• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.589-601
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• 2023

Purpose: Baicalein, a natural flavone found in herbs, exhibits diverse biological activities. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an irreversible condition often associated with a poor prognosis. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of baicalein on the development of NASH in mice. Methods: Male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into four groups. Three groups were fed a methionine-choline-deficient (MCD) diet to induce NASH and were simultaneously treated with baicalein (at doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg) or vehicle only (sodium carboxymethylcellulose) through oral gavage for 4 weeks. The control group was fed a methionine-choline-sufficient (MCS) diet without the administration of baicalein. Results: The baicalein treatment significantly reduced serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, suggestive of reduced liver damage. Histological analysis revealed a marked decrease in nonalcoholic fatty liver activity scores induced by the MCD diet in the mice. Similarly, baicalein treatment at both doses significantly attenuated the degree of hepatic fibrosis, as examined by Sirius red staining, and hepatocellular death, as examined by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay. Baicalein treatment attenuated MCD-diet-induced lipid peroxidation, as evidenced by lower levels of hepatic malondialdehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal, demonstrating a reduction in oxidative stress resulting from lipid peroxidation. Moreover, baicalein treatment suppressed hepatic protein levels of 12-lipoxygenase (12-Lox) induced by the MCD diet. In contrast, baicalein enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase. Additionally, baicalein treatment significantly reduced hepatic non-heme iron concentrations and hepatic ferritin protein levels in mice fed an MCD diet. Conclusion: To summarize, baicalein treatment suppresses hepatic lipid peroxidation, 12-Lox expression, and iron accumulation, all of which are associated with the attenuation of NASH progression.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2024

Objectives: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common disorders and it shows up to 20% prevalence in reproductive-aged women populations, but no cures are available to date. We aimed to investigate the protective effects of Changbudodam-tang (CBD) on cell death signaling pathways, inflammation, and oxidative stress observed in Bone-Marrow derived human mesenchymal stem cell (BM-hMSC) by means of PCOS therapeutics in the future. Methods: BM-hMSCs were applied with cell deaths and injuries. Apoptosis and pyroptosis signals were quenched with their related signaling pathways using quantitative PCR, Western blot, and fluorescence image analysis. Results: Our data clearly displayed hydrogen peroxide- and nigericin-treated cell death signaling pathways via regulations of mitochondrial integrity and interleukin (IL)-1β at the cellular levels (p < 0.01 or 0.001). We further observed that pre-treatment with CBD showed protective effects against oxidative stress by enhancement of antioxidant components at the cellular level, with respect to both protein and mRNA expression levels (p < 0.05, 0.01 or 0.001). The mechanisms of CBD were examined by Western blot analysis, and it showed anti-cell death, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects via normalizations of the Jun N-terminal kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 7/c-Jun signaling pathways. Conclusion: This study confirmed the pharmacological properties of CBD by regulation of cellular oxidation and the inflammation-provoked cell death condition of BM-hMSCs, which is mediated by the MKK7/JNK/c-Jun signaling pathway.

• International Journal of Heart Failure
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2024

Body fluid monitoring and management are essential to control dyspnea and prevent re-hospitalization in patients with chronic heart failure (HF). There are several methods to estimate and monitor patient's volume status, such as symptoms, signs, body weight, and implantable devices. However, these methods might be difficult to use for reasons that are slow to reflect body water change, inaccurate in specific patients' condition, or invasive. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a novel method for body water monitoring in patients with HF, and the value in prognosis has been proven in previous studies. We aim to determine the efficacy and safety of home BIA body water monitoring-guided HF treatment in patients with chronic HF. This multi-center, open-label, randomized control trial will enroll patients with HF who are taking loop diuretics. The home BIA group patients will be monitored for body water using a home BIA device and receive messages regarding their edema status and direction of additional diuretics usage or behavioral changes through the linked application system once weekly. The control group patients will receive the usual HF management. The primary endpoint is the change in N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide levels from baseline after 12 weeks. This trial will provide crucial evidence for patient management with a novel home BIA body water monitoring system in patients with HF.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.261-270
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• 1994

The purpose of this study was to evaluate relationship of probing attachment levels, radiographic measurements and surgical measurements according to gingival inflammatory condition. Patients with incipient to moderate periodontitis were selected. Upper and lower premolar and molar teeth excluding third molars were measured. At first visit, gingival index and bleeding on probing were taken, and subjects were grouped into 4 categories as follows : Experimental group I : gingival index 1 and no bleeding on probing. Experimental group II : gingival index 2 and no bleeding on probing absent. Experimental group III : gingival index 1 and bleeding on probing present. Experimental group IV : gingival index 2 and bleeding on probing present. Probing attachment levels were measured with manual probe on mesial and distal surfaces from cementoenamel junctions to terminal ends of probe. Radiographic measurements were made to assess bone loss by measuring the distance from cementoenamel junction to the alveolar crest. After thorough scating, a flap was raised exposing the alveolar bone and surgical measurements were made from cementoenamel junction to alveolar bone. The results were as follows: 1. Differences between probing attachment level and radiographic measurements showed $1.01{\pm}0.73mm$ for experimental group I, $0.98{\pm}0.48mm$ for experimental group II, $0.59{\pm}0.66mm$ for experimental group III, $0.98{\pm}0.38mm$ for experimental group IV and with no significant difference between groups. 2. Differences between probing attachment level and surgical measurements showed $1.36{\pm}0.80mm$ for experimental group I, $1.47{\pm}0.54mm$ for experimental group II, $1.06{\pm}0.39mm$ for experimental group III, $1.41{\pm}0.40mm$ for experimental group IV and with no significant difference between groups. 3. Differences between surgical and radiographic measurements showed $0.36{\pm}0.48mm$ for experimental group I, $0.51{\pm}0.54mm$ for experimental group II, $0.57{\pm}0.72mm$ for experimental group III, $0.41{\pm}0.49mm$ for experimental group IV and with significant difference between experimental group I and experimental group II, III, IV(P<0.05).

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2017

End-stage liver disease (ESLD) is a terminal condition of cirrhosis which cannot be treated without liver transplantation. Thus, it is natural for patients to consider hospice/palliative care (HPC). Since the recent legislation of the Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for Patients in Hospice and Palliative Care or at the End of Life (Act No. 14013) in Korea, the practicality of this law has become an issue. The criteria for HPC should be defined with consideration to how the severity of each ESLD complication may vary by individual patients. Generally, patients qualify if they have an intractable condition despite aggressive treatment such as the hepatorenal syndrome, hepatic encephalopathy or variceal hemorrhage. However, the option of liver transplantation should be sufficiently discussed with patients and their families before making a decision on HPC. The evaluation of which ESLD patients should receive HPC should be based on a long-term doctor-patient relationship and sufficient objective data. Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach and mutual consultation among cirrhosis specialists and doctors with other expertise are essential to offer optimal and balanced treatments between liver-specific treatment and HPC. Discussed in this review are adequate criteria for HPC and special considerations for ESLD at the point of HPC.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.429-444
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• 2011

1. Objective This study is aimed to present the effective classification of Soeumin symptomatology and the standardized signs for classification which can be applied for KCD, ICD and the insurance codification system. 2. Methods 1) Differentiate Soeumin symptomatology based on exterior-interior patterns, favorable-unfavorable patterns, and mild-severe-dangerous-urgent patterns. 2) Investigate the standard signs and symptoms to claasify Soeumin symptomatology based on exterior-interior patterns, favorable-unfavorable patterns, and mild-severe-dangerous-urgent patterns. 3. Results and Conclusions 1) The diagnosis criteria for Soeumin exterior-interior disease is based upon signs & symptoms of cold/heat, condition of stool, state of digestive system(such as digestion and appetite)among others. 2) The diagnosis criteria for Soeumin favorable-unfavorable disease is generally based upon whether the vital force of the spleen is damaged or not. More specifically, for the exterior disease, whether or not sweating is present. For the interior disease, whether or not dry mouth, body ache(a main symptom of the exterior state), and anxiousness are present. 3) For the Soeumin Wool-gwang disease, the diagnosis criteria of mild-severe disease is whether or not chills is present and the degree of body fever. 4) For Soeumin Mang-yang disease, the diagnosis criteria of dangerous-urgent disease is whether or not chills is, the degree of sweating and urine condition. 5) For the Soeumin Greater-Yin disease, Abdominal-pain bowel irritability pattern and Epigastric discomfort pattern are early state signs, Jaundice pattern is mild-state sign, edema & Greater-Yang disease Yin-toxin pattern are terminal state signs. 6) For the Soeumin interior disease, Abdominal-pain bowel irritability pattern and Epigastric discomfort pattern are of the dangerous state pattern, Jang-gual and Exuberant-Yin-repelling-Yang pattern are of the urgent state patterns.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of changes in degrees of freedom of the fingers (i.e., the number of the fingers involved in tasks) on the task performance during force production and releasing task. Method: Eight right-handed young men (age: $29.63{\pm}3.02yr$, height: $1.73{\pm}0.04m$, weight: $70.25{\pm}9.05kg$) participated in this study. The subjects were required to press the transducers with three combinations of fingers, including the index-middle (IM), index-middle-ring (IMR), and index-middle-ring-little (IMRL). During the trials, they were instructed to maintain a steady-state level of both normal and tangential forces within the first 5 sec. After the first 5 sec, the subjects were instructed to release the fingers on the transducers as quickly as possible at a self-selected manner within the next 5 sec, resulting in zero force at the end. Customized MATLAB codes (MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, USA) were written for data analysis. The following variables were quantified: 1) finger force sharing pattern, 2) root mean square error (RMSE) of force to the target force in three axes at the aiming phase, 3) the time duration of the release phase (release time), and 4) the accuracy and precision indexes of the virtual firing position. Results: The RMSE was decreased with the number of fingers increased in both normal and tangential forces at the steady-state phase. The precision index was smaller (more precise) in the IMR condition than in the IM condition, while no significant difference in the accuracy index was observed between the conditions. In addition, no significant difference in release time was found between the conditions. Conclusion: The study provides evidence that the increased number of fingers resulted in better error compensation at the aiming phase and performed a more constant shooting (i.e., smaller precision index). However, the increased number of fingers did not affect the release time, which may influence the consistency of terminal performance. Thus, the number of fingers led to positive results for the current task.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.635-641
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• 2016

In order to drive a hybrid propulsion device which combines an engine and an electric propulsion unit, battery packs that contain dozens of unit cells consisting of a lithium-based battery are used to maintain the power source. Therefore, it is necessary to more strictly manage a number of battery cells at any given time. In order to manage battery cells, generally voltage, current, and temperature data under load condition are monitored from a personal computer. Other important elements required to analyze the condition of the battery are the internal resistances that are used to judge its state-of-health (SOH) and the open-circuit voltage (OCV) that is used to check the battery charging state. However, in principle, the internal resistances cannot be measured during operation because the parallel equivalent circuit is composed of internal loss resistances and capacitance. In most energy storage systems, battery management system (BMS) operations are carried out by using data such as voltage, current, and temperature. However, during operation, in the case of unexpected battery cell failure, the output voltage of the power supply can be changed and propulsion of the hybrid vehicle and vessel can be difficult. This paper covers the implementation of a high safety battery management system (HSBMS) that can estimate the OCV while the device is being driven. If a battery cell fails unexpectedly, a DC power supply with lithium iron phosphate can keep providing the load with a constant output voltage using the remainder of the batteries, and it is also possible to estimate the internal resistance.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.703-722
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of abduction suggested by C. S. Peirce, and to discuss its implications in science education. Peirce's abduction is the logic of generating hypothesis. Abduction is a kind of logical inference, which colligates general rule and the observed result, and then it makes us judge the observed result as a case of the general rule on the basis of their resemblance. The process of abduction is also the logic of inquiry. In a Peirce's view, inquiry is a struggle for escaping from the condition of 'doubt' and to 'belief the nature of which is the establishment of habits. Because what habit an object has is its whole meaning, in his views, the fixation of belief is the way of attaining the truth related to it. The beliefs of individuals, however, are always fallible. So, to attain a truth, we need the terminal opinion of community of inquiry that could conduct infinite inquiry. These characteristics of Peirce's abduction give suggestions in science education as follows; firstly, hypothesis generating which transforms the condition of 'doubt' into the 'belief by considering practical effects should be highlighted, secondly, logical inference which makes us judge the observed result as a case of the general rule on the basis of resemblance should be highlighted, and thirdly, communities of inquiry which stand on the view of modest realism should be intended toward. These results could be expected in playing a role in critical discussion on science education relating to abduction.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.52-67
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• 1989

True nursing care means total nursing care which includes physical, emotional and spiritual care. The modern nursing care has tendency to focus toward physical care and needs attention toward emotional and spiritual care. The total nursing care is mandatory for patients with terminal cancer and for this purpose, hospice care became emerged. Hospice case originated from the place or shelter for the travellers to Jerusalem in medieval stage. However, the meaning of modem hospice care became changed to total nursing care for dying patients. Modern hospice care has been developed in England, and spreaded to U.S.A. and Canada for the patients with terminal cancer. Nowaday, it became a part of nursing care and the concept of hospice care extended to the palliative care of the cancer patients. Recently, it was introduced to Korea and received attention as model of total nursing care. This study was attempted to assess the efficacy of hospice care. The purpose of this study was to prove a difference in terms of physical, emotional a d spiritual aspect between the group who received hospice care and who didn't receive hospice care. The subject for this study were 113 patients with advanced cancer who were hospitalized in the S different hospitals. 67 patients received hospice care in 4 different hospitals, and 46 patients didn't receive hospice care in another 4 different hospitals. The method of this study was the questionaire which was made through the descriptive study. The descriptive study was made by individual contact with 102 patients cf advanced cancer for 9 months period. The measurement tool for questionaire was made by author through the descriptive study, and included the personal religious orientation obtained from chung(originated R. Fleck) and 5 emotional stages before dying from Kubler Ross. The content ol questionaire consisted in 67 items which included 11 for general characteristics, 10 for related condition with cancer, 13 for wishes far physical therapy, 13 for emotional reactions and 20 for personal religious orientation. Data for this study was collected from Aug. 25 to Oct. 6 by author and 4 other nurse's who received education and training by author for the collection of data. The collected data were ana lysed using descriptive statistics, $X^2-test$, t-test and pearson correlation coefficient. Results of the study were as follows: "H.C Group" means the group of patient with cancer who received hospice care. "Non H.C Group" means the group of patient with cancer who did not receive hospice care. 1. There is a difference between H.C Group and Non H.C Group in term of the number of physical symptoms, subjective degree of pain sensation and pain control, subjective beliefs in physical cure, emotional reaction, help of present emotional and spiritual care from other personal, needs of emotional and spiritual care in future, selection of treatment method by patients and personal religious orientation. 2. The comparison of H.C Group and Non H.C Group 1) There is no difference in wishes for physical therapy between two groups(p=.522). Among Non H.C Group, a group, who didn't receive traditional therapy and herb medicine was higher than a group who received these in degree of belief that the traditional therapy and herb medicine can cure their disease, and this result was higher in comparison to H.C Group(p=.025, p=.050). 2) Non H.C Group was higher than H.C Group in degree of emotional reaction(p=.050). H.C Group was higher than Non H.C Group in denial and acceptant stage among 5 different emotional stages before dying described by Kubler Ross, especially among the patient who had disease more than 13 months(p=.0069, p=.0198). 3) Non H.C Group was higher than H. C Group in demanding more emotional and spiritual care to doctor, nurse, family and pastor(p=. 010). 4) Non H.C Group was higher than H.C Group in demanding more emotional and spiritual care to each individual of doctor, nurse and family (p=.0110, p=.0029, P=. 0053). 5) H.C Group was higher th2.n Non H.C Group in degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and intrinsic belief orientation of personal religious orientation(p=.034, p=.026). 6) In H.C Group and Non H.C Group, the degree of emotional demanding of christians was significantly higher than non christians to doctor, nurse, family and pastor(p=. 000, p=.035). 7) In H.C Group there were significant positive correlations as following; (1) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse, family & pastor and: the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation in personal religious orientation(r=. 5512, p=.000). (2) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse. family & pastor and the degree of intrinsic belief orientation in personal religious orientation(r=.4795, p=.000). (3) Between the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and the degree of intrinsic: belief orientation in personal religious orientation(r=.8986, p=.000). (4) Between the degree of extrinsic religious orientation and the degree of consensus religious orientation in personal religious orientation (r=. 2640, p=.015). In H.C. Group there were significant negative correlations as following; (1) Between the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation (r=-.4218, p=.000). (2) Between the degree or intrinsic behavior orientation and consensus religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-. 4597, p=.000). (3) Between the degree of intrinsic belief orientations and the degree of extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-.4388, p=.000). (4) Between the degree of intrinsic belief orientation and the degree of consensus religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-. 5424, p=.000). 8) In Non H.C Group there were significant positive correlation as following; (1) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse, family & pastor and the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation in personal religious orientation(r= .3566, p=.007). (2) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse, family & pastor and the degree of intrinsic belief orientation in personal religious orientation(r=.3430, p=.010). (3) Between the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and the degree of intrinsic belief orientation in personal religious orientation(r=.9723, p=.000). In Non H.C Group there were significant negative correlation as following; (1) Between the degree of emotional demandings to doctor, nurse, family & pastor and the degree of extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r= -.2862, p=.027). (2) Between the degree of intrinsic behavior orientation and the degree of extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-. 5083, p=.000). (3) Between the degree of intrinsic belief orientation and the degree of extrinsic religious orientation in personal religious orientation(r=-. 5013, p=.000). In conclusion above datas suggest that hospice care provide effective total nursing care for the patients with terminal cancer, and hospice care is mandatory in all medical institutions.