• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.238-252
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• 1998

Reumatic arthritis is a disease with joint pain being one of the key symptoms. The patient suffers from the pain, stiff sensation and edema due to the inflammation taking Place In one or more joints. Accompanying these problems are fatigue, unusual exhaustion, fever, tachycardia and weakness. Inaddition, joints are often deformed and muscles shrink along with the progress of edema, coupled with depression and psychological instability resulting from the loss of the mobile function and limitations on the daily life. Some patients become fed up with the long and hard flight with the disease and just give up, which aggravates the symptoms. Others come to the hospital only when the conditions have become serious. We need to prevent these and guide the patients in the right direction. Against this backdrop, this study aims to look into the relations between the knowledge on the part of the patients together with their feeling of self-efficacy and the compliance. The results are expected to help the patients improve their life, In addition to providing useful materials for setting up appropriate plan for nursing intervention. The study was conducted by distributing questionnaire to 88 patients selected from the out-patient department of a university hospital in Inchon, from April 6 to 27, 1998. The following tools were used the yardstick of self-efficacy, developed in 1997 by the Society for the Health of Rheumatism Patients, was used for measuring the levels of knowledge and the feeling of self-efficacy. The degree of compliance was measured by the data collected from documents in addition to the results of the analysis of the interviews with the patients. The reliability of the tools was confirmed. In the analysis, the general characteristics were expressed in figures and percentages. The levels of knowledge, feeling of self-efficacy, and compliance were expressed in the average values and standard deviations. The relations among the variables following the general characteristics were analysed by the t-test and one-way ANOVA. The Pearson correction coefficient was used for the analysis of factors. Multiple-loop analysis was used to identify the variables affecting the compliance. The following are the results of this study. 1. Among the 88 patients, 18 were men and the remaining 70 were women, with a ratio 1 : 3.87. Regarding the age groups, 23 were between 50 and 59 years old, with those between 50 and 69 accounting for 51.1% of the total. High school graduates or higher amounted to 58%. Religious patients was 67% or 59 persons. Fifty nine percent were unemployed, and 58.3% (49 persons) had two children or fewer. The period of suffering from rheumatism varied between 2 months and IS years, with 70% less than years. 2. The average figure In relation to the of knowledge was 17.63 points over 30 or 58. 76%, which means a medium level. 3. The average figure of the feeling of self-efficacy was 60.06 points. 4. The level of compliance was 3.26, which was above average. 5. The relation between the feeling of self-efficacy and compliance showed an "r" value of 0.37, which was significant. It means that the higher the feeling, the greater the compliance points. 6. The analysis of the knowledge level revealed that the difference is found only between the college graduates and junior-high graduates or lower. 7. The feeling of self-efficacy varied along with the age and education level. 8. The general characteristics of patients as discussed above did not show significant difference with the compliance. 9. Regarding the elements influencing the compliance, the number of children, period of suffering, income, age, feering of self-efficacy, knowledge, and compliance had 54% of significance. In conclusion, rheumatism victims can lead a better life if they are appropriately educated, based on efficient training program from the early days of the disease ; if they become able to manage themselves thanks to the training ; and if they are helped by a program focusing on the increase of the feeling of self-efficacy aimed at changing patient's behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.1302-1310
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a web-based nutrition counseling could lead to beneficial outcomes in food intake and serum lipids of patients with hyperlipidemia. Forty hyperlipidemic patients, twenty of them were hypercholesterolemia and the other twenty were hypertriglyceridemia, participated in a web-based nutrition counseling program. At the first nutrition counseling, the patients were counselled through interview and then follow up nutrition counseling was accomplished four times during eight weeks through a web-based internet program. Various markers of disease risk including anthropometric indices, food intakes and serum lipid levels were measured before and after the web-based nutrition counseling. After nutrition counseling, body mass index significantly decreased in both groups and waist to hip ratio significantly decreased in male hypercholesterolemic patients (p<0.05). Total-cholesterol decreased from 262.2 mg/dL to 234.9 mg/dL, LDL-cholesterol decreased from 186.8 mg/dL to 160.5 mg/dL in hypercholesterolemic patients, triglyceride decreased from 288.6 mg/dL to 211.9 mg/dL and total-cholesterol decreased from 217.2 mg/dL to 198.7 mg/dL in hypertriglyceridemic patients after nutrition counseling. Anthropometric value and nutrient intakes were improved after nutrition counseling. Energy, fat and saturated fatty acid intakes decreased significantly in both groups (p<0.05). Therefore, this study shows that the web-based nutrition counseling is effective in improving food habit and influences positively in serum lipid levels of the patients. In addition, these results indicate that internet presents us with potential as a new medium for nutrition counseling in informationized society.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.597-603
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• 2008

Purpose : Obesity is associated with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance and the presence of pro-inflammatory mediators are thought to cause a state of vascular endothelial dysfunction, an abnormal lipid profile, hypertension, and vascular inflammation. These chronic inflammatory responses, which are characterized by abnormal cytokine production, lead to activation of a pro-inflammatory signaling pathway. Leptin is an important mediator of inflammatory processes and immune-mediated diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between leptin and various cytokines associated with obesity in adolescents. Methods : Sixty-six obese adolescents (between 16-17 years of age, obesity index >130%) and 26 normal controls were included in this study. Obesity index and body mass index (BMI) were calculated. Serum lipid profile, AST and ALT were tested after 10 hours of fasting. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-${\alpha}$) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were measured by ELISA. Insulin, adiponectin, and leptin levels were estimated by radioimmunoassay. Results : Leptin was significantly higher in the obese adolescents compared to the control adolescents ($12.0{\pm}6.8ng/mL$ vs $6.3{\pm}1.0ng/mL$). TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6, and insulin were significantly higher in the obese adolescents. Adiponectin was significantly lower in the obese group than the control group ($3.3{\pm}1.9{\mu}g/mL$ vs $5.0{\pm}1.4{\mu}g/mL$). Leptin had positive correlations with obesity index, BMI, and IL-6. Conclusion : In obese adolescents, leptin, TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6, and insulin might be important mediators of obesity. Further clinical research is necessary to ascertain leptin as a predictor of cardiovascular diseases and to develop a guideline for clinical intervention.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.265-270
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• 2010

Adipogenesis has been one of the most intensely studied models of cellular differentiation. During adipogenesis, differential expression of many adipogenesis related genes lead to profound changes in cellular, morphological, and physiological characteristics of the differentiating cells. The aim of the present study was to examine the expression levels of adipogenic candidate genes, cAMP early repressor (ICER), nephroblastoma over-expressed protein (NOV), heat shock protein beta 1 (HSPB1) and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), during adipogenesis of bovine mesenchymal stem cells (BMSC). The BMSC were cultured in DMEM / low glucose medium with adipogenic inducers for 6 days and the expression of various candidate genes which seemed related to adipogenesis were measured by real-time PCR. This study showed that the expression of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor ${\gamma}$(PPAR${\gamma}$) and fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) genes as adipogenic indicators were increased to 3.11 and 3.11 folds on day 6 than on day 0, respectively (p<0.05). To determine whether candidate genes were related to adipogenesis, the expression levels of ICER, NOV, HSPB1, and SDH genes were measured during adipogenesis in BMSC. Our results showed that the expression level of ICER gene was significantly increased to 4.12 folds (0.01729 vs. 0.07138; p<0.05), whereas NOV, HSPB1, and SDH genes were decreased to 2.89, 3.18 and 2.36 folds, respectively, on day 6 when compared to day 0. These results suggest that these candidate genes have stimulatory or inhibitory effects on adipogenesis in BMSC, indicating that these genes may be directly or indirectly related to the adipogenic event of adipose precursor cells.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.36-41
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• 2014

Purpose: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common source of bacterial infections in infants and young children. Accurate diagnosis and treatment is important because of their association with renal scarring, which can lead to complications. Urine endothelin-1 (ET-1) is the major renal isoform produced and released by renal mesangial cells in response to glomerular injury. This study aimed to investigate whether urinary levels of ET-1 can be used as a biomarker for UTI diagnosis. Method: We conducted a prospective study using medical records of 70 patients below the age of 18 years, who visited Chung-Ang University Hospital from July 2012 to July 2013. We classified the patients into the UTI and control groups based on urine culture studies. The UTI group was further divided into upper and lower UTI groups using 99m-Technetium dimercaptosuccinic acid scintigraphy. Urine ET-1 was measured using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay with 0.3 mL urine. Results: The UTI and control groups were comprised of 45 and 25 patients, respectively. Mean urine ET-1 levels were significantly higher in the UTI group than in the control group ($1.41{\pm}0.35$ pg/mL vs. $0.33{\pm}0.07$ pg/mL, P =0.04). There was no significance difference in the quantitative value between the upper and lower UTI groups (P =0.552). There was no correlation between urine ET-1 and serum C-reactive protein (Pearson correlation [R]=0.24), urine ET-1 and serum white blood cell count (R=0.19). Conclusion: Our study suggests that urine ET-1 can be used for early diagnosis of UTI in children.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2010

This study was conducted to estimate the contents of heavy metals including lead, cadmium, arsenic and total mercury in alcoholic beverages in Korea. Concentration of Hg was analyzed by gold amalgamation method, using mercury analyzer, while concentration of Pb, Cd and As was analyzed by ICP-MS. Concentration (${\mu}g/kg$) of heavy metal in fermented liquors were; for Pb $9.9\;{\pm}\;8.4$(0~38.0), Cd $5.8\;{\pm}\;4.9$(0~5.4), As $28.6\;{\pm}\;19.4$(1~96.4), Hg $0.7\;{\pm}\;1.2$(0~10.6). Concentration (${\mu}g/kg$) of distilled liquors were ; for Pb $4.4\;{\pm}\;5.7$(0~29.3), Cd $2.0\;{\pm}\;2.5$(0~10.3), As $12.0\;{\pm}\;17.0$(0~95.6), Hg $0.2\;{\pm}\;0.3$(0~2.3). Concentration(${\mu}g/kg$ of other liquous were ; for Pb $7.5\;{\pm}\;5.1$(0~13.7), Cd $5.8\;{\pm}\;3.9$(0.6~11.2), As $25.2\;{\pm}\;39.0$(0.5~103.3), Hg $0.3\;{\pm}\;0.1$(0.1~0.5). The present study showed that difference of the amount of constituent in a same category of food are not affect to the content of heavy metals among them. The residual levels of takju, yakju, sake, beer, fruit wine, soju, whiskey, brandy, general distilled liquor, liquor, other liquors are within the maximum levels, prescribed by Korea food code. It is given that heavy metal exposure of Pb, Cd, As, Hg from consumption of alcoholic beverages (takju, yakju, sake, beer, fruit wine, soju, whiskey, brandy, general distilled liquor, liquor, other liquors) are less than 0.03%, 0.06%, 0.01%, 0.01% (mean) in provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) respectively, indicated by FAO/WHO.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2012

BACKGROUND: Many edible mushrooms are known to accumulate high levels of heavy metals. This research was focused on health risk assessment to investigate the mushrooms in Korea, arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) contaminations in edible mushrooms in cultivated areas were investigated, and health risk was assessed through dietary intake of mushrooms. METHODS AND RESULTS: The heavy metals in mushrooms were analyzed by ICP/MS after acid digestion. Probabilistic health risk were estimated by Monte-Carlo simulation techniques. The average contents of As, Cd, Pb, and Hg were $0.035{\pm}0.042$ mg/kg, $0.017{\pm}0.020$ mg/kg, $0.043{\pm}0.013$ mg/kg, and $0.004{\pm}0.004$ mg/kg, respectively. The results showed that contents of Cd and Pb did not exceed maximum residual levels established by European Uion regulation (Cd 0.20 mg/kg and Pb 0.30 mg/kg). For health risk assessment, estimated intakes in all age populations did not exceed the provisional tolerable daily intake of As and Hg, provisional tolerable monthly intake of Cd, provisional tolerable weekly intake of Pb. The Hazard Index (HI) were ranged from $0.03{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}0.01{\times}10^{-3}$ for As, $0.02{\times}10^{-3}{\sim}0.81{\times}10^{-3}$ for Cd, $0.06{\times}10^{-3}{\sim}0.38{\times}10^{-3}$ for Pb, and $0.08{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}0.14{\times}10^{-3}$ for Hg at general population. CONCLUSION: The HI from the ratio analysis between daily exposure and safety level values was less than 1.0. This results demonstrated that human exposure to heavy metals through dietary intake of mushrooms might not cause adverse effect.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.130-134
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• 2006

Objectives : Oxidative DNA damage is a known risk factor of lung cancer. The glutathione peroxidase (GPX) antioxidant enzyme that reduces hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxides plays a significant role in protecting cells from the oxidative stress induced by reactive oxygen species. The aim of this case-control study was to investigate effects of oxidative stress and genetic polymorphisms of the GPX1 genes and the interaction between them in the carcinogenesis of lung cancer. Methods : Two hundreds patients with lung cancer and 200 age- and sex-matched controls were enrolled in this study. Every subject was asked to complete a questionnaire concerning their smoking habits and their environmental exposure to PAHs. The genotypes of the GPX1 and 8-oxoguanine glycosylase 1 (hOGG1) genes were examined and the concentrations of urinary hydroxypyrene (1-OHP), 2-naphthol and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) were measured. Results : Cigarette smoking was a significant risk factor for lung cancer. The levels of urinary 8-OH-dG were higher in the patients (p<0.001), whereas the urinary 1-OHP and 2-naphthol levels were higher in the controls. The GPX1 codon 198 polymorphism was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. Individuals carrying the Pro/Leu or Leu/Leu genotype of GPX1 were at a higher risk for lung cancer (adjusted OR=2.29). In addition, these individuals were shown to have high urinary 8-OH-dG concentrations compared to the individuals with the GPX1 Pro/Pro genotype. On the other hand, the polymorphism of the hOGG1 gene did not affect the lung cancer risk and the oxidative DNA damage. Conclusions : These results lead to a conclusion that individuals with the GPX1 Pro/Leu or Leu/Leu genotype would be more susceptible to the lung cancer induced by oxidative stress than those individuals with the Pro/Pro genotype.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-20
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• 2013

Social commerce has been gaining explosive popularity, with typical examples of the model such as Groupon and Level Up. Both local business owners and consumers can benefit from this new e-commerce model. Local business owners have a chance to access potential customers and promote their products in a way that could not have otherwise been easily possible, and consumers can enjoy discounted offerings. However, questions have been increasingly raised about the value and future of the social commerce model. A recent survey shows that about a third of 324 business owners who ran a daily-deal promotion in Groupon went behind. Furthermore, more than half of the surveyed merchants did not express enthusiasm about running the promotion again. The same goes for the case in Korea, where more than half of the surveyed clients reported no significant change or even decrease in profits compared to before the use of social commerce model. Why do local business owners fail to exploit the benefits from the promotions and advertisements through the social commerce model and to make profits? Without answering this question, the model would fall under suspicion and even its sustainability might be challenged. This study aims to look into problems in the current social commerce transactions and provide implications for the social commerce model, so that the model would get a foothold for next growth. Drawing on justice theory, this study develops theoretical arguments for the effects of transaction characteristics on consumers' distributive justice and purchase intention in the social commerce. Specifically, this study focuses on two characteristics of social commerce transactions-the discount rate and the purchase rate of products-and investigates their effects on consumers' perception of distributive justice for discounted transactions in the social commerce and their perception of distributive justice for regular-priced transactions. This study also examines the relationship between distributive justice and purchase intention. We conducted an online experiment and gathered data from 115 participants to test the hypotheses. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of nine manipulated scenarios of social commerce transactions, which were generated based on the combination of three levels of purchase rate (high, medium, and low) and three levels of discount rate (high, medium, and low). We conducted MANOVA and post-hoc ANOVA to test hypotheses about the relationships between the transaction characteristics (purchase rate and discount rate) and distributive justice for each of the discounted transaction and the regular-priced transaction. We also employed a PLS analysis to test relations between distributive justice and purchase intentions. Analysis results show that a higher discount rate increases distributive justice for the discounted transaction but decreases distributive justice for the regular-priced transaction. This, coupled with the result that distributive justice for each type of transaction has a positive effect on the corresponding purchase intention, implies that a large discount in the social commerce may be helpful for attracting consumers, but harmful to the business after the promotion. However, further examination reveals curvilinear effects of the discount rate on both types of distributive justice. Specifically, we find distributive justice for the discounted transaction increases concavely as the discount rate increases while distributive justice for the regular-priced transaction decreases concavely with the dscount rate. This implies that there exists an appropriate discount rate which could promote the discounted transaction while not hurting future business of regular-priced transactions. Next, the purchase rate is found to be a critical factor that facilitates the regular-priced transaction. It has a convexly positive influence on distributive justice for the transaction. Therefore, an increase of the rate beyond some threshold would lead to a substantial level of distributive justice for the regular-priced transaction, threrby boosting future transactions. This implies that social commerce firms and sellers should employ various non-price stimuli to promote the purchase rate. Finally, we find no significant relationship between the purchase rate and distributive justice for the discounted transaction. Based on the above results, we provide several implications with future research directions.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2020

Purpose Vitamin D is essential for maintaining bone health, controling cell proliferation or differentiation, strengthening immune function by controlling calcium metabolism in the body. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to increase the risk of rickets, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Especially, South Korea is one of the highest population proportion of vitamin D deficiency. Accurate determination of levels of 25-OH-VitD or 25-OH-VitD3 in blood serum is required for the diagnosis and treatment of vitamin D deficiency. In this study, radioimmunoassay of 25-OH-VitD and 25-OH-VitD3 was performed and compared to evaluate the effectiveness of Vitamin D radioimmunoassay. Materials and Methods Serum 25-OH-VitD and 25-OH-VitD3 levels were measured using radioimmunoassay. The interrelationship, reproducibility and population distribution rate were evaluated. In addition, the internal quality control was performed at Asan Medical Center from April 2017 to June 2019 and the result of external quality control (Interagency proficiency evaluation) of first and second half of 2018 hosted by the Korean Society of Nuclear Medicine Technology (KSNMT). Both tests were measured by same manufacturer's reagent. Results 25-OH-VitD showed a strong positive correlation on 97 samples, as 25-OH-VitD3 x 0.9 + 0.3 (R>0.9). In repeated measurement, the average Diff(%) value of the reproducibility evaluation of 25-OH-VitD and 25-OH-VitD3 were 7.7% and 7.4%, respectively. Population distribution results showed no statistically significant differences(p>0.05). The resultant value of internal quality control, which measured from April, 2017 to June 2019 in Blood test room of Nuclear Medicine at Asan Medical Center, showed average (CV%) 6.2% and 6.8%, respectively. As a result of the external quality control (interagency proficiency evaluation) Z value obtained under 2.0, as shown below; Conclusion The interrelationship, reproducibility, population distribution rate, internal quality control and external quality control between 25-OH-VitD and 25-OH-VitD3 radioimmunoassay shows superior outcome. Radioimmunoassay, which can be alone measured in the blood as 25-OH-VitD or 25-OH-VitD3, is considered suitable screening tests for the diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency.