• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.17 no.8 s.88
• /
• pp.1166-1171
• /
• 2007

Exercise is the strongest stress to which the body is ever exposed. The body responds to this stress through a set of physiological changes in its metabolic, hormonal, and immunological systems. In this study, responses of the immune system to the long-term aerobic and anaerobic exercises have been investigated. Regular moderate exercise is associated with a reduced incidence of infection compared with a sedentary groups. Aerobic training increases the heart rate and enhances the body's intake of oxygen long enough to benefit the condition of the body. In recent years, the importance of exercise in everyday life has been rapidly increasing. Moderate exercise appears to stimulate the immune system. And also, Exercise elicits an increase in the numbers of circulating lymphocytes and lymphocyte subsets (including NK cells) which is followed by a decrease in the numbers of cells during recovery from exercise. However, prolonged bouts of strenuous exercise cause a temporary depression of various aspects of immune functions (e.g. lymphocyte proliferation, monocyte antigen presentation, open window periods, exercise induced asthma, exercise induced anaphylaxis) that usually lasts 2-24 hr after exercise depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise bout. Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) was defined as a decrease of at least 15% in pre exercise forced expiratory volume in one second at any time point after exercise. This includes elevation of cortisol and cathecholamines in plasma. On the other hand, highly trained athletes exhibit a chronic mild hypercortisolism at baseline that maybe an adaptive change to chronic exercise. And, Consuming carbohydrate during prolonged strenuous exercise attenuates rises in stress hormones and appears to limit the degree of exercise-induced immune depression. Recent evidence suggests that antioxidant vitamin supplementation may also reduce exercise stress and impairment of leukocyte functions.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.129-142
• /
• 2015

PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to suggest a basis for setting appropriate safety goals specifically related to the threshold zone luminance in a vehicular traffic tunnel. METHODS : In the test, drivers were divided into two groups. One group consisted of all drivers (average drivers) group with an age ratio of drivers holding domestic driver's license and driver group by age to produce threshold zone luminance in the tunnel. The threshold zone luminance produced as a result was used to analyze how it affects the safety level of each driver group and provide a basis for setting an appropriate safety criterion that can be used to determine threshold zone luminance. We used test equipment, test conditions, and ananalysis of threshold zone luminance identical to that reported by ChoandJung(2014) but the values of adaptation luminance in our analys is were expanded to range from100 to $10,000cd/m^2$. RESULTS : Adaptation luminance and threshold zone luminance are found to be related by a quadratic function. The threshold zone luminance needed by older drivers to ensure a certain safety level is significantly higher than that for drivers of other age brackets when adaptation luminance increases. 56% of older drivers are at an increased risk of an accident at the same luminance for which the safety level of average drivers is 75%. The safety level that can be achieved for older drivers increases to above 60% when threshold zone luminance level is set with the goal of attaining a safety level of more than 85% for average drivers. The safety level that can be attained for average drivers is above 90% when the threshold zone luminance is high enough to ensure over 75% in the safety level of older drivers. Results of this study are applicable to highways and others whose designed speed is 100 km/h. CONCLUSIONS : Threshold zone luminance determined on the basis of drivers having average visual ability is of limited value as a performance standard for ensuring the safety of older drivers. Hence, safety level for older drivers should be considered separately from safety levels for drivers with an average ability to avoid risk. Upward adjustment of older drivers' safety level in the process of determining appropriate threshold zone luminance in a vehicular traffic tunnel may bring both tangible and intangible benefit as a result of reducing accidents. However, there is an associated dollar cost arising from installing and operating lights. As a result, the economic impact of these trade-offs should also be considered.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.3067-3074
• /
• 2013

Background: Faced with highly prevalent and recalcitrant cancer-related fatigue (CRF), together with the absence of any official guidelines on management, numerous groups have been striving to seek and test alternative therapies including acupuncture and moxibustion. However, different patients have various feedbacks, and the many clinical trials have given rise to varied conclusions. In terms of the therapeutic effect of acupuncture and moxibustion, there exist vast inconsistencies. Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the auxiliary effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of CRF, and to provide more reliable evidence to guide clinical practice. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published before December 2012 were all aggregated, focusing on evaluation of acupuncture or moxibustion for CRF. The quality of the included studies was assessed basing on Cochrane handbook 5.1.0, and the available data were analyzed with RevMan software (version 5.2.0). Descriptive techniques were performed when no available data could be used. Results: A total of 7 studies involving 804 participants were eligible. With real acupuncture versus sham acupuncture, subjects receiving true acupuncture benefited more in the reduction of fatigue. With real acupuncture versus acupressure or sham acupressure, fatigue level appeared 36% improved in the acupuncture group, but 19% in the acupressure group and only 0.6% with sham acupressure. When real acupuncture plus enhanced routine care was compared with enhanced routine care, the combination group improved mean scores for general fatigue, together with physical and mental fatigue. With real acupuncture versus sham acupuncture or wait list controls, the real acupuncture group displayed significant advantages over the wait list controls at 2 weeks for fatigue improvement and better well-being effects at 6 weeks. When moxibustion plus routine care was compared with routine care alone, the meta-analyses demonstrated the combination had a relatively significant benefit in improving severe fatigue and QLQ-C30. Conclusion: Up to the search date, there exist few high quality RCTs to evaluate the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion, especially moxibustion in English. Yet acupuncture and moxibustion still appeared to be efficacious auxiliary therapeutic methods for CRF, in spite of several inherent defects of the included studies. Much more high-quality studies are urgently needed.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.93-112
• /
• 2017

Objectives : To evaluate and summarize the efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment (AT) in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Methods : Fifteen databases (Pubmed, Cochrane, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL, CNKI, Wanfang, and eight Korean databases) were searched up to September 2016. Only trials in which acupuncture was the sole treatment were included. Fatigue was used as the primary outcome measure, while the quality of life, pain, mood disorders, and adverse events were used as secondary outcome measures. We adopted three classifications: AT vs Sham AT, AT vs Wait-list, AT vs Western medication. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the methodological quality. Results : A total of 11 randomized controlled trials involving 869 participants were identified. In comparison with Sham AT, AT significantly alleviated fatigue and pain, but no conclusions about the quality of life and mood disorders could be drawn. In the Wait-list group and Western medication groups, patients with CFS might feel less fatigued following acupuncture treatment, but the evidence was insufficient due to lack of study. Nine of 11 RCTs (81.8%) reported adverse events and there were two cases of mild subcutaneous hemorrhage, but no serious adverse cases. Conclusion : This review found evidence that patients with CFS may generally benefit from alleviation of symptoms by acupuncture treatment, and there is no evidence of worsening symptoms or causing of serious adverse events. A positive effect on fatigue and pain was observed, but no conclusion for improving quality of life and mood disorders.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.119-129
• /
• 2000

The skin is an organ that has many important roles, including protection against infection, regulation of temperature and fluid loss, and sensory function. Injury to the skin, wound repair normally involves: (1) balanced activity of inflammation, (2) the re-epithelial phase and (3) the matrix formation of remodeling phase. Thus, skin wound healing is a finely controlled biological process involving a series of complex cellular interactions. Laser therapy is being implemented with increasing frequency in medicine. Low intensity laser is one that is capable of producing an energy density so low that any biologic alterations are the result of direct irradiation effect, not thermal events. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of low intensity laser therapy on skin wound healing in rabbits. A total of 10 male rabbits (New Zealand White Rabbit), age 8 weeks were used. Skin wound were surgically created dorso-lateral on the flank of 10 rabbits (2$\times$2 cm/damage areas). The experimental animals were treated with 5Hz (830 nm wave length) low-intensity laser (MILTA-01 Model) daily for 10 min (1.6 J/$cm^2$) for 12 days. Control animals were sham treated with the laser head. Laser irradiation animals showed a complete remodeling of the epithelial layer, a positive repair of connective tissues, and enhanced the wound closure rate over time as compared to the control animals. Especially, laser irradiation groups improved fibroblast activity, cellular content, granulation tissue formation, and collagen deposition which is resulted in improving the tensile strength of the wound. These findings suggest that laser photostimulation could accelerate healing of open wound in rabbits, and may be benefit in the treatment of open wound, including decubitis ulcers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 2016

Purpose - Recently, the management conditions of small independent retailers are getting worse everyday as large-scale marts and franchised convenience stores are increasing. The objective of this research is to find out the antecedents and consequences of cooperation in voluntary chain in order to enhance small independent retailer's competitiveness. Voluntary chains, also called affiliation or symbol groups, or allied group represent a high market shared in some European countries like Italy, France, and Germany. Nevertheless, there are still limitations in this research from academic fields. Drawing from network theory, the author investigates the relationship between antecedent factors in voluntary chain cooperation, such as participation benefits, justice of compensation, and autonomy in voluntary chain, and relationship specific asset. The author also attempts to examine the relationship between the relationship specific asset and cooperation of voluntary chain member shop and cooperation and consequence factors of voluntary chain cooperation, such as efficiency, group cohesiveness, and long-term relationship. Research design, data, and methodology - The author presented conceptual framework integrating the major antecedents and consequences of voluntary chain cooperation. The data were collected from 174 independent small retailers who joined K-voluntary chain. K-voluntary chain consists of small independent retailers. In accordance with their status, each entrepreneur associated with the voluntary group can own one or more outlets and can be a part of the life and the decision-making process of the group. This participation is not based on company turnover or on the number of outlets, but based on a one member, one vote system. To verify the research model and test hypotheses, the author carefully investigated the reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the proposed model. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 18.0 and AMOS structural equation modeling program. Results - The results of this study are as follows. First, as antecedent variables, participation benefits and justice of compensation have positive effect on the relationship specific assets of voluntary chain members. Second, voluntary chain members' relationship specific asset also directly related to the level of its cooperation to chain headquarter. Third, cooperation of voluntary chain member shop facilitates efficiency, group cohesiveness, and long-term relationship. Unexpectedly, there are no effect autonomy in voluntary chain to relationship specific asset. Conclusions - This research shows several theoretical and practical implications to both marketing scholars and marketers. In terms of theoretical implications, this study applies to network theory and network theory variables to explain the antecedent and consequence factors of cooperation in voluntary chain. From the point of view from business management, most of all, this study shows the way how to reinforce competitiveness of voluntary chain. Specifically, it is necessary for voluntary chain headquarter to give higher level of participation benefit and justice of compensation to its members. Second, the results also indicate what the consequence factors of cooperation in voluntary chain. In other words, to increase the level of marketing efficiency, group cohesiveness, long-term orientation in retail voluntary chain, and chain headquarter need to facilitate participants' cooperation.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.305-324
• /
• 2000

This study compared the short-term(4 months) clinical results of regenerative therapy with bioabsorbable membranes($BioMesh^{(R)}$) and bone allograft for the treatment of periodontal(intrabony and furcation) defects in smokers and nonsmokers.(16 smokers) 32 subjects with 92 defects participated in the study(46 in smokers and 46 in non-smokers). This study also evaluated a bioresorbable barrier with and without decalcified freeze-dried bone allograft(DFDBA). The 92 periodontal defects were randomly treated with either the resorbable barrier alone or resorbable barrier in combination with DFDBA following thorough defect debridement and root preparation with tetracycline. Each patient received both types of treatment modalities. Clinical examinations(probing depth, gingival recession, clinical attachment level, plaque index and gingival index) were carried out immediately before and 4 months after surgery. Significant(p<0.001) gains in mean attachment level were observed for both smokers(2.93mm) and non-smokers(3.30mm) but there were not significant difference between two groups. Similarly, significant reductions in mean probing depthshowed for smokers(4.52mm) and non-smokers(4.26mm). However, when comparing gingival recession, smokers were found to exhibit significantly poorer treatment results(1.59mm vs 0.96mm, p<0.05). Using the split-mouth-design, no statistically significant difference between the two modalities could be detected with regard to pocket depth reduction, gingival recession, or attachment gain. These results illustrate that the attachment gain is better in the non-smoker and the best in the non-smoker with the combination therapy of resorbable barrier and DFDBA than with resorbable barrier alone but smoking had no significant effect on clinical treatment outcome, even though smokers show more significant gingival recession. In addition, both treatments, either resorbable barrier plus DFDBA or resorbable barrier alone, promoted significant resolution of periodontal defects but the addition of DFDBA with a bioabsorbable membrane appears to add no extra benefit to the only membrane treatment.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.147-156
• /
• 2018

PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of the weight values of evaluation items by traffic safety project type. METHODS : In general, a large-scale investment in projects such as the traffic safety project requires economic analyses to be performed in advance. However, there is an argument for considering special characteristics of the traffic safety project. Therefore, this study conducted characteristic analysis of the weight values of evaluation items. The analysis consisted of two steps. The first step was hypothesis verification using analysis of variance (ANOVA). In this process, the authors examined whether the weight of evaluation items is the same regardless of the traffic safety project type. Based on the first step's results, the authors proceeded to the second step. The objective of this step was to analyze how different the weight values are by traffic safety project type using an analytic hierarchy process. RESULTS : According to the ANOVA test results, the benefit to cost ratios have different weight values based on traffic safety project type at the 0.01 significance level. The policy evaluation items, such as the plans connection, resident opinion, and regional equity, also showed the same results except that the result for the related plans connection was statistically significant at the 0.05 level. Based on the first step's result, the AHP analysis in the second step showed that the traffic safety projects for vulnerable users and pedestrians have very low weight values in economic evaluation factors compared with other safety project types. The weight values for vulnerable users and pedestrians were 0.29 and 0.26, respectively, in economic evaluation items. On the other hand, the weight values for other safety project types were around 0.6. Among the policy evaluation items, resident opinion showed a higher weight value than other factors, such as connection and regional equity items. CONCLUSIONS : The social and economic impact of a traffic safety project varies by project type and project characteristics. Although the economic approach is overarching and a reasonable methodology is applied for large-scale projects, it should be noted that the safety issue, especially for transportation of vulnerable uses, requires a non-economical approach. Based on the analysis results, this study suggests that the priority of the projects should be determined by separating them into independent assessment groups depending on their characteristics.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.483-489
• /
• 2002

APA-01, which is an aqueous extract of five Chinese herbs, is a modified formula of Huoxiang-Zhengqi-San. The effect of new herb extract on immune response was investigated. The parameter examined to assess apparent immune response of APA-01 in mice included changes of body weight, relative weight of immune organs, cell proliferation and cytokine gene expression. The body weight and relative weight of immune organs were not significantly changed among the tested groups. In the spleen cell prolijeration assay, APA-01 increased the cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. Methotrexate (MTX), an agent of immune suppression, inhibited the spleen cell proliferation (IC/sub 50/: 800㎍/㎖). However, APA-01 significantly inhibited the suppression of mouse spleen cell proliferation. Therefore, it seems that APA-01 has a reducing effect of immune suppression. Immunomodulatory effect of APA-01 was further investigated using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in mouse spleen cells. In RT-PCR test, APA-01 enhanced the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA in a dose-dependent manner. In spite of immune suppression by MTX, COX-2 mRNA was induced by co-treatment with APA-01. These results suggest that APA-01 stimulates the proliferation of spleen cells, regulates the expression of COX-2 mRNA, and accelerates the recovery of inhibition of spleen cell proliferation induced by MTX, thus providing the immunological basis for clinical benefit of APA-01.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.223-229
• /
• 2007

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has been recently reported to have an anti-obesity effect in animals and humans. The objective of this study was to investigate effects of diglyceride (DG)-CLA on proliferation and differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Cell proliferation was determined using WST-8 analysis and cell differentiation was determined by glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) activity. Lipid accumulation in differentiating 3T3-L1 cells was determined by Oil red O staining. There were four experimental groups including vehicle control (DMSO), CLA, triglyceride (TG)-CLA, and DG-CLA. Treatments of CLA, TG-CLA, and DG-CLA at the concentrations of $10{\sim}1000{\mu}g/ml$ reduced proliferation of preconfluent 3T3-L1 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Among them CLA was the most effective in the proliferation inhibition of preconfluent 3T3-L1 cells with increasing concentrations. Treatments of CLA and DG-CLA at the concentration of $100{\mu}g/ml$ significantly inhibited differentiation of postconfluent 3T3-L1 cells as measured by GPOH activity (p<0.05). In addition, treatments of CLA, TG-CLA, and DG-CLA effectively inhibited lipid accumulation during differentiation of 3T3-L 1 cells. OG-CLA had the most inhibitory effect on the differentiation and lipid accumulation. These results suggest that the compounds including CLA have a respectable anti-obesity effect and that consumption of DG-CLA as a dietary oil may give a benefit for controlling overweight in humans.