• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.615-628
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• 2023

Purpose: Increasing levels of domestic fine dust (DFD) have emerged as a serious problem that threatens public health by causing chronic respiratory diseases and skin aging. The present study was performed to investigate the inhibitory effects of Gryllus bimaculatus (the two-spotted cricket), which has recently attracted attention as an edible insect in South Korea, on DFD-induced aging and inflammation. Methods: To verify that DFD causes skin aging and investigate the anti-aging effect of an aqueous ethanolic-Gryllus bimaculatus extract (AE-GBE), human diploid fibroblasts (HDF) were treated with 100 ㎍/mL of European reference material (ERM)-CZ100 dust for 24 hrs in the presence or absence of 100 ㎍/ml AE-GBE. Aging and cellular toxicities were assessed by measuring reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, DNA fragmentation, and β-galactosidase activity. The protein levels of cyclooxygenase (COX) 2, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1, and collagen were measured by western blot, and the mRNA expressions of inflammation-related genes were assayed by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Results: Treatment with ERM-CZ100 induced an aged phenotype in HDF cells, as evidenced by increased ROS levels, DNA fragmentation, and senescence-associated β-galactosidase activity, but cotreatment with AE-GBE significantly reduced these inductions. The mRNA expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α, induced by ERM-CZ100 were also reduced by AE-GBE cotreatment, which also reduced COX2 expression. Moreover, ERM-CZ100-induced MMP-1 expression and reduced collagen type I expression were recovered by AE-GBE treatment. Conclusion: These results suggest that AE-GBE is a potential treatment for domestic fine dust-induced skin inflammation and inflammaging.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.525-529
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• 2023

β-Ga₂O₃ has become the focus of considerable attention as an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor following the successful development of bulk single crystals using the melt growth method. Accordingly, homoepitaxy studies, where the interface between the substrate and the epilayer is not problematic, have become mainstream and many results have been published. However, because the cost of homo-substrates is high, research is still mainly at the laboratory level and has not yet been scaled up to commercialization. To overcome this problem, many researchers are trying to grow high quality Ga₂O₃ epilayers on hetero-substrates. We used diluted SiH4 gas to control the doping concentration during the heteroepitaxial growth of β-Ga₂O₃ on c-plane sapphire using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Despite the high level of defect density inside the grown β-Ga₂O₃ epilayer due to the aggregation of random rotated domains, the carrier concentration could be controlled from 1 × 10¹⁹ to 1 × 10¹⁶ cm^-3 by diluting the SiH4 gas concentration. This study indicates that β-Ga₂O₃ hetero-epitaxy has similar potential to homo-epitaxy and is expected to accelerate the commercialization of β-Ga₂O₃ applications with the advantage of low substrate cost.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.51-68
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• 2023

With the emergence of the internet and the increasing use of online communities for over 20 years, the age range of users has also been rising. This study explores the linguistic changes that have occurred as the user age in online communities has increased. To do this, data was collected and analyzed from an online community that has been actively operating, despite new member registrations being closed nine years ago. By comparing the posts over an 11-year period from 2012 to 2022, changes such as an increase in average comments, a decrease in interrogative sentences, and a decrease in imperative statements were observed. The study also proposed loneliness due to aging and a decline in curiosity and confidence as potential causes of these changes. In South Korea, which is rapidly entering an aging society unprecedentedly fast on a global scale, the increase in single-person households has evolved loneliness from a personal issue to a social problem, manifested in an increase in solitary deaths and reclusive individuals. This research sheds light on one aspect of these social phenomena through the analysis of data from a large online community.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.227-235
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• 2024

Hepatocyte damage caused by medications or herbal products is one of the important problem when these compounds are chronically administrated. Thus, improving hepatocyte survival during treatment offers a wide range of opportunities. Valproic acid (VPA), a branched short-chain fatty acid derived from naturally occurring valeric acid, is commonly used to treat epilepsy and seizures. Although VPA exerts numerous effects in cancer, HIV therapy, and neurodegenerative disease, its effects on the liver and its mechanism of action have not been fully elucidated. Here, we demonstrated that VPA caused moderate liver cell toxicity and apoptosis. Interestingly, VPA treatment increased transcription levels of PPAR alpha (PPAR-α) and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) in murine (Hepa1c1c7) hepatoma cells in a time and concentration dependent manner. VPA-induced FGF21 expression was significantly weaker under PPAR-α silencing condition than in cells transfected with non-targeting control siRNA. Subsequent experiments showed that cell viability was significantly lowered when the FGF21 signaling pathway was blocked by FGF receptor antagonist. Finally, we further determined that AMPK phosphorylation was not responsible for VPA-induced FGF21 expression and PPAR-a increments. These results indicate that increases of FGF21 expression alleviate VPA-induced hepatic toxicity, thereby making FGF21 a potential biomarker for predicting liver damage during VPA treatments.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2024

This study examined the causes and remedies of bid-rigging in the construction industry through a survey of procurement practitioners. The study identified potential problems from the business, construction, and bidding environments, and proposed improvements to the procurement and bidding systems to address these problems. The study found that transparency, fairness, and diversity are important factors in reducing bid-rigging. These factors can be achieved through a variety of measures, such as expanding bidding systems, strengthening fairness standards, and increasing the diversity of participating companies. The study also found that unfair subcontracting regulations are a problem that needs to be addressed. There were differences in the perceptions of the causes of bid-rigging between the general and specialized construction groups. However, there was no difference in the perceptions of improvements to the procurement system between the two groups. This suggests that a consistent solution to bid-rigging can be found. The study's findings are expected to contribute to the resolution and prevention of bid-rigging in the construction industry.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.52-61
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• 2024

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated social transformations across various nations. These changes, particularly prominent in the corporate and industrial sectors, have necessitated a shift towards increased remote activities, fundamentally altering societal structures. Within this context, the concept of the Metaverse, a virtual world existing since the early 2000s but previously underrecognized, began to gain widespread recognition. In South Korea, major tech companies such as Naver, Kakao, and Coupang have long normalized remote working, with new employee orientations also taking place on Metaverse platforms. Beyond the IT sector, institutions requiring large gatherings, such as schools, have adopted the Metaverse for hosting major events like welcome ceremonies and informational sessions. This phenomenon suggests that the Metaverse is not merely a transient social trend but is gradually integrating into the daily lives of the general populace, serving as a significant social connector. This study explores the potential of Metaverse-enabled design thinking and methodologies to address the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) challenges faced by Korean society. Specifically, the research focuses on developing solutions for social issues related to pets in Korea.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.27-35
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• 2023

Fourth Industrial Revolution and COVID-19 pandemic have boosted the use of Government 24 app for public service complaints in the era of non-face-to-face interactions. there has been a growing influx of complaints and improvement demands from users of public apps. Furthermore, systematic management of public apps is deemed necessary. The aim of this study is to analyze the grievances of Government 24 app users, understand the current dissatisfaction among citizens, and propose potential improvements. Data were collected from the Google Play Store from May 2, 2013, to June 30, 2023, comprising a total of 6,344 records. Among these, 1,199 records with a rating of 1 and at least one 'thumbs-up' were used for topic modeling analysis. The analysis revealed seven topics: 'Issues with certificate issuance,' 'Website functionality and UI problems,' 'User ID-related issues,' 'Update problems,' 'Government employee app management issues,' 'Budget wastage concerns ((It's not worth even a single star) or (It's a waste of taxpayers' money)),' and 'Password-related problems.' Furthermore, the overall trend of these topics showed an increase until 2021, a slight decrease in 2022, but a resurgence in 2023, underscoring the urgency of updates and management. We hope that the results of this study will contribute to the development and management of public apps that satisfy citizens in the future.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.39.1-39.14
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• 2023

Background: Diseases affecting the lungs and airways contribute significantly to the global burden of disease. The problem in low- and middle-income countries appears to be exacerbated by a shift in global manufacturing base to these countries and inadequate enforcement of environmental and safety standards. In Ghana, the potential adverse effects on respiratory function associated with occupational wood dust exposure have not been thoroughly investigated. Methods: Sixty-four male sawmill workers and 64 non-woodworkers participated in this study. The concentration of wood dust exposure, prevalence and likelihood of association of respiratory symptoms with wood dust exposure and changes in pulmonary function test (PFT) parameters in association with wood dust exposure were determined from dust concentration measurements, symptoms questionnaire and lung function test parameters. Results: Sawmill workers were exposed to inhalable dust concentration of 3.09 ± 0.04 mg/m³ but did not use respirators and engaged in personal grooming habits that are known to increase dust inhalation. The sawmill operators also showed higher prevalence and likelihoods of association with respiratory symptoms, a significant cross-shift decline in some PFT parameters and a shift towards a restrictive pattern of lung dysfunction by end of daily shift. The before-shift PFT parameters of woodworkers were comparable to those of non-woodworkers, indicating a lack of chronic effects of wood dust exposure. Conclusions: Wood dust exposure at the study site was associated with acute respiratory symptoms and acute changes in some PFT parameters. This calls for institution and enforcement of workplace and environmental safety policies to minimise exposure at sawmill operating sites, and ultimately, decrease the burden of respiratory diseases.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2024

Background: Honey bees play a crucial role in pollination and ecological balance. Apis mellifera L. colonies, especially those located in specific geographic regions, such as the palm garden in Eastern Thailand, are susceptible to potential threats from microbial contaminants. Understanding and detecting microbial organisms in these beehives is essential for the preservation of bee health, honey production, and the broader ecosystem. However, the problem of microbial infection and antibiotic-resistant bacteria is more severe and continuously increasing, resulting in a health, economic, and social crisis. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of microorganisms in A. mellifera beehives in palm gardens in Rayong province, Eastern Thailand. Results: Ten swabs in transport media were swabbed and obtained from different parts of each beehive (1 swab per beehive), for a total of 10 hives. Traditional microbial culture-based methods, biochemical tests, and antimicrobial susceptibility (disc-diffusion) tests were used to detect microbial organisms and antibiotic resistance in bacteria. The swab tests from nine beehives resulted in the detection of Gram-positive bacteria (63.64%), Gram-negative bacteria (27.27%), and fungi/yeast (9.09%). These microorganisms are classified as a group of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus spp. and made up 40.91% of the bacteria discovered. Other bacteria found were Coryneform bacteria (13.64%), Pantoea spp. (13.64%), Bacillus spp. (9.09%), yeast (9.09%), glucose non-fermentative Gram-negative bacilli (9.09%), and Pseudomonas spp. (4.55%). However, due to the traditional culture-based and 0biochemical tests usually used to identify the microbial organisms in clinical specimens and the limitation of identifying some environmental microbial species, the results of the antimicrobial susceptibility test cannot reveal if the organism is resistant or susceptible to the drug. Nevertheless, drug-sensitive inhibition zones were formed with each antibiotic agent. Conclusions: Overall, the study supports prevention, healthcare, and public health systems. The contamination of microorganisms in the beehives may affect the quality of honey and other bee products or even the health of the beekeeper. To avoid this kind of contamination, it is therefore necessary to wear personal protective equipment while harvesting honey and other bee products.

• 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.