• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2024

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of four weeks of gaze stabilization exercises and balance training on the static and dynamic balance functions. METHODS: The study was an assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial conducted at Daegu University in South Korea. Thirty subjects who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected and divided randomly into three groups containing ten each. The first group received balance exercises with gaze stabilizing exercises (BGG). The second group received a balance exercise (BEG), and the third group received gaze-stabilizing exercise (GEG). Each group exercised for 40 minutes, three times a week for four weeks. The subjects were asked to complete the following static balance test: 1) one-leg standing test, 2) sharpened Romberg test, dynamic balance test, 3) Y-balance test, and 4) single-leg stand-squat-stand test. The static and dynamic balance were measured before and after four weeks to determine the effect of exercise on balance. RESULTS: The static (OLS and SRT) and dynamic (YBT and SST) balance tests showed significant differences in the surface and length of the three groups (p < .05), and the y-balance score effect size, 11.477 (p < .05), was improved significantly. On the other hand, the change in BGG value was larger than those of BEG and GEG, and the improvements in balance control were the most significant. CONCLUSION: After four weeks of exercise, BGG showed the best improvement in static and dynamic balance, suggesting that this specific type of gaze stabilization exercise with balance exercise may benefit healthy young adults.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.249-260
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• 2024

New supplements with preventive effects against skin photodamage are receiving increasing attention. This study evaluated the anti-photoaging effects of salmon nasal cartilage proteoglycan (SPG), acting as a functional material for skin health. We administered SPG to in vitro and in vivo models exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation and assessed its moisturizing and anti-wrinkle effects on dorsal mouse skin and keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts cell lines. These results showed that SPG restored the levels of filaggrin, involucrin, and AQP3 in the epidermis of UVB-irradiated dorsal skin and keratinocytes, thereby enhancing the keratinization process and water flow. Additionally, SPG treatment increased the levels of hyaluronan and skin ceramide, the major components of intercellular lipids in the epidermis. Furthermore, SPG treatment significantly increased the levels of collagen and procollagen type 1 by down-regulating matrix metalloproteinase 1, which play a crucial role in skin fibroblasts, in both in vitro and in vivo models. In addition, SPG strongly inhibited mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPKs) signaling, the including extracellular signal-regulated kinase, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and p38. These findings suggest that dietary SPG may be an attractive functional food for preventing UVB-induced photoaging. And this SPG product may provide its best benefit when treating several signs of skin photoaging.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.48-52
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• 2024

While simultaneous bilateral partial nephrectomy with a conventional multiport robot has been consistently reported since the 2010s, the introduction of the DaVinci SP system (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) could provide a novel way to perform surgery on bilateral kidneys while innovatively reducing the number of incisions. In our first report worldwide, the patient with bilateral small renal mass (2.0 cm for the left and 1.5 cm for the right side) and preoperative normal renal function was placed in the lateral decubitus position on an inverted bed. After tilting the bed to be as horizontal as possible, a 4-cm incision was made in the lower part of the umbilicus for the floating trocar technique. The partial nephrectomy was performed reliably as with the conventional transperitoneal approach, and then the patient could be repositioned to the contralateral side for the same procedure, maintaining all trocars. Total operation time (skin to skin), total console time, and the left- and right-side warm ischemic times were 260, 164, 27, and 23 minutes, respectively, without applying the early declamping technique. The estimated blood loss was 200 mL. The serum creatinine right after the operation, on the first day, 3 days, and 90 days after surgery were 0.92, 0.77, 0.79, and 0.81 mg/dL, respectively. For 90 days after the procedure, no complications or radiologic recurrence were observed. Further clinical studies will reveal the advantages of using the DaVinci SP device for this procedure over traditional multiport surgery, maximizing the benefit of a single port-based approach.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.719-746
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• 2014

This study attempts to estimate the value of the water quality improvement by deriving the equilibrium price of the water pollutant emission permit for the imaginary water pollutant emission trading market. It is reasonable to say that there is already an implicit social agreement for the unit value of water pollutant, when the government set the Total Water Pollutant Loading System for the major river basin as a part of the Comprehensive Measures for Water Management, particularly for the Nakdong River Basin. Therefore, we can derive the unit value of water pollutant emission, which is already implied in the pollution allowance for each city or county by the Total Water Pollutant Loading System. Once estimated, it will be useful to the economic assessment of the water quality related projects. An imaginary water pollutant emission trading system for the Nakdong River Basin, where Total Water Pollutant Loading System is already effective, is constructed for the estimation of the equilibrium price of water pollutant permit. By estimating marginal abatement cost curve or each city or county, we can compute the equilibrium price of the permit and then it is regarded as the economic value of the water pollutant. The marginal net benefit function results from the relationship between the emission and the benefit, and then the equilibrium price of permit comes from constructing the excess demand function of the permit by using the total allowable permit of the local government entity. The equilibrium price of the permit would be estimated to be $1,409.3won/kg{\cdot}BOD$. This is within reasonable boundary compared for the permit price compared to foreign example. This permit price would be applied to calculate for the economic value of the water quality pollutants, and also be expected to use directly for the B/C analysis of the business involved with water quality change.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.85-94
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• 1998

Due to relatively high permittivity of water in soils, we placed the soil condenser into soils to measure the soil moisture content. The soil condenser was made with two insulated iron sticks. The capacitance of the soil condenser was determined by the pulse period from RC type oscillation circuit and the highest voltage output accepting 10MHz pulse. After zero point adjustment, the measured relative capacitance percentage (RCS) to the standard condenser obtained by the oscillation circuit almost linearly correlated with the end depth of the sensor submerged in water. The RC type oscillation was disturbed by many sensor installed in a close distance in one place, presumably resulting in that the sensor sticks played as a interfering antennas generating or accepting electron waves from them. The temperature dependance of the output from the sensors could be corrected through experimentally determined revision function. Although lineal correlation was found between soil moisture and RCS, users should derive their own correlation function for every sensor to measure soil moisture, because the outputs were influenced by the installation depth and layout in the soil. The voltage type sensor responded inversely with soil moisture content and so was not suitable to the accurate measurement of soil moisture, but allows high economic benefit in various application such as simplified measurement of soil moisture and irrigation line control because of its low component count. The voltage type moisture sensor could be reinforced by relay controlling circuit to open and to close the solenoid valves respectively at optimal limits of the least and the most soil moisture according to user's adjustment.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.41 no.spc1
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• pp.25-45
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• 1996

Soyfoods have potential roles in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, most notably cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease. There is evidence that carcinogenesis are supressed by isolated soybean derived products in vivo such as a protease inhibitor, phytic acid, saponins and isoflavones. It is believed that supplementation of human diets with soybean products markedly reduces human cancer mortality rates. Especially, recent papers recognize the potential benefit of soybean isoflavone components for reducing the risk of various cancers. Isoflavones exhibit a multitude of medicinal effects that influence cell growth and regulation, which may have potential value in the prevention and treatment of cancer. In addition to potential biological effects, soybean isoflavones have the important physiological functions such as the induction of Bradyrizobium japonicum nod genes and the responses of soybean tissues to infection by Phytophthora megasperma as well as biochemical activities such as antifungal and antibacterial actions. Genistin, daidzin, glycitin and their aglycone (genistein, daidzein, glycitein) are the principal isoflavones found in soybean. Malonyl and acetyl forms have also been detected but they are thermally unstable and are usually transformed during the processing in glucoside form. Most soy products, with the exception of soy sauce, alcohol-extracted soy protein concentrate, and soy protein isolate, have total isoflavone concentrations similar to those in the whole soybean. Soybean-containing diets inhibit mammary tumorigenesis in animal models of breast cancer, therefore, it is possible that dietary isoflavones are an important factor accounting for the lower incidence and mortality from breast cancer. Of the total soybean seed isoflavones, $80\~90\%$ were located in cotyledons, with the remainder in the hypocotyls. The hypocotyls had a higher concentrations of isoflavones on a weight basis compared with cotyledons. Isoflavone contents were influenced by genetics, crop years, and growth locations. The effect of crop year had a greater impact on the isoflavone contents than that of location. The climate condition might be the attribution factor to variation in isoflavone contents. Also, while the isoflavone content of cotyledons exhibited large variations in response to high temperature during seed development, hypocotyls showed high concentration in isoflavone content. So, it is concluded that one of the factors affecting isoflavone content in soybean seeds is temperature during seed development. High temperature, especially in maturity stage, causes lower isoflavone content in soybean seed. It is also suggested that there may exist a different mechanism to maintain isoflavone contents between cotyledon and seed hypocotyls. In a conclusion, soy foods may be able to have a significant beneficial impact on public health.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.28 no.3 s.51
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• pp.640-650
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• 1995

After the introduction of National Medical Insurance in 1989, the medical demand has rapidly increased. The impact of increased medical demand was followed by an increase in the number of claims in need of review. We studied a new, fair method for reducing the number of claims reviewed. We analysed 90,583 outpatient claims submitted between September and October; claims were made for services given August of 1994. We finally suggested a screening system for claims review using a statistical method of discriminant analysis of the medical costs. The results were as follows. 1. In the cut-off group, age, days of medication, number of hospital or clinic visits, and total charge were significantly high. The cut-off rates according to the hospital-type and existence of accompanied disease were significantly different 2. According to ICD, the cut-off rate was highest in peripheral enthesopathies and allied syndromes(20.76%), lowest in acute sinusitis(0.93%). The mean charges were significantly different according to ICD and existence of cut-off. 3. We build discriminant functions by ICD with such discriminant variables as patient age, sex, existence of accompanied disease, number of hospital or clinic visits, and 9 detailed hospital or clinic charges included in claim. 4. We applied the discriminant function for screening those claims that were expected to be cut-off. The sensitivities comprised from 40% to 70%, and specificities from 70% to 95% by ICD. Acute rhinitis had highest sensitivity(100.00%) and other local infections of skin and subcutaneous tissue had highest specificity(98.45%). The expected number of cut-off was 17,762(19.61%). The total sensitivity was 49.62%, the total specificity was 82.57% and the error rate was 19.66%. We lacked economic analysis such as cost-benefit analysis. But, if the new method of screening claims using discriminant analysis were applied, the number of claims in need of review will reduce considerably.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.353-359
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• 2005

Objectives: Dysphagia is a common in stroke patients. Dysphagia often affects the rehabilitation of stroke patients by increasing the risk of nutritional deficits and aspiration pneumonia. Despite the proliferation of physical therapies including swallowing training, much controversy remains regarding the application and benefit of them. Therefore, in this study, the clinical effect of moxibustion at Chonjung(CV17, Shanzhong) on post-stroke dysphagia were assessed using Swallowing Provocation Test(SPT). Methods: Dysphagia subjects were selected by Dysphagia Screening Test. Swallowing function was tested by Swallowing Provocation Test(sec). Direct moxibustion was applied to the acupoint, Chonjung, five times and Swallowing Provocation Test was performed before and after 30 minute. The Latency Time of Swallowing Reflex (LTSR) was checked by SPT. To find factors related with improving swallowing function, Cold-Heat and Excess-Deficiency Diagnosis were considered. Results: A total of 42 patient were included, but two of them were excluded due to severe coughing. Overall, the swallowing reflex improved significantly. In subgroup analysis on brain lesion, non-brain stem lesion patients significantly improved. Moxibustion was more effective in the cold group than in the heat group, but there were no differences between the Excess and the Deficiency groups. Conclusions: The result of this clinical study suggest that moxibustion at Chonjung(CV17, Shanzhong) is an effective treatment for the dysphagia patients after stroke, especially in non-brain stem lesion and the cold diagnosed patients.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.595-628
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• 2011

This study investigates the issues and suggests reform measures in applying CV methods to the Korea Development Institute's (KDI's) Preliminary Feasibility Test (PFT) of public projects. Most public projects on culture, science and environment evaluated under the PFT system belong to the category of "nonstandard" projects whose outputs are non-marketed, and CV is currently the main tool used for their benefit estimation. A careful discussion and investigation is recommended for the selection of target population, payment vehicle, and number of payment times. Operating expert reviews, focus group interviews, and pre-tests is highly recommended to reduce the potential bias involved in the CV studies. A single or double bounded dichotomous choice format is the most popular design of questionnaire, but we identify several undissolved issues in designing and implementing the format. Some other forms of inducing WTPs may still deserve our consideration. Various specifications of the WTP function need to be tried and tested based on their stability, in particular. Employing a nonparametric approach is also recommended. Treatments of 0 or negative WTPs and protest bids are shown to be the most serious issues that affect the estimation results significantly. We review diverse measures of handling those issues and summarize their advantages and shortcomings.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.27-36
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• 2019

Purpose - Naver has emerged as a new leader in the open market. While existing open markets such as Gmarket, 11th Street, and so on are suffering from profitability deterioration, Naver is attracting sellers based on low commission and powerful search engine. We would like to analyze the impact of Naver shopping on the national economy, especially on employment, in a situation where the market reaction to Naver's strength as a leader in online shopping is mixed. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - Through the demand inducing inter-industry analysis, we estimate the employment inducement effect by Naver shopping from its shopping transaction. In turn, through the supply inducing inter-industry analysis, we estimate the employment inducement effect by Naver shopping from its low commission and powerful search engine. For the purpose of inter-industry analysis, as of 2018, the most recently announced 2014 inter-industry table (extension table) from the Bank of Korea is used. Results - The results of this study are as follows. First, Naver Shopping is expected to generate 7.8 trillion won's trade in 2018, resulting in 244,225 of job inducement, and 158,598 of employment inducement. In addition, Naver Shopping is estimated to benefit KRW 213 billion to its sellers due to low commission and powerful search function, resulting in 8,667 of job inducement, and 5,655 of employment inducement. Second, in terms of job inducement and employment inducement due to Naver Shopping's trade, transportation, business support service, information and communication, broadcasting, restaurants and lodging were ranked. Third, in terms of job inducement and employment inducement due to Naver Shopping's low commission and powerful search function, restaurants and hospitality, f/b and cigarette manufacturing, construction, and transportation equipment manufacturing were ranked. Conclusions - The number of job inducement resulting from low commission and powerful search engine of Naver shopping in 2018 was 8,667 (3.7% of 244,225, which was caused by transaction in Naver shopping in 2018), and employment inducement was 5,655 (3.7% of 158,598, which was caused by transaction in Naver shopping in 2018), which can be considered as additional employment impacts of Naver Shopping compared to the other online shopping operators.