• Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.628-642
• /
• 2018

Background/Aims A Subset of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may have mild inflammation due to immune activation. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and cytokines may cause intestinal inflammation. We studied their expression in relation to gut microbiota. Methods Expression of TLRs and cytokines was assessed in 47 IBS patients (Rome III) and 25 controls using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Immunohistochemistry was further performed to confirm the expression of TLR-4 and TLR-5. Results Of 47 patients with IBS, 20 had constipation (IBS-C), 20 diarrhea (IBS-D), and 7 unclassified (IBS-U). The mRNA levels of TLR-4 and TLR-5 were up-regulated in IBS patients than controls (P = 0.013 and P < 0.001, respectively). Expression of TLR-4 and TLR-5 at protein level was 4.2-folds and 6.6-folds higher in IBS-D than controls. The mRNA levels of IL-6 (P = 0.003), C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 11 (CXCL-11) (P < 0.001) and C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR-3) (P < 0.001) were higher among IBS patients than controls. Expression of IL-6 (P = 0.002), CXCL-11 (P < 0.001), and CXCR-3 (P < 0.001) were up-regulated and IL-10 (P = 0.012) was down-regulated in IBS-D patients than controls. Positive correlation was seen between TLR-4 and IL-6 (P = 0.043), CXCR-3, and CXCL-11 (P = 0.047), and IL-6 and CXCR-3 (P = 0.003). Stool frequency per week showed positive correlation with mRNA levels of TLR-4 (P = 0.016) and CXCR-3 (P = 0.005), but inversely correlated with IL-10 (P = 0.002). Copy number of Lactobacillus (P = 0.045) and Bifidobacterium (P = 0.011) showed correlation with IL-10 in IBS-C, while Gram-positive (P = 0.031) and Gram-negative bacteria (P = 0.010) showed correlation with CXCL-11 in IBS-D patients. Conclusions Altered immune activation in response to dysbiotic microbiota may promote intestinal inflammation in a subset of patients with IBS.

• 재활복지
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.187-207
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of defining concrete and abstract nouns for the elderly. A total of 382 elderly participated in this study and they were classified into four age groups (i.e., over 55 to under 64, over 65 to under 74, over 75 to under 84, and over 85 year-old group). They performed the word definition task, composed of five concrete and five abstract nouns. The total scores and numbers and ratio of core/supplementary meanings were compared among four elderly groups. The frequency and ratio of error types were also examined. The results showed that all four groups had statistically significant differences in total scores, numbers and ratio of core and supplementary meaning of concrete noun definition task. In addition, abstract noun definition performances revealed group differences except the two groups (over 75 to under 84 and over 85-year-old group). The oldest group showed a sharp increase in error production. The highest ratio of error types were personal experience in over 55 to under 64-year-old group, and over 65 to under 74 year-old groups; and for the target word repetition in over 75 to under 84 year-old group; and no response in over 85 year-old group. In conclusion, both concrete and abstract word defining abilities had age-related deterioration. This decline results from impairment in spreading semantic knowledge within semantic network, which is vulnerable to aging. Characteristics of word definition for elderly can provide basic information to understand various neurolinguistic disorders associated with age.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.45-54
• /
• 2019

Empathy has been observed to be pivotal in enhancing both social relations and the efficiency of task performance. Empathetic interaction has been shown to begin with individuals mirroring each other's facial expressions, vocal tone, actions, and so on. The internal responses of the cardiovascular activity of people engaged in empathetic interaction are also known to be synchronized. This study attempted to objectively and quantitatively define the rules of empathy with regard to the synchronization of cardiac rhythm between persons. Seventy-four subjects participated in the investigation and were paired to imitate the facial expressions of their partner. An electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement was taken as the participants conducted the task. Quantitative indicators were extracted from the heart rhythm pattern (HRP) and the heart rhythm coherence (HRC) to determine the difference of synchronization of heart rhythms between two individuals as they pertained to empathy. Statistical significance was confirmed by an independent sample t-test. The HRP and HRC correlation(r) between persons increased significantly with empathy in comparison to an interaction that was not empathetic. A difference of the standard deviation of NN intervals (SDNN) and the dominant peak frequency decreased. Therefore, significant parameters to evaluate empathy have been proposed through a step-wise discrimination analysis. Empathic interactions may thus be managed and monitored for high quality social interaction and communication.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.336-348
• /
• 2021

The goal of this study is to investigate the current status of implementation of convergence education in elementary, middle, and high schools. A survey was conducted on 871 in-service teachers nationwide, and frequency analysis was conducted by school level. Key findings are as follows: first, 449 (51.5%) are found to practice convergence education. Second, the reason for implementing convergence education is the voluntary effort of teachers and the educational necessity for the future society. Third, it was found that convergence education is being implemented centered on science, arts, and social studies as a link between subjects in regular curriculum hours. Fourth, 270 (64%) of teachers who implemented convergence education in response to COVID-19 performed online convergence education, and experienced difficulties in creating class materials and communicating with students. Fifth, the excessive work of teachers, insufficient support for teacher training and research group activities, and lack of various convergence education programs are suggested as reasons for not implementing convergence education. This study hopes to provide implications for policy and implementation for revitalizing convergence education.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.38 no.11
• /
• pp.69-86
• /
• 2022

The railway is widely used to transport passengers and freight due to its punctuality and large transport capacity. The recent remarkable development in construction technology enables various subsea railway tunnels for continent-continent or continent-island connectivity. In Korea, design and construction experience is primarily based on the successful completion of the Boryeong subsea tunnel (2021) and the Gadeok subsea tunnel (2010). However, frequent earthquakes with diverse magnitudes, globally induced and continuously increased the awareness of seismic risks and the frequency of domestic earthquakes. The effect of an earthquake on the subsea tunnel is very complicated. However, ground conditions and seismic waves are considered the main factors. This study simulated four ground types of 3-dimensional numerical models, such as soil, rock, composite, and fractured zone, to analyze the effect of ground type and seismic wave. A virtual subsea railway shield tunnel considering external water pressure was modeled. Further, three different seismic waves with long-term, short-term, and both periods were studied. The dynamic analyses by finite difference method were performed to investigate the displacement and stress characteristics. Consequently, the long-term period wave exhibited a predominant lateral displacement response in soil and the short-term period wave in rock. The artificial wave, which had both periodic characteristics, demonstrated predominant in the fractured zone. The effect of an earthquake is more noticeable in the stress of the tunnel segment than in displacement because of confining effect of ground and structural elements in the shield tunnel. 

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.397-404
• /
• 2022

This study aims to examine the effects of college students' teaching-friendly learning activities on college life adaptation, and to examine whether these effects differ according to learner characteristics. To this end, 214 people who participated in the learning program of universities located in G area in the first semester of 2022 were targeted. In order to find out the effect of teaching-friendly learning activities on college students' adaptability to college life, frequency analysis, response sample t-verification, and one-way analysis of variance (one-way Anova) were conducted using SPSS 20.0. The results are as follows. First, it was found that teaching-friendly learning activities significantly increased the scores of academic adaptation, emotional adaptation, and social adaptation in college life adaptation. Second, there was no difference in adaptation to college life according to college. Third, The score of the level of attachment to universities was found to be higher in the female group than in the male group. Fourth, as a result of the analysis according to the grade, it was found that the third-grade group had a high level of attachment to universities. Conclusions and suggestions for these research results were presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.241-261
• /
• 2022

The present study aims to investigate the effects of information poverty on North Korean refugees' social adaptation to South Korea based on Chatman's Theory of Information Poverty (1996). Based on the Theory of Information Poverty, information poverty consists of four variables: Secrecy, Deception, Risk-taking, and information acceptance in response to situational relevance. And based on the previous studies, adaptation to South Korean life is divided into social adaptation and psychological adaptation. From August 4 to August 30, 2021, after approval by the IRB through the North Korean refugee support organization , surveys were conducted with North Korean refugees who had lived in South Korea for at least one year and were aged 19 or older. The 100 collected valid data were analyzed using frequency analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis. Findings of the study indicated that information poverty had significant effects on North Korean refugees' social and psychological adaptation. In particular, the "deception" variable had negative effects on social and psychological adaptation. The study has theoretical implications that it explains North Korean refugees' adaptation to South Korea based on Theory of Information Poverty by defining them as information poor. Above all, it attempts a quantitative approach through operationalization of key concepts unlike previous studies that were conducted with qualitative approaches.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.393-402
• /
• 2023

Drought, which has been increasing in frequency and magnitude due to recent abnormal weather events, poses severe challenges in various sectors. To address this issue, it is important to develop technologies for drought monitoring, forecasting, and response in order to implement effective measures and safeguard the ecological health of aquatic systems during water scarcity caused by drought. This study aimed to predict water quality fluctuations during drought periods by integrating the watershed model HSPF and the water quality model QUAL-MEV. The researchers examined the SPI and RCP 4.5 scenarios, and analyzed water quality changes based on flow rates by simulating them using the HSPF and QUAL-MEV models. The study found a strong correlation between water flow and water quality during the low flow. However, the relationship between precipitation and water quality was deemed insignificant. Moreover, the flow rate and SPI6 exhibited different trends. It was observed that the relationship with the mid- to long-term drought index was not significant when predicting changes in water quality influenced by drought. Therefore, to accurately assess the impact of drought on water quality, it is necessary to employ a short-term drought index and develop an evaluation method that considers fluctuations in flow.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.267-283
• /
• 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in December 2019 and continues to this day, has left the public needing information to help them cope with the pandemic. However, COVID-19-related fake news on social media seriously threatens the public's health. In particular, if fake news related to COVID-19 is massively spread with similar content, the time required for verification to determine whether it is genuine or fake will be prolonged, posing a severe threat to our society. In response, academics have been actively researching intelligent models that can quickly detect COVID-19-related fake news. Still, the data used in most of the existing studies are in English, and studies on Korean fake news detection are scarce. In this study, we collect data on COVID-19-related fake news written in Korean that is spread on social media and propose an intelligent fake news detection model using it. The proposed model utilizes the frequency information of parts of speech, one of the linguistic characteristics, to improve the prediction performance of the fake news detection model based on Doc2Vec, a document embedding technique mainly used in prior studies. The empirical analysis shows that the proposed model can more accurately identify Korean COVID-19-related fake news by increasing the recall and F1 score compared to the comparison model.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.67-75
• /
• 2023

The object of this study was to analyze factors influencing adult dementia knowledge, fear of dementia, and intention of dementia prevention behavior on the demand for dementia prevention education. The subjects of the study were 265 adults aged 19 to 64 living in Chungnam and Chungbuk, who understood the purpose of the study and agreed to participate in the study. The collected research data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. As a result of the study, adult dementia knowledge (p=.055) and dementia fear (p=.302) were found that they did not significantly affect the demand for dementia prevention education, and the intention of dementia prevention behavior (β=.329, p<.001) was found to have a significant effect on the demand for dementia prevention education. Based on these research results, understanding of dementia and dementia management projects, early screening for dementia and health guidelines for dementia prevention, chronic disease management for dementia prevention, exercise for dementia prevention, healthy eating for dementia prevention, and cognitive enhancement for dementia prevention In addition to the national dementia prevention publicity and national response efforts such as programs, it is necessary to actively participate in the dementia prevention program centered on the community to practice the correct dementia prevention behavior and provide sufficient opportunities to prevent it.