatment effects and lack of responses are major reasons for the need to develop faster and more efficient antidepressants. Studies show that ketamine (KET), a PCP analog, produces antidepressant effects within a few hours of administration that lasts up to a week. However, the use of KET has raised concerns about side effects, as well as the risk of abuse. 4 -F-PCP analog is a novel PCP analog that is also an NMDA receptor antagonist, structurally similar to KET, and might potentially elicit similar antidepressant effects, however, there has been no study on this subject yet. Herein, we investigate whether 4-F-PCP displays antidepressant effects and explored their potential therapeutic mechanisms. 4-F-PCP at 3 and 10 mg/kg doses showed antidepressant-like effects and repeated treatments maintained its effects. Furthermore, treatment with 4-F-PCP rescued the decreased expression of proteins most likely involved in depression and synaptic plasticity. Changes in the excitatory amino acid transporters (EAAT2, EAAT3, EAAT4) were also seen following drug treatment. Lastly, we assessed the possible side effects of 4-F-PCP after long-term treatment (up to 21 days). Results show that 4-F-PCP at 3 mg/kg dose did not alter the cognitive function of mice. Overall, current findings provide significant implications for future research not only with PCP analogs but also on the next generation of different types of antidepressants.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.99-115
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• 2023

Given the ongoing discussion regarding remote music therapy following the COVID-19 pandemic and the pivotal role of parental involvement in it, this study investigated parents' perceptions on their roles in a synchronous videoconferencing music therapy for their children with developmental disabilities. A total of 32 participants participated in an online survey comprising 68 questions. Descriptive statistics summarized the collected responses, and Pearson's correlation was conducted to examine the relationship between perceived parental roles, psychological burden, and willingness to participate in future remote music therapy. The findings showed that parents of children with developmental disabilities acknowledged the benefits of tele-music therapy and possessed substantial information about its implementation. Furthermore, they reported their roles of providing physical, participatory, and mediating support. As parents exhibited greater satisfaction with their role in supporting their children's participation or managing their off-task behaviors, they perceived reduced psychological burden. These findings hold significant implications for expansion of tele-music therapy strategies to address the unique needs of children with developmental disabilities and support their parents as immediate mediators for their children.