• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.343-352
• /
• 1998

This experiment was performed to investigate effects of zinc containing solution on the major normal flora Staphylococccus aureus, Streptococus mutans and Candida albicans and to observe the variation according to anionic change and concentration difference. Zinc chloride, zinc iodide and zinc acetate solution were added to werially diluted broth culture so that each final concentration might be 0.25%, 0.5%. 1%. After that, 100ul of each aliquot was spreaded on each selective media plate( Mannitol Salts Agar plate for Staphylococcus aureus, Mitis Salivarius Agar plate for Streptococcus mutans and Sabouraud Destrose Agar plate for Candida albicans). The % killing was calculated bu CFU count after incubation under the appropriate condition. 1. zinc iodide, zinc chloride, and zinc acetate solutions showed inhibitory effects on Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans. 2. The inhibitory effects on Staphylococcus aureus were ranked in order of ainc iodide, zinc chloride and zinc actate. 3. The inhibitory effects on Streptococcus mutans were ranked in orfer of zinc iodide, zinc chloride and zinc acetate. 4. the inhibitory effects on Candida albicans showed no difference among zinc iodide, zinc chloride and zinc acetate. 5. The inhibitory effects of zinc chloride and zinc acetate on Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutnas showed increasing pattern as the concentration increase. But the inhibitory effects of zinc iodide on Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans showed no apparent difference according to concentrations and it was the case with the inhibitory effects of zinc iodide, zinc chloride and zinc acetate on Candida albicans.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.282-296
• /
• 2012

This study identified the types of motives for reading consumer reviews of apparel products for online stores and classified shoppers into the groups based on motives. Data were collected from eleven Korean women by a focus group interview and from 313 females by an online survey. Respondents were in their 20s' and 30s' with significant experience reading consumer reviews of apparel products for online stores. The seven motives found by interviews were reduced to four types of motives by factor analysis: Right product choice and judgment of product value, risk reduction, saving time and money, and fun/killing time. The motive for the right product choice and judgment of product value was the highest and the motive for fun/killing time was the lowest. Consumers were classified into four groups based on motives: Utilitarian shoppers (25.8%), shopping-task oriented shoppers (36.8%), multiple-motive shoppers (19.7%), and moderate-motive shoppers (17.7%). There were significant differences among age groups and the amount of reading reviews posted on a product and the duration of reading reviews for online stores. In addition, managerial implications were developed.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.269-274
• /
• 2008

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the most common nosocomial pathogens. It is associated with hospitals is now being isolated in the community. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial effect of photodynamic therapy using Photogem and 630 nm LED on MRSA and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). The broth cultured MRSA and MSSA incubated with various concentrations of Photogem (500,50,5 and $0.5{\mu}g/mL$) for 4 h. Then 630 nm LED was given at $9\;J/cm^2$, $20{\mu}l$ of the exposed bacteria solution was inoculated onto agar plate. Plates were incubated for 24 hand colonies were counted. The PDT group was effective in killing MRSA and MSSA at the Photogem dose of $50{\mu}g/mL$. But MSSA is more sensitive than MRSA in photodynamic effect. Other groups (light only, sensitizer only, or no treatment) observed no bacterial cell killing. These results raise the possibility of using PDT with or without antimicrobial drugs to eradicate MRSA and MSSA. In order to confirm this result, we need to further study bacterial death mechanism and in vivo study.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.174-177
• /
• 2003

The present experiment was performed to investigate the protective effects of paeonol isolated from Moutan Cortex Radicis on primary cultured rat hepatocytes exposed to Br-A23187 ($Ca^{2+}$ ionophore). Br-A23187 is frequently used as a model of cell killing as inducing both necrotic and apoptotic cell death. Hepatocytes were isolated by collagenase perfusion from livers of fasted male Sprague Dawley rats and cultured overnight. Cell viability was determined by propidium iodide using fluorocytometry in Krebs-Ringer-HEPES buffer at pH 7.4. In addition, intracellular calcium was measured by excitation at 340 and 380 nm and emission at 505 nm using a luminescence spectrophotometer. Paeonol (20-100 ${\mu}M$) inhibited cell killing induced by 10 ${\mu}M$ Br-A23187, in a dose-dependent manner. Paeonol also reduced increased intracellular calcium level when hepatocytes were exposed to Br-A23187. Therefore, the present results suggest that paeonol protects the hepatocytotoxicity induced by Br-A23187, via inhibiting the influx of calcium into into rat hepatocytes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.1403-1410
• /
• 2014

Epigenetic regulators like histone deacetylases (1 and 2), and viral onco-proteins (E6/E7) are known to be overexpressed in cervical cancer cells. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of curcumin on HDACs (1 and 2) and HPV E6/E7 in the cervical cancer cell line SiHa and a drug resistant clone $SiHa^R$ (derived from SiHa). It was further intended to investigate whether curcumin could sensitize the cells towards cisplatin induced cell killing by modulation of multi drug resistant proteins like MRP1 and Pgp1. Curcumin inhibited HDACs, HPV expression and differentially increased acetylation and up-regulation of p53 in SiHa and $SiHa^R$, leading to cell cycle arrest at G1-S phase. Up-regulation of pRb, p21, p27 and corresponding inhibition of cyclin D1 and CDK4 were observed. Cisplatin resistance in $SiHa^R$ due to over-expression of MRP1 and Pgp1 was overcome by curcumin. Curcumin also sensitized both the cervical cancer cells towards cisplatin induced cell killing. Inhibition of HDACs and HPVs led to cell cycle arrest at G1/S phase by alteration of cell cycle regulatory proteins. Suppression of MRP1 and Pgp1 by curcumin resulted in sensitization of cervical cancer cells, lowering the chemotherapeutic dose of the drug cisplatin.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.946-950
• /
• 2015

Recently, it has become a struggle to treat tuberculosis with the current commercial antituberculosis drugs because of the increasing emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis. We evaluated here the antimycobacterial activity of tamoxifen, known as a synthetic anti-estrogen, against eight drugsensitive or resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), and the active intracellular killing of tamoxifen on TB in macrophages. The results showed that tamoxifen had antituberculosis activity against drug-sensitive strains (MIC, 3.125-6.25 µg/ml) as well as drugresistant strains (MIC, 6.25 to 12.5 µg/ml). In addition, tamoxifen profoundly decreased the number of intracellular TB in macrophages in a dose-dependent manner.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.45-50
• /
• 2016

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the antifungal effect of bee venom (BV) and sweet bee venom (SBV) against Candida albicans (C. albicans) clinical isolates. Methods: In this study, BV and SBV were examined for antifungal activities against the Korean Collection for Type Cultures (KCTC) strain and 10 clinical isolates of C. albicans. The disk diffusion method was used to measure the antifungal activity and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assays were performed by using a broth microdilution method. Also, a killing curve assay was conducted to investigate the kinetics of the anti-fungal action. Results: BV and SBV showed antifungal activity against 10 clinical isolates of C. albicans that were cultured from blood and the vagina by using disk diffusion method. The MIC values obtained for clinical isolates by using the broth microdilution method varied from $62.5{\mu}g/mL$ to $125{\mu}g/mL$ for BV and from $15.63{\mu}g/mL$ to $62.5{\mu}g/mL$ for SBV. In the killing-curve assay, SBV behaved as amphotericin B, which was used as positive control, did. The antifungal efficacy of SBV was much higher than that of BV. Conclusion: BV and SBV showed antifungal activity against C. albicans clinical strains that were isolated from blood and the vagina. Especially, SBV might be a candidate for a new antifungal agent against C. albicans clinical isolates.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.sup3
• /
• pp.239-243
• /
• 2016

This article investigates ethical challenges cancer patients face in the end stages of life including doctors' responsibilities, patients' rights, unexpected desires of patients and their relatives, futile treatments, and communication with patients in end stages of life. These patients are taken care of through palliative rather than curative measures. In many cases, patients in the last days of life ask their physician to terminate their illness via euthanasia which has many ethical considerations. Proponents of such mercy killing (euthanasia) believe that if the patient desires, the physician must end the life, while opponents of this issue, consider it as an act of murder incompatible with the spirit of medical sciences. The related arguments presented in this paper and other ethical issues these patients face and possible solutions for dealing with them have been proposed. It should be mentioned that this paper is more human rational and empirical and the views of the legislator are not included, though in many cases human intellectual and empirical comments are compatible with those of the legislator.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.3-15
• /
• 2000

In this paper we present a new image denoising filter that can suppress additive noise components while preserving signal components in the wavelet domain. The proposed filter, which we call an adaptive wavelet shrinkage(AWS) filter, is composed of two operators: the wavelet killing operator and the adaptive shrinkage operator. Each operator is selected based on the threshold value which is estimated adaptively by using the local statistics of the wavelet coefficients. In the wavelet killing operation, the small wavelet coefficients below the threshold value are replaced by zero to suppress noise components in the wavelet domain. The adaptive shrinkage operator attenuates noise components from the wavelet components above the threshold value adaptively. The experimental results show that the proposed filter is more effective than the other methods in preserving signal components while suppressing noise.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.15-26
• /
• 1962

Decoctions of two Korean indigenous crude drugs. Radix Jingyu(the dried root of Aconitum pseudo-laeve Nakai var. erectum Nakai form. Genuinum Nakai) and Fructus ponciri (the transversely sliced and dried unripe fruit of Poncirus trifoliata Rafinesque), are being utilized by the inhabitants in certain parts of southeastern district of Korea with an empirical belief that these serve as effective insecticides for cattle ticks. Of the two species of cattle ticks so far identified in Korea, Boophilus microplus and Haemaphysalis bispinosum, the former was employed in this experiment as the species occupies nearly 99 percent of the tick population. The results of the experiments herein reported seen to indicate that although the killing power of aqueous extracts of the drugs is minimal, the repellent effect against the ticks, especially of Radix Jingyu, is excellent. It may be of interest to note that the aqueous extract of Radix Jingyu has not proved to be inferior to any of the most effective cattle repellents commercially available. Further studies on these Korean indigenous crude drugs as cattle tick repellents are indicated to find whether active ingredients can be extracted in a hope to materialize an extensive application of these drugs in the field.