• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.27-37
• /
• 2023

Objectives: Moroccan Arbutus unedo is an essential medicinal plant; however, little is known about the biological properties of its leaves mentioned in Moroccan traditional medicine. Methods: Various standard experiments were performed to evaluate the phytochemical, antidiabetic, antioxidant, antibacterial, and acute and sub-chronic toxicity characteristics of A. unedo leaves. Results: Phytochemical screening led to the identification of several phytochemical classes, including tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, and anthraquinones, with high concentrations of polyphenols (31.83 ± 0.29 mg GAEs/g extract) and flavonoids (16.66 ± 1.47 mg REs/g extract). Further, the mineral analysis revealed high levels of calcium and potassium. A. unedo extract demonstrated significant antioxidant and anti-diabetic activities by inhibiting α-amylase (1.350 ± 0.32 g/mL) and α-glucosidase (0.099 ± 1.21 g/mL) compared to the reference drug Acarbose. Also, the methanolic extract of the plant exhibited significantly higher antibacterial activity than the aqueous extract. Precisely, three of the four examined bacterial strains exhibited substantial susceptibility to the methanolic extract . Minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC)/minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values indicated that A. unedo harbor abundant bactericidal compounds. For toxicological studies, mice were administered with A. unedo aqueous extract at single doses of 2,000 and 5,000 mg/kg. They did not exhibit significant abnormal behavior, toxic symptoms, or death during the 14-day acute toxicity test and the 90-day sub-chronic toxicity test periods. The general behavior, body weight, and hematological and biochemical status of the rats were assessed, revealing no toxicological symptoms or clinically significant changes in biological markers observed in the mice models, except hypoglycemia, after 90 days of daily dose administration. Conclusion: The study highlighted several biological advantages of A. unedo leaves without toxic effects in short-term application. Our findings suggest that conducting more comprehensive and extensive in vivo investigations is of utmost importance to identify molecules that can be formulated into pharmaceuticals in the future.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.119-129
• /
• 2022

Cervical cytology has been widely used as a screening tool for cervical cancer. However, Human papillomavirus (HPV) detection and subtype testing are suggested to overcome the high false-negative rate associated with cytology. We aimed to investigate the clinical usefulness and infection rate in the HPV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test performed in hospitals. HPV PCR data from 217 patients were analyzed. Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in the infection rate among different age groups (P=0.015). The biopsy results showed that epithelial cell abnormalities and high HPV-positivity rate was observed in 1 (100%) subject aged <29 years, in 4 out of 5 (80%) patients in their 30s, and in 3 out of 4 (75%) patients aged ≥70 years. The prevalence of HPV infection was very high (46.1%). The highest prevalence (87.5%) was observed among patients in their <29, followed by those in their 30s (67.7%) and those in their 40s (31.9%).A high rate of epithelial cell abnormalities (≥ cervical intraepithelial neoplasia type 1, mild dysplasia) was observed in HPV-infected women aged<30 years. Therefore, extensive research and prevention activities are needed in this age group. HPV PCR testing is recommended to complement cervical cytology

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.169-179
• /
• 2016

This study was to investigate special education teachers' teaching in reading and writing to university students with intellectual disabilities. For this study, we surveyed 71special education teachers who work in Gwangju, Daegu and Busan. As a result, in order to identify students' reading and writing abilities, they were more likely to use their own tests which they made for themselves than standardized tests. When teaching students, they used their own teaching experiences and advices from colleagues and senior teachers regarding problem-solving methods and reliable information while the knowledge they learned at school showed low frequency in use. Despite using mainly whole-word approach when instructing reading and writing, it appeared that teachers' teaching experiences and diversity of textbooks also have an influence. Regarding needs of education participation for teaching students, there were high needs and interests in teaching methods of writing, textbooks and teaching materials by the characteristics of disability, reading and writing development, reading and writing disabilities. In case of difficulties and needs in teaching students, there was a high demand of development of a wide variety of teaching materials and tools and, preparation for sufficient textbooks and test tools, while difficulties in teaching appeared in lack of knowledge about reading and writing, lack of screening/evaluating tools, and evaluating and teaching oriented to each disability characteristic.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.49-73
• /
• 2013

In this study, the author develops and tests a model that incorporates the mediating effects of two frontline employee psychological variables (emotional exhaustion and intrinsic motivation) based on job demand and resource model. As a form of environmental resource, person-organization fit was proposed as a leading factor of frontline employee boundary spanning behavior through emotional exhaustion and intrinsic motivation. All measures were adapted from or developed based on prior research. Data for the study were collected from a cross-sectional sample of retail bank employees in South Korea. Questionnaires were distributed to 500 frontline employees across several banks. Of these, 322 usable questionnaires were returned. To analyze the data, a structural equation model procedure using LISREL 8.5 was employed. Results show that an employee's perceived fit with his/her organization enhances intrinsic motivation and reduces emotional exhaustion. These mechanisms, in turn, increase the employee's boundary spanning behavior. These results support the notion that person-organization fit should be one of the factors affecting motivation, affect and attachment, and extends such an understanding to a purely service-based environment among customer contact employees. Results also confirms that P-O fit can be viewed as environmental resources, and the JD-R model provides a theoretical base in further studying the antecedent role of P-O fit on frontline employees's boundary spanning behavior through intrinsic motivation and emotional exhaustion. These results suggest that organizations have to do their best to manage P-O fit, be it through employee screening or training and workshops to try and align organization and employee values and objectives. If managers of organizations are positively evaluated by the employees, it will be easier for them to, give things of value to employees, such as sense of direction, values, and recognition, and receive other things in return such as esteem and responsiveness. Consequently, organizational leaders are not only able to manage employee experiences, but also their fit with the organization. Even if a manager cannot control employee P-O fit, this research suggests, that a focus on reducing emotional exhaustion rather than increasing intrinsic motivation seems optimal. This research also supports the idea that motivation has a direct association with a frontline employee's boundary spanning behavior. Even in situations where emotional exhaustion cannot be reduced, organizations may still influence frontline behaviors through motivation.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.22 no.11
• /
• pp.1909-1917
• /
• 2021

Objective: Muscle quantity and quality can be measured with an automated system on CT. However, the effects of contrast phases on the muscle measurements have not been established, which we aimed to investigate in this study. Materials and Methods: Muscle quantity was measured according to the skeletal muscle area (SMA) measured by a convolutional neural network-based automated system at the L3 level in 89 subjects undergoing multiphasic abdominal CT comprising unenhanced phase, arterial phase, portal venous phase (PVP), or delayed phase imaging. Muscle quality was analyzed using the mean muscle density and the muscle quality map, which comprises normal and low-attenuation muscle areas (NAMA and LAMA, respectively) based on the muscle attenuation threshold. The SMA, mean muscle density, NAMA, and LAMA were compared between PVP and other phases using paired t tests. Bland-Altman analysis was used to evaluate the inter-phase variability between PVP and other phases. Based on the cutoffs for low muscle quantity and quality, the counts of individuals who scored lower than the cutoff values were compared between PVP and other phases. Results: All indices showed significant differences between PVP and other phases (p < 0.001 for all). The SMA, mean muscle density, and NAMA increased during the later phases, whereas LAMA decreased during the later phases. Bland-Altman analysis showed that the mean differences between PVP and other phases ranged -2.1 to 0.3 cm² for SMA, -12.0 to 2.6 cm² for NAMA, and -2.2 to 9.9 cm² for LAMA.The number of patients who were categorized as low muscle quantity did not significant differ between PVP and other phases (p ≥ 0.5), whereas the number of patients with low muscle quality significantly differed (p ≤ 0.002). Conclusion: SMA was less affected by the contrast phases. However, the muscle quality measurements changed with the contrast phases to greater extents and would require a standardization of the contrast phase for reliable measurement.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.624-633
• /
• 2021

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of CT measurements of muscle quantity and quality using variable CT parameters. Materials and Methods: A phantom, simulating the L2-4 vertebral levels, was used for this study. CT images were repeatedly acquired with modulation of tube voltage, tube current, slice thickness, and the image reconstruction algorithm. Reference standard muscle compartments were obtained from the reference maps of the phantom. Cross-sectional area based on the Hounsfield unit (HU) thresholds of muscle and its components, and the mean density of the reference standard muscle compartment, were used to measure the muscle quantity and quality using different CT protocols. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) were calculated in the images acquired with different settings. Results: The skeletal muscle area (threshold, -29 to 150 HU) was constant, regardless of the protocol, occupying at least 91.7% of the reference standard muscle compartment. Conversely, normal attenuation muscle area (30-150 HU) was not constant in the different protocols, varying between 59.7% and 81.7% of the reference standard muscle compartment. The mean density was lower than the target density stated by the manufacturer (45 HU) in all cases (range, 39.0-44.9 HU). The SNR decreased with low tube voltage, low tube current, and in sections with thin slices, whereas it increased when the iterative reconstruction algorithm was used. Conclusion: Measurement of muscle quantity using HU threshold was reliable, regardless of the CT protocol used. Conversely, the measurement of muscle quality using the mean density and narrow HU thresholds were inconsistent and inaccurate across different CT protocols. Therefore, further studies are warranted in future to determine the optimal CT protocols for reliable measurements of muscle quality.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.131-138
• /
• 2021

Objective: Iterative reconstruction degrades image quality. Thus, further advances in image reconstruction are necessary to overcome some limitations of this technique in low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scan of the chest. Deep-learning image reconstruction (DLIR) is a new method used to reduce dose while maintaining image quality. The purposes of this study was to evaluate image quality and noise of LDCT scan images reconstructed with DLIR and compare with those of images reconstructed with the adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction-Veo at a level of 30% (ASiR-V 30%). Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 58 patients who underwent LDCT scan for lung cancer screening. Datasets were reconstructed with ASiR-V 30% and DLIR at medium and high levels (DLIR-M and DLIR-H, respectively). The objective image signal and noise, which represented mean attenuation value and standard deviation in Hounsfield units for the lungs, mediastinum, liver, and background air, and subjective image contrast, image noise, and conspicuity of structures were evaluated. The differences between CT scan images subjected to ASiR-V 30%, DLIR-M, and DLIR-H were evaluated. Results: Based on the objective analysis, the image signals did not significantly differ among ASiR-V 30%, DLIR-M, and DLIR-H (p = 0.949, 0.737, 0.366, and 0.358 in the lungs, mediastinum, liver, and background air, respectively). However, the noise was significantly lower in DLIR-M and DLIR-H than in ASiR-V 30% (all p < 0.001). DLIR had higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) than ASiR-V 30% (p = 0.027, < 0.001, and < 0.001 in the SNR of the lungs, mediastinum, and liver, respectively; all p < 0.001 in the CNR). According to the subjective analysis, DLIR had higher image contrast and lower image noise than ASiR-V 30% (all p < 0.001). DLIR was superior to ASiR-V 30% in identifying the pulmonary arteries and veins, trachea and bronchi, lymph nodes, and pleura and pericardium (all p < 0.001). Conclusion: DLIR significantly reduced the image noise in chest LDCT scan images compared with ASiR-V 30% while maintaining superior image quality.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.42-52
• /
• 2024

Antimalarial drugs are an urgently need and crucial tool in the campaign against malaria, which can threaten public health. In this study, we examined the cytotoxicity of the 9 antimalarial compounds chemically synthesized using SKM13-2HCl. Except for SKM13-2HCl, the 5 newly synthesized compounds had a 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC₅₀) >100 μM, indicating that they would be less cytotoxic than SKM13-2HCl. Among the 5 compounds, only SAM13-2HCl outperformed SKM13-2HCl for antimalarial activity, showing a 3- and 1.3-fold greater selective index (SI) (CC₅₀/IC₅₀) than SKM13-2HCl in vitro against both chloroquine-sensitive (3D7) and chloroquine -resistant (K1) Plasmodium falciparum strains, respectively. Thus, the presence of morpholine amide may help to effectively suppress human-infectious P. falciparum parasites. However, the antimalarial activity of SAM13-2HCl was inferior to that of the SKM13-2HCl template compound in the P. berghei NK65-infected mouse model, possibly because SAM13-2HCl had a lower polarity and less efficient pharmacokinetics than SKM13-2HCl. SAM13-2HCl was more toxic in the rodent model. Consequently, SAM13-2HCl containing morpholine was selected from screening a combination of pharmacologically significant structures as being the most effective in vitro against human-infectious P. falciparum but was less efficient in vivo in a P. berghei-infected animal model when compared with SKM13-2HCl. Therefore, SAM13-2HCl containing morpholine could be considered a promising compound to treat chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum infections, although further optimization is crucial to maintain antimalarial activity while reducing toxicity in animals.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.46 no.9
• /
• pp.854-857
• /
• 2003

Purpose : It is known that single umbilical artery is frequently associated with gastrointestinal or urogenital anomaly, however, routine renal sonography has been debated in healthy neonate with isolated single umbilical artery. This study is designed to determine the usefulness of routine renal sonography in apparently healthy infants with an isolated single umbilical artery. Methods : Thirty healthy neonates with a single umbilical artery without a major anomaly from January 1995 to July 2002 were enrolled. The authors investigated the clinical background of babies and their mothers after renal sonography after 72 hours of age. When the abnormalities were found at the first renal sonography, the severity of hydronephrosis and degree of obstruction and renal function were analyzed by follow up renal sonography, voiding cystourethrography(VCUG) and technetium-99m-dimercaptosuccinic acid(DMSA) scan or technetium-99m-mercaptoacetyl-triglycerine (MAG3) scan. Results : Among the 30 healthy patients with isolated single umbilical artery, five patients(16.7%) showed abnormalities on first renal sonography with one major(3.3%) and four(13.4%) minor renal anomaly(minimal or mild hydroneohrosis). One major renal anomaly(severe hydronephrosis) showed severe decreased renal function on MAG3 scan without reflux, and the other four minor regressed spontaneously on follow up study. Conclusion : The value of routine early renal sonograpy for detecting renal anomaly in healthy infants with an isolated single umbilical artery remained unclear because most of the anomalies would regress spontaneously in the follow up study.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.129-140
• /
• 1994

The survey has for its object to detect prevalence rate of hypertension in target population, to find out the risk factor to hypertension, to detect the hypertensive patients cared pattern and therefore, to consider a effective counter plan for the long term about hypertension. The study, population of this survey was 894 out of 1013 target population from Feb. 1 1994 to March 31 1994 in Kyougsang-namdo Ulsan-gun Samnam-myoun. For these two month, check of blood pressure and direct measurement of height and weight was carried out by mass screening and home visiting and had an interview about risk factors for hypertension and cared pattern by questionnaire. The results of survey were as follows : 1. The prevalence rate of 894 study, population was 27.5% and 26.0% in man and 28.6% in women. 2. In male, the prevalence rate for age group, family history of hypertension, drinking, salt intake by risk factors were significant statistically. 3. In female, the prevalence rate for salt intake, body mass index by risk factors were significant statistically. 4. Motivation which was diagnosed as hypertension was that be examined for subjective symptoms of hypertension and routine check for health was only 25.0%, 9.1% and visiting to the hospital for other diseases, detect hypertension by chance was 65.9%. 5. The experience of treatment in prevalent cases was significant statistically in middle class of SES. And the place of treatment by risk factors could not be significant statistically in spite of the majority selected hospital generally. 6. The reasons of non-compliance in prevalent cases was restricting daily activities for its 45.5% most high and the interruption of treatment in prevalent cases was far from hospital geographically for its 47.6% most high 7. The preventive behavior about hypertensive by risk factors or general characteristics wasn't significant statistically. 8. Being treated or not in the near future about age group, SES, family history of the hypertension was significant statistically. And with regard to the place of treatment in the near future, in spite of the majority selected hospital generally, it wasn't significant statistically. 9. The reasons of non-compliance in incidence cases was restricting daily activities for its 46.8% most high. 10. The preventive behavior in the near future about age group, education level, SES, family history of hypertension was significant statistically.