• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• 제51권2호
• /
• pp.109-120
• /
• 2018

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the current status of infectious disease research in North Korea by analyzing recent trends in medical journals from North Korea in comparison with research from South Korea. Methods: Three medical journals (Preventive Medicine, Basic Medicine, and Chosun Medicine) were analyzed from 2012 to 2016. Articles on tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and parasitic diseases were selected and classified by their subtopics and study areas. Two medical journals published in the South Korea were selected for a comparative analysis of research trends. Results: Of the 2792 articles that were reviewed, 93 were extracted from North Korea journals. TB research in North Korea was largely focused on multi-drug resistant TB and extrapulmonary TB, whereas research in South Korea more frequently investigated non-tuberculous mycobacteria. Research on parasitic diseases in North Korea was focused on protozoan and intestinal nematodes, while the corresponding South Korea research investigated various species of parasites. Additionally, the studies conducted in North Korea were more likely to investigate the application of traditional medicine to diagnosis and treatment than those conducted in South Korea. Conclusions: This study presents an analysis of research trends in preventive medicine in North Korea focusing on infectious diseases, in which clear differences were observed between South and North Korea. Trends in research topics suggest a high prevalence of certain parasitic diseases in North Korea that are no longer widespread in South Korea. The large proportion of studies examining traditional medicine implies a lack of affordable medicine in North Korea.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제15권9호
• /
• pp.1250-1256
• /
• 2002

A novel fine-mapping method exploiting linkage disequilibrium (LD) was applied to better refine the quantitative trait loci (QTL) positions for milk production traits on bovine chromosome 14 in the pedigree comprising 22 paternal half-sib families of a Black-and-White Holstein-Friesian grand-daughter design in the Netherlands for a total of 1,034 sons. The chromosome map was constructed with the 31 genetic markers spanning 90 Kosambi cM with the average inter-marker distance of 3.5 cM. The linkage analyses, in which the effects of sire QTL alleles were assumed random and the random factor of the QTL allelic effects was incorporated into the Animal Model, found the QTL for milk, fat, and protein yield and fat and protein % with the Lod scores of 10.9, 2.3, 6.0, 25.4 and 3.2, respectively. The joint analyses including LD information by use of multi-marker haplotypes highly increased the evidence of the QTL (Lod scores were 25.1, 20.9, 11.0, 85.7 and 17.4 for the corresponding traits, respectively). The joint analyses including DGAT markers in the defined haplotypes again increased the QTL evidence and the most likely QTL positions for the five traits coincided with the position of the DGAT gene, supporting the hypothesis of the direct causal involvement of the DGAT gene. This study strongly indicates that the exploitation of LD information will allow additional gains of power and precision in finding and localising QTL of interest in livestock species, on the condition of high marker density around the QTL region.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제15권7호
• /
• pp.3211-3217
• /
• 2014

Background: The current study investigated the effects of Piper longumine on radio-sensitization of human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells and underlying mechanisms. Materials and Methods: Human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells were cultured in vitro and those in logarithmic growth phase were selected for experiments divided into four groups: control, X-ray exposed, Piper longumine, and Piper longumine combined with X-rays. Conogenic assays were performed to determine the radio-sensitizing effects. Cell survival curves were fitted by single-hit multi-target model and then the survival fraction (SF), average lethal dose ($D_0$), quasi-threshold dose ($D_q$) and sensitive enhancement ratio (SER) were calculated. Cell apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). Western blot assays were employed for expression of apoptosis-related proteins (Bc1-2 and Bax) after treatment with Piper longumine and/or X-ray radiation. The intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level was detected by FCM with a DCFH-DA probe. Results: The cloning formation capacity was decreased in the group of piperlongumine plus radiation, which displayed the values of SF2, D0, Dq significantly lower than those of radiation alone group and the sensitive enhancement ratio (SER) of D0 was1.22 and 1.29, respectively. The cell apoptosis rate was increased by the combination treatment of Piper longumine and radiation. Piper longumine increased the radiation-induced intracellular levels of ROS. Compared with the control group and individual group, the combination group demonstrated significantly decreased expression of Bcl-2 with increased Bax. Conclusions: Piper longumine at a non-cytotoxic concentration can enhance the radio-sensitivity of MDA-MB-231cells, which may be related to its regulation of apoptosis-related protein expression and the increase of intracellular ROS level, thus increasing radiation-induced apoptosis.

• 한국대기환경학회지
• /
• 제32권1호
• /
• pp.82-99
• /
• 2016

This study was carried out to understand the regional contribution of Particulate Matter (PM) emissions from East Asia ($82^{\circ}{\sim}149^{\circ}E$, $18^{\circ}{\sim}53^{\circ}N$) to Seoul during high concentration period in February 2014. The Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) version 5.0.2 with Decoupled Direct Method (DDM) was used to analyze levels of contributions over Seoul. In order to validate model performance of the CMAQ, predicted PM and its chemical species concentrations were compared to observations in China and Seoul. Model predictions could depict the daily and hourly variations of observed PM. The calculated PM concentrations, however, had a tendency of underestimation. The discrepancies are due to uncertainties of meteorological data, emission inventories and CMAQ model itself. The high PM concentration in Seoul was induced by stationary anticyclone over the West Coast of Korea during 24 to 27 February. The DDM in CMAQ was used to analyze the contributions of emissions from East Asia on Seoul during this PM episode. $PM_{10}$ concentration in Seoul is contributed by 39.77%~53.19% from China industrial and urban region, 15.37%~37.10% from South Korea, and 9.03%~18.05% North Korea. These indicate that $PM_{10}$ concentrations in Seoul during the episode period are dominated by long-range transport from China region as well as domestic sources. It was also found that the largest contribution region in China were Shandong peninsula during the PM event period.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제14권2호
• /
• pp.765-768
• /
• 2013

Background and Aims: Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in males in many populations. Metformin is the most widely used anti-diabetic drug in the world, and there is increasing evidence of a potential efficacy of this agent as an anti-cancer drug. Metformin inhibits the proliferation of a range of cancer cells including prostate, colon, breast, ovarian, and glioma lines. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, non-coding, single-stranded RNAs that downregulate gene expression. We aimed to evaluate the effects of metformin treatment on changes in miRNA expression in PC-3 cells, and possible associations with biological behaviour. Materials and Methods: Average cell viability and cytotoxic effects of metformin were investigated at 24 hour intervals for three days using the xCELLigence system. The $IC_{50}$ dose of metformin in the PC-3 cells was found to be 5 mM. RNA samples were used for analysis using custom multi-species microarrays containing 1209 probes covering 1221 human mature microRNAs present in miRBase 16.0 database. Results: Among the human miRNAs investigated by the arrays, 10 miRNAs were up-regulated and 12 miRNAs were down-regulated in the metformin-treated group as compared to the control group. In conclusion, expression changes in miRNAs of miR-146a, miR-100, miR-425, miR-193a-3p and, miR-106b in metformin-treated cells may be important. This study may emphasize a new role of metformin on the regulation of miRNAs in prostate cancer.

• 한국수산과학회지
• /
• 제39권spc1호
• /
• pp.180-188
• /
• 2006

We examined the effect of salt marsh vegetation on the benthic environment in macro-tidal flats at Donggeomdo, Ganghwa, on the west coast of Korea. Nine stations were established along a transect across the tidal flats, including salt marsh, and field sampling was conducted monthly from July 1997 to June 1998. During the study period, environmental parameters fluctuated as follows: salinity, 15.0 to 28.2 psu, exposure time, 613 to 702 hr/m, inundation time, 28 to 117 hr/m, sediment organic carbon, 0.71 to 1.34%, nitrogen, 0.07 to 0.16%, sulfur from 0.07 to 0.22%, mean grain size from 6.3 to $6.9{\phi}$, water content from 19.4 to 44.4%, water temperature from 4.4 to $20.4^{\circ}C$ and temperature of the surface sediments, 2.7 to $31.1^{\circ}C$, in total, seven halophyte species were sampled and found to be vertically distributed across the tidal levels. Carer scabrifolia, Suaeda maritima, Limonium tetragonum and Phragmites communis dominated the upper zone of the salt marsh, Juncus haenkei, Triglochin maritimum and P. communis dominated the middle zone, and Suaeda japonica predominated in the lower area. Principal component analysis (PCA) and non-metric multi-dimensional scaling revealed that the zonation of halophytes was related to environmental variables such as salinity and exposure time. The halophyte communities were likely related to the organic content of the surface sediment.

• 한국수산과학회지
• /
• 제39권spc1호
• /
• pp.189-197
• /
• 2006

To elucidate the organic matter sources in soft-bottom macrozoobenthos at Tongyeong, Korea, macrozoobenthos and their potential food sources were sampled in May 2004, and their C and N stable isotope compositions were analyzed. In total we collected 128 macrozoobenthic species, which ranged from 465 to 3,775 individuals/$m^2$(average 2,108 ind.$m^2$) in density and from 47.8 to 539.9 gwwt/$m^2$(average 366.0 gwwt/$m^2$) in biomass. Cluster and multi-dimensional scaling analyses indicated that the macrozoobenthic community was divided into two distinct groups. Coastal inner stations, where commercial fish cages were established, were dominated by Amphioplus ancistrotus, Scoletoma longifoila and Tharyx sp., whereas open sea stations were dominated by Chaetozone spinosa, Scoletoma longifolia and Capitella capitata. ${\delta}^{13}C$ values of sedimentary organic matter showed a distinct gradient in the range of -18.4 to $-15.2\%_{\circ}$, with a declining trend from the coastal inner stations to open sea stations. This probably reflects the settling rate of organic wastes such as feces and pellets from fish cages near the coastal inner stations. The macrozoobenthos showed a broad ${\delta}^{13}C$ range from -19.5 to $-8.9\%_{\circ}$ at the coastal inner stations, and a relatively narrow range from -21.3 to $-12.9\%_{\circ}$ at the open sea stations. ${\delta}^{13}C$ values of macrozoobenthos paralleled those of sedimentary organic matter, Our isotope results suggested that macrozoobenthos near the coastal inner stations used organic wastes derived from fish cages along with phytoplankton, whereas the macrozoobenthos near the open sea stations used organic wasters derived mainly from phytoplankton.

• 한국환경복원기술학회지
• /
• 제6권2호
• /
• pp.78-88
• /
• 2003

This study was conducted to develop the plant-mat for ecological restoration which was formed as the thin multi-layers of woven nets, soil media, seeds, etc. The experimental site was selected at a slope of 240$m^2$ at the rear of Design College of Sangmyung University and divided into 8 sub-experimental plots (20$m^2$ each) according to mat types. (forest-type and grass-type mats with and without seed attachment, respectively) Also, the existing vegetation plot and the no-treatment plot were included in this experiment for comparison. The experiment construction was conducted on September 3, 2002. Mat covered plots regardless of seed attachment showed nearly no signs of erosion even if rainy season in summer compared to the no-treatment plot. Vegetation monitoring result showed that germination rates were somewhat high in both forest and grass-type mats without seed attachment in the initial germination stage. Although germination rates of seed attached mats were somewhat slower than non-seed attached mats in the germination stage, but over time, it showed a good rooting and shooting environment for germinated tree and grass species because of soil media existence within the mat. This indicates that while non seed-attached mats require follow-up maintenance, seed-attached mats does not require maintenance after rooting and germination.

• 대한원격탐사학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 대한원격탐사학회 2007년도 Proceedings of ISRS 2007
• /
• pp.426-429
• /
• 2007

One of the widely used applications of remote sensing studies is environmental change detection and biodiversity conservation. The study area Hustai Mountain is situated in the transition zone between the Siberian taiga forest and Central Mongolian arid steppe. Hustai National Park carries out one of several reintroduction programs of takhi (wild horse or Equus ferus przewalskii) from various zoos in the world and it represents one of a few textbook examples of successful reintroduction of an animal extinct in the wild. In this paper we describe the results of an analysis on the change of remaining forest area over the 7-year period since Hustai Mountain was designated as a protected area for reintroduction to wild horses. Today the forested area covers approximately 5% of the Hustai National Park, mostly the north-facing slopes above 1400 m altitude. Birch (Betula platyphylla) and aspen (Populus tremula) trees are predominant in the forest. We used Landsat ETM+ images from two different years and multi temporal MODIS NDVI data. Land types were determined by supervised classification methods (Maximum Likelihood algorithm) verified with ground-truthing data and the Land Change Modeler (LCM) which was developed by Clark Labs. Forested area was classified into three different land types, namely the forest land, mountain meadow and mountain steppe. The study results illustrate that the remaining birch forest has rapidly changed to fragmented forest land and to open areas. Underlying causes for such a rapid change during the 15-year period may be manifold. However, the responsible factors appear to be the drying off and outbreak of forest pest species (such as gypsy moth or Lymantria dispar) in the area.

• 동의생리병리학회지
• /
• 제25권3호
• /
• pp.451-458
• /
• 2011

The medicinal mushroom Inonotus obliquus is a traditional and widely used multi-functional fungus. In this study, we have investigated whether Inonotus obliquus (Chaga mushroom) extracts exerts anti-oxidant effects on cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity in auditory cell line, HEI-OC1 cells. First of all, Chaga extracts has no harmful effects on viability of HEI-OC1 cells in the dose range of $65{\sim}125{\mu}g/m{\ell}$. Moreover, it shows cyto-protective effects on the cells treated with cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity in HEI-OC1 cells and the damage of hair cells arrays of the rat primary organ of Corti explants in the presence of cisplatin. Pretreatment with Chaga extracts inhibited the cell death, reactive oxygen species generation (ROS), lipid peroxidation induced by cisplatin. These effects were associated with the induction of antioxidant enzyme by Chaga extracts. We further investigated the effects of Chaga extracts on expression of antioxidant enzymes such as Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD 1) and Mn SOD (SOD 2) by RT-PCR. In addition, Chaga extracts shows SOD activity and SOD protein expression in cisplatin treated group induced similar to control group. Taken together, these results indicate that Chaga extracts can prevent cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity by radical-scavenging activity (SOD activity) in HEI-OC1 cells. It might be an effective as antioxidant and further studies on the chemo-preventive mechanisms of Inonotus obliquus are needed.