• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.29-44
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• 2023

Objectives : This study was planned to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness and possible underlying mechanism of TPE (Tetrapanax papyrifer stem(inner part of the stem Extract) and AQE (Akebiae quinata stem Extract) on osteoarthritis. Methods : Osteoarthritis models were induced through intra-articular injection of MIA (monosodium iodoacetate) 50 μL with 80 mg/ml in rats. Excluding the normal group, Osteoarthritis-induced rats were divided into 4 groups (Control, INDO, TPE, AQE). The drug concentrations were indomethacin 5 mg/kg, TPE 200 mg/kg, and AQE 200 mg/kg, and were orally administered once a day for a couple of weeks. After drug supplementation, the effects of TPE and AQE were measured with serum diagnosis, western blotting, and histopathological staining. Results : It was found that the DPPH and ABTS free radical erasure ability of AQE was better than that of TPE. AQE administration improved rear limb overload and it led to relieving pain. Both PTE and AQE significantly reduced the expression of inflammatory mediators COX-2, iNOS, and inflammatory cytokine IL-1β and IL-6 by inhibiting the phosphorylation of IκBα and deactivating the pathway of NF-κBp65. On the other hand, TNF-α was significantly reduced only by administration of AQE. In addition, histopathological analysis showed that the administration of AQE compared to PTE suppressed cartilage degeneration and effectively suppressed damage to proteoglycan, a component of ECM. Conclusion : Reviewing these experimental results, TPE and AQE possessed the effect of delaying the progress of osteoarthritis and protecting cartilage. In addition, the results of this study show that AQE has a better cartilage protection effect than TPE.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.298-306
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• 2023

Objectives: Cucumis sativus L. (C. sativus) is vegetable commonly used for managing blood pressure and often consumed in combination with standard antihypertensive therapy, despite lack of scientific evidence supporting their use. Combination of herbs and standard medication could have positive or negative effects. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the antihypertensive activity of C. sativus and the combined effect with losartan in the hypertensive rat model induced by angiotensin II. Angiotensin II is a component of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system that, upon binding to its receptor, constricts blood vessels leading to elevation of blood pressure. Methods: In an antihypertensive study, rats received C. sativus orally at doses of 9, 18, 27, and 36 mg/kg (full dose); while in a combination study, animals received losartan 2.25 mg/kg combined by either with C. sativus 9 or 18 mg/kg. The standards group received losartan 2.25 mg/kg or 4.5 mg/kg (full dose). Results: Blood pressure was measured using the tail-cuff method. C. sativus significantly attenuated angiotensin II-induced hypertension as observed in groups receiving C. sativus at 9, 18, 27, and 36 mg/kg at 30 minutes after induction showed the average change (Δ) of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) with respect to time zero were 28.8/18.3, 24.8/15.8, 22.8/15.5, and 11.5/9.0 mmHg, respectively. Whereas the average change (Δ) of SBP and DBP in the rats receiving the combination of half doses of C. sativus and losartan were 8.8/9.0 mmHg, respectively. These diminished effects were better than a full dose of C. sativus and comparable with a full dose of losartan (6.5/7.8 mmHg). Conclusion: The present findings indicate that C. sativus dose-dependently blocks blood pressure elevation induced by angiotensin II. The combination of half dose of C. sativus and losartan has an additive effect in lowering blood pressure.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1-10
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• 2023

The nuclear power plant(NPP)'s Instrumentation and Control(I&C) system periodically conducts integrity checks for the maintenance of self-diagnostic function during normal operation. Additionally, it performs functionality and performance checks during planned preventive maintenance periods. However, there is a need for technological development to diagnose failures and prevent accidents in advance. In this paper, we studied methods for estimating the reliability function by utilizing environmental data and self-diagnostic data of the I&C equipment. To obtain failure data, we assumed probability distributions for component features of the I&C equipment and generated virtual failure data. Using this failure data, we estimated the reliability function using representative artificial intelligence(AI) models used in survival analysis(DeepSurve, DeepHit). And we also estimated the reliability function through the Cox regression model of the traditional semi-parametric method. We confirmed the feasibility through the residual lifetime calculations based on environmental and diagnostic data.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1019-1027
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Sustainability has become one of the top priorities in the foodservice industry. With an increase in consumer interest in sustainability and educational opportunities in higher education, it is important to know what sustainable practices are implemented in campus dining and how sustainable practices affect consumers' responses. This study aims to identify the key sustainable practices in the campus dining context, and investigate the relationship by applying the stimulus-organism-response framework to determine whether the key sustainable practices influence consumers' perception and behavioral intentions. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The self-administered online survey was distributed to college students in 8 dining halls at a large southeastern university in the United States from September 20-October 10, 2019. A total of 382 valid questionnaires were collected, and factor analysis and multiple regressions were utilized to test the research model. RESULTS: This study identified 4 dimensions of campus sustainability with a total of sustainable practices: sustainable food, waste management, energy/water conservation, and recycling/reuse. Three dimensions of sustainable campus practices (i.e., sustainable food, waste management, recycling/reuse) played a significant role in consumers forming a perceived value while energy/water conservation did not significantly influence the consumers' perceived value toward the campus dining. Waste management was identified as the most important practice to enhance consumers' perceived value (β = 0.330). Using sustainable food and recycling/reuse were ranked second and third, respectively (β = 0.262, β = 0.154). The findings confirmed the significant positive relationship between perceived value and revisit intentions. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the inclusion of dining sustainability as a critical component in explaining college students' perceived value and revisit intention toward campus dining. Furthermore, this study provides practical implications for university administrators and foodservice operators to consider the key sustainable practices to meet the consumers' value and revisit intentions.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.401-416
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• 2024

Long-span structures, such as bridges, can experience different seismic excitations at the supports due to spatially variability of ground motion. Regarding current bridge designing codes, it is just EC 2008 that suggested some regulations to consider it and in the other codes almost ignored while based on some previous studies it is found that the effect of mentioned issue could not be neglected. The current study aimed to perform a comprehensive study about the effect of spatially varying ground motions on the dynamic response of a reinforced concrete bridge under asynchronous input motions considering soil-structure interactions. The correlated ground motions were generated by an introduced method that contains all spatially varying components, and imposed on the supports of the finite element model under different load scenarios. Then the obtained results from uniform and non-uniform excitations were compared to each other. In addition, the effect of soil-structure interactions involved and the corresponding results compared to the previous results. Also, to better understand the seismic response of the bridge, the responses caused by pseudo-static components decompose from the total response. Finally, an incremental dynamic analysis was performed to survey the non-linear behavior of the bridge under assumed load scenarios. The outcomes revealed that the local site condition plays an important role and strongly amplifies the responses. Furthermore, it was found that a combination of wave-passage and strong incoherency severely affected the responses of the structure. Moreover, it has been found that the pseudo-static component's contribution increase with increasing incoherent parameters. In addition, regarding the soil condition was considered for the studied bridge, it was found that a combination of spatially varying ground motions and soil-structure interactions effects could make a very destructive scenarios like, pounding and unseating.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.526-533
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• 2009

This paper proposes a formant synthesis method of Haegeum sounds using cepstral envelope for spectral modeling. Spectral modeling synthesis (SMS) is a technique that models time-varying spectra as a combination of sinusoids (the "deterministic" part), and a time-varying filtered noise component (the "stochastic" part). SMS is appropriate for synthesizing sounds of string and wind instruments whose harmonics are evenly distributed over whole frequency band. Formants extracted from cepstral envelope are parameterized for synthesis of sinusoids. A resonator by Impulse Invariant Transform (IIT) is applied to synthesize sinusoids and the results are bandpass filtered to adjust magnitude. The noise is calculated by first generating the sinusoids with formant synthesis, subtracting them from the original sound, and then removing some harmonics remained. Linear interpolation is used to model noise. The synthesized sounds are made by summing sinusoids, which are shown to be similar to the original Haegeum sounds.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.59-72
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• 2024

A comprehensive survey of mungbean-growing areas was conducted to observe leaf spot disease caused by Alternaria alternata. Alternaria leaf spot symptoms were observed on the leaves. Diversity of 50 genotypes of mungbean was assessed against A. alternata and data on pathological traits was subjected to cluster analysis. The results showed that genotypes of mungbean were grouped into four clusters based on resistance parameters under the influence of disease. The principal component biplot demonstrated that all the disease-related parameters (% disease incidence, % disease intensity, lesion area, and % of infection) were strongly correlated with each other. Alt a 1 gene that is precisely found in Alternaria species and is responsible for virulence and pathogenicity. Alt a 1 gene was amplified using gene specific primers. The isolated pathogen produced similar symptoms when inoculated on mungbean and tobacco. The sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, a 600 bp fragment amplified using specific primers, ITS1 and ITS2 showed 100% identity with A. alternata. Potato virus X (PVX) -based silencing vector expressing Alt a 1 gene was constructed to control this pathogen through RNA interference in tobacco. Out of 50 inoculated plants, 9 showed delayed onset of disease. Furthermore, to confirm our findings at molecular level semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used. Both phenotypic and molecular investigation indicated that RNAi induced through the VIGS vector was efficacious in resisting the pathogen in the model host, Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). To the best of our knowledge, this study has been reported for the first time.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.151-162
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• 2024

PURPOSE. This study aimed to analyze factors influencing the success and failure of implant prostheses and to estimate the lifespan of prostheses using standardized evaluation criteria. An online survey platform was utilized to efficiently gather large samples from multiple institutions. MATERIALS AND METHODS. During the one-year period, patients visiting 16 institutions were assessed using standardized evaluation criteria (KAP criteria). Data from these institutions were collected through an online platform, and various statistical analyses were conducted. Risk factors were assessed using both the Cox proportional hazard model and Cox regression analysis. Survival analysis was conducted using Kaplan-Meier analysis and nomogram, and lifespan prediction was performed using principal component analysis. RESULTS. The number of patients involved in this study was 485, with a total of 841 prostheses evaluated. The median survival was estimated to be 16 years with a 95% confidence interval. Factors found to be significantly associated with implant prosthesis failure, characterized by higher hazard ratios, included the 'type of clinic', 'type of antagonist', and 'plaque index'. The lifespan of implant prostheses that did not fail was estimated to exceed the projected lifespan by approximately 1.34 years. CONCLUSION. To ensure the success of implant prostheses, maintaining good oral hygiene is crucial. The estimated lifespan of implant prostheses is often underestimated by approximately 1.34 years. Furthermore, standardized form, online platform, and visualization tool, such as nomogram, can be effectively utilized in future follow-up studies.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.8-14
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• 2023

In this study, basic research was conducted on manufacturing technology of thick-walled light guide a component that controls the light source of automobile lamps. As a preliminary study for manufacturing the final injection molded parts, a model for analyzing the influence of micro patterns on light guides is presented. The optical characteristics of the light guide were analyzed according to the change of the curvature radius of the micro-optical pattern, and the injection molding characteristics of the light guide according to the change of injection molding conditions were analytically evaluated. It was confirmed that the luminance uniformity improves as the R value decreases for changes in the micro-pattern R value, but it was confirmed that there are technical limitations in actual injection mold core processing and high-replication injection molding. Injection molding analysis showed that cooling channel design is very important compared to general injection molding due to thick-wall characteristics and thickness variation. It was also confirmed that the cooling channel has a great influence on the cycle time and birefringence result due to residual stress. As a result of analyzing the influence of filling time, holding condition, and cooling on shrinkage, it was found that the cooling water temperature has a significant effect on the shrinkage of ultra-fine light guide parts, and the holding condition also has a significant effect.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.1506-1512
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• 2023

Quantitative analysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) has been widely used as a diagnostic tool in the food and medical industries. Particularly, the pathogenesis of a few diseases including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is closely related to high ATP concentrations. A bioluminescent D-luciferin/luciferase system, which includes a luciferase (FLuc) from the firefly Photinus pyralis as a key component, is the most commonly used method for the detection and quantification of ATP. Here, instead of isolating FLuc produced in recombinant Escherichia coli, we aimed to develop a whole-cell biocatalyst system that does not require extraction and purification of FLuc. To this end, the gene coding for FLuc was introduced into the genome of probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii using the CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing system. The linear relationship (r² = 0.9561) between ATP levels and bioluminescence generated from the engineered S. boulardii expressing FLuc was observed in vitro. To explore the feasibility of using the engineered S. boulardii expressing FLuc as a whole-cell biosensor to detect inflammation biomarker (i.e., ATP) in the gut, a colitis mouse model was established using dextran sodium sulfate as a colitogenic compound. Our findings demonstrated that the whole-cell biosensor can detect elevated ATP levels during gut inflammation in mice. Therefore, the simple and powerful method developed herein could be applied for non-invasive IBD diagnosis.