• International Journal of Oncology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.960-972
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• 2019

MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs that play pivotal roles in cancer physiology as important epigenetic regulators of gene expression. Several miRNAs have been previously discovered that regulate the proliferation of the colorectal cancer (CRC) cell line HCT116. In the present study, one of these miRNAs, miR-5191, was characterized as a tumor suppressor in CRC cells. Transfection with miR-5191 led to a significant decrease in cell proliferation, invasiveness, tumor sphere-forming ability and tumor organoid growth, as determined via trypan blue, Transwell, sphere culture and organoid culture assays, respectively. Flow cytometric analyses revealed that miR-5191 induced the cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of CRC cells. Additionally, the expression of miR-5191 was downregulated in CRC tumor tissues compared with in normal tissues, as measured by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR analysis. Ribosomal protein S6 kinase β1 (RPS6KB1) was identified as a direct target of miR-5191. Ectopic expression of RPS6KB1 suppressed the function of miR-5191. Intratumoral injection of miR-5191 mimic suppressed tumor growth in HCT116 xenografts. These findings suggested a novel tumor-suppressive function for miR-5191 in CRC, and its potential applicability for the development of anticancer miRNA therapeutics.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.201-212
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• 2024

Purpose : In this study, we aimed to explore the concept of chakra in Tibetan medicine, elucidate its unique characteristics, and assess the differences between the Tibetan and Indian chakra systems to enhance the understanding of the Tibetan chakra system. Methods : Here, relevant on Tibetan medicine and chakra system were collected from Google Scholar and Korean Academic Information Databases and meticulously analyzed. Moreover, number of main chakras, characteristics of the five elements, and principles of each chakra system were evaluated. Results : Development and precise location of chakras are extensively detailed in Tibetan medicine, indicating an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the chakra system. The Indian chakra system consists of seven chakras, whereas the Tibetan chakra system is composed of five chakras. Tibetan medicine focuses on three distinct energy elements, Lung, Tripa, and Beken, corresponding to the lower, middle, and upper sections of the body, respectively, with each exhibiting different arrangements and functions for each chakra in the Tibetan chakra system compared to those in the Indian chakra system. Furthermore, Tibetan medicine adheres to Buddhist principles, which attribute diseases to mental causes, thus exhibiting therapeutic potential for psychosomatic illnesses. Conclusion : Owing to the distinct and significant differences between the two chakra systems, the five chakras of the Tibetan system are challenging to conceptualize using the Indian framework of seven chakras. Hence, comprehensive understanding of the Tibetan culture and medicine is necessary to elucidate the Tibetan chakra system. Overall, this study provides compelling evidence for the existence of chakra and highlights the attributes of two key chakra systems, thereby providing valuable insights for energy medicine based on the intricate energy pathways of the body.

• BMB Reports
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• v.57 no.8
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• pp.375-380
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• 2024

Early proatherogenic inflammation constitutes a significant risk factor for atherogenesis development. Despite this, the precise molecular mechanisms driving this pathological progression largely remain elusive. Our study unveils a pivotal role for the microRNA miR-328-5p in dampening endothelial inflammation by modulating the stability of JUNB (JunB proto-oncogene). Perturbation of miR-328-5p levels results in heightened monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells and enhanced transendothelial migration, while its overexpression mitigates these inflammatory processes. Furthermore, miR-328-5p hinders macrophage polarization toward the pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype, and exerts a negative influence on atherosclerotic plaque formation in vivo. By pinpointing JUNB as a direct miR-328-5p target, our research underscores the potential of miR-328-5p as a therapeutic target for inflammatory atherosclerosis. Reintroduction of JUNB effectively counteracts the anti-atherosclerotic effects of miR-328-5p, highlighting the promise of pharmacological miR-328-5p targeting in managing inflammatory atherosclerosis.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.169-179
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• 2024

Naegleria fowleri invades the brain and causes a fatal primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Despite its high mortality rate of approximately 97%, an effective therapeutic drug for PAM has not been developed. Approaches with miltefosine, amphotericin B, and other antimicrobials have been clinically attempted to treat PAM, but their therapeutic efficacy remains unclear. The development of an effective and safe therapeutic drug for PAM is urgently needed. In this study, we investigated the anti-amoebic activity of Pinus densiflora leaf extract (PLE) against N. fowleri. PLE induced significant morphological changes in N. fowleri trophozoites, resulting in the death of the amoeba. The IC₅₀ of PLE on N. fowleri was 62.3±0.95 ㎍/ml. Alternatively, PLE did not significantly affect the viability of the rat glial cell line C6. Transcriptome analysis revealed differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between PLE-treated and non-treated amoebae. A total of 5,846 DEGs were identified, of which 2,189 were upregulated, and 3,657 were downregulated in the PLE-treated amoebae. The DEGs were categorized into biological process (1,742 genes), cellular component (1,237 genes), and molecular function (846 genes) based on the gene ontology analysis, indicating that PLE may have dramatically altered the biological and cellular functions of the amoeba and contributed to their death. These results suggest that PLE has anti-N. fowleri activity and may be considered as a potential candidate for the development of therapeutic drugs for PAM. It may also be used as a supplement compound to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of drugs currently used to treat PAM.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.236-252
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• 2024

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious nervous system disease that usually leads to the impairment of the motor, sensory, and autonomic nervous functions of the spinal cord, and it places a heavy burden on families and healthcare systems every year. Due to the complex pathophysiological mechanism of SCI and the poor ability of neurons to regenerate, the current treatment scheme has very limited effects on the recovery of spinal cord function. In addition, due to their unique advantages, exosomes can be used as carriers for cargo transport. In recent years, some studies have confirmed that treatment with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can promote the recovery of SCI nerve function. The therapeutic effect of MSCs is mainly related to exosomes secreted by MSCs, and exosomes may have great potential in SCI therapy. In this review, we summarized the repair mechanism of mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomes (MSCs-Exos) in SCI treatment and discussed the microRNAs related to SCI treatment based on MSCs-Exos and their mechanism of action, which is helpful to further understand the role of exosomes in SCI.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.159-168
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• 2006

Rodents and many other mammals have two chemosensory systems that mediate responses to pheromones, the main and accessory olfactory system, MOS and AOS, respectively. The chemosensory neurons associated with the MOS are located in the main olfactory epithelium, while those associated with the AOS are located in the vomeronasal organ(VNO). Pheromonal odorants access the lumen of the VNO via canals in the roof of the mouth, and are largely thought to be nonvolatile. The main pheromone receptor proteins consist of two superfamilies, V1Rs and V2Rs, that are structurally distinct and unrelated to the olfactory receptors expressed in the main olfactory epithelium. These two type of receptors are seven transmembrane domain G-protein coupled proteins(V1R with $G_{{\alpha}i2}$, V2R with $G_{0\;{\alpha}}$). V2Rs are co-expressed with nonclassical MHC Ib genes(M10 and other 8 M1 family proteins). Other important molecular component of VNO neuron is a TrpC2, a cation channel protein of transient receptor potential(TRP) family and thought to have a crucial role in signal transduction. There are four types of pheromones in mammalian chemical communication - primers, signalers, modulators and releasers. Responses to these chemosignals can vary substantially within and between individuals. This variability can stem from the modulating effects of steroid hormones and/or non-steroid factors such as neurotransmitters on olfactory processing. Such modulation frequently augments or facilitates the effects that prevailing social and environmental conditions have on the reproductive axis. The best example is the pregnancy block effect(Bruce effect), caused by testosterone-dependent major urinary proteins(MUPs) in male mouse urine. Intriguingly, mouse GnRH neurons receive pheromone signals from both odor and pheromone relays in the brain and may also receive common odor signals. Though it is quite controversial, recent studies reveal a complex interplay between reproduction and other functions in which GnRH neurons appear to integrate information from multiple sources and modulate a variety of brain functions.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.93-108
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• 2014

To support business decision making, interests and efforts to analyze and use transaction data in different perspectives are increasing. Such efforts are not only limited to customer management or marketing, but also used for monitoring and detecting fraud transactions. Fraud transactions are evolving into various patterns by taking advantage of information technology. To reflect the evolution of fraud transactions, there are many efforts on fraud detection methods and advanced application systems in order to improve the accuracy and ease of fraud detection. As a case of fraud detection, this study aims to provide effective fraud detection methods for auction exception agricultural products in the largest Korean agricultural wholesale market. Auction exception products policy exists to complement auction-based trades in agricultural wholesale market. That is, most trades on agricultural products are performed by auction; however, specific products are assigned as auction exception products when total volumes of products are relatively small, the number of wholesalers is small, or there are difficulties for wholesalers to purchase the products. However, auction exception products policy makes several problems on fairness and transparency of transaction, which requires help of fraud detection. In this study, to generate fraud detection rules, real huge agricultural products trade transaction data from 2008 to 2010 in the market are analyzed, which increase more than 1 million transactions and 1 billion US dollar in transaction volume. Agricultural transaction data has unique characteristics such as frequent changes in supply volumes and turbulent time-dependent changes in price. Since this was the first trial to identify fraud transactions in this domain, there was no training data set for supervised learning. So, fraud detection rules are generated using outlier detection approach. We assume that outlier transactions have more possibility of fraud transactions than normal transactions. The outlier transactions are identified to compare daily average unit price, weekly average unit price, and quarterly average unit price of product items. Also quarterly averages unit price of product items of the specific wholesalers are used to identify outlier transactions. The reliability of generated fraud detection rules are confirmed by domain experts. To determine whether a transaction is fraudulent or not, normal distribution and normalized Z-value concept are applied. That is, a unit price of a transaction is transformed to Z-value to calculate the occurrence probability when we approximate the distribution of unit prices to normal distribution. The modified Z-value of the unit price in the transaction is used rather than using the original Z-value of it. The reason is that in the case of auction exception agricultural products, Z-values are influenced by outlier fraud transactions themselves because the number of wholesalers is small. The modified Z-values are called Self-Eliminated Z-scores because they are calculated excluding the unit price of the specific transaction which is subject to check whether it is fraud transaction or not. To show the usefulness of the proposed approach, a prototype of fraud transaction detection system is developed using Delphi. The system consists of five main menus and related submenus. First functionalities of the system is to import transaction databases. Next important functions are to set up fraud detection parameters. By changing fraud detection parameters, system users can control the number of potential fraud transactions. Execution functions provide fraud detection results which are found based on fraud detection parameters. The potential fraud transactions can be viewed on screen or exported as files. The study is an initial trial to identify fraud transactions in Auction Exception Agricultural Products. There are still many remained research topics of the issue. First, the scope of analysis data was limited due to the availability of data. It is necessary to include more data on transactions, wholesalers, and producers to detect fraud transactions more accurately. Next, we need to extend the scope of fraud transaction detection to fishery products. Also there are many possibilities to apply different data mining techniques for fraud detection. For example, time series approach is a potential technique to apply the problem. Even though outlier transactions are detected based on unit prices of transactions, however it is possible to derive fraud detection rules based on transaction volumes.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.29
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• pp.319-331
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• 2017

South Korea has entered the age of aging society since the elderly population over 65 reached 13.1% in 2015. This increase rate is the fastest in the OECD members. as a part of the precaution, the Korean government has enforced the long term care insurance from July 2008 and the increase of related nursing homes until 2015 was 220.2% which is rapid and quantitative. It was natural that quantitative expansion leads to qualitative improvement. With regard to service environment conditions, color environment draws attention as one of the most effective measures. color environment supports nursing home's spatial functions and the aged class is subject to the research as the potential customers. This study aims to understand color environment, conduct surveys for color preference and attitude toward color environment, and suggest directions for color environment plan. The ultimate goal is to improve the quality of Korean nursing home environment. It studied definition, state, color environment and space functions of nursing homes as well as the preceding researches. With 100 people over 60s in Busan and Gyeongnam area (52 male and 48 female), the survey examined attitudes for color environment and color preference by space functions in nursing home. The research method is as follows. First, as a result of the consciousness survey on color environment in elderly nursing home, it considers service (37%), medical service (20%), and location (19%) heavily in order. color environment plan is not recognized significantly. However, the need of indoor color plan in the elderly nursing homes has "agree (32%) and "strongly agree (25%), which suggests that color introduction is required to the nursing homes. Second, the indoor coloration for the elderly nursing homes has various color preferences. The color preference order for bedroom was R, P, and G but this order changes in nursing space (program room) to G, R, and Y. The communal space such as lobby prefers R, G and Y in order. R color was preferred in general.

• Journal of Service Research and Studies
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.97-112
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• 2023

Background: In modern society, the importance of Public Design has become increasingly significant in contributing to the enhancement of urban functionality and the quality of life of citizens. Smart Public Facilities have played a pivotal role in enriching user experience by improving accessibility, convenience, and safety, and in elevating the value of the city. This research recognizes the importance of Public Facilities and explores the potential of Smart Public Facilities in solving urban challenges and progressing towards sustainable and Inclusive cities. Method: The literature review comprehensively examines existing theories and research results on Smart Public Facilities. The case study analyzes actual examples of Smart Public Facilities implemented in cities both domestically and internationally, drawing out effects, user satisfaction, and areas for improvement. Through analysis and discussion, the results of the case studies are evaluated, discussing the potential development of Smart Public Facilities. Results: Smart Public Facilities have been found to bring positive changes in various aspects such as urban management, energy efficiency, safety, and information accessibility. In terms of urban management, they play a crucial role in optimization, social Inclusiveness, environmental protection, fostering citizen participation, and promoting technological innovation. These changes create a new form of urban space, combining physical space and digital technology, enhancing the quality of life in the city. Conclusion: This research explores the implications, current status, and functions of Smart Public Facilities in service and design aspects, and their impact on the urban environment and the lives of citizens. In conclusion, Smart Public Facilities have brought about positive changes in the optimization of urban management, enhancement of energy efficiency, increased information accessibility, User-Centric design, increased interaction, and social Inclusiveness. Technological innovation and the integration of Public Facilities have made cities more efficient and proactive, enabling data-based decision-making and optimized service delivery. Such developments enable the creation of new urban environments through the combination of physical space and digital technology. The advancement of Smart Public Facilities indicates the direction of urban development, where future cities can become more intelligent, proactive, and User-Centric. Therefore, they will play a central role in Public Design and greatly contribute to improving the urban environment and the quality of life of citizens.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.84 no.1
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• pp.185-196
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• 2023

Purpose This study aimed to investigate radiomics analysis of ultrasonographic images to develop a potential biomarker for predicting lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients. Materials and Methods This study included 431 PTC patients from August 2013 to May 2014 and classified them into the training and validation sets. A total of 730 radiomics features, including texture matrices of gray-level co-occurrence matrix and gray-level run-length matrix and single-level discrete two-dimensional wavelet transform and other functions, were obtained. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method was used for selecting the most predictive features in the training data set. Results Lymph node metastasis was associated with the radiomics score (p < 0.001). It was also associated with other clinical variables such as young age (p = 0.007) and large tumor size (p = 0.007). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.687 (95% confidence interval: 0.616-0.759) for the training set and 0.650 (95% confidence interval: 0.575-0.726) for the validation set. Conclusion This study showed the potential of ultrasonography-based radiomics to predict cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with PTC; thus, ultrasonography-based radiomics can act as a biomarker for PTC.