• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.19-40
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to find out if there has been any change in the outpatient visit to tertiary care hospitals after the introduction of the new healthcare program that divides the roles of doctors and pharmacists and the reason for the change if there is any. Two tertiary care hospitals with the largest capacity of 1200 beds and two tertiary care hospitals with the lowest capacity of 600-700 beds were randomly selected. Data of the outpatient visits from March-May 2(xx), before the new healthcare system was adopted, were compared with the data from March-May 2001, after the new policy was adopted. Outpatient visits have decreased 5.8% after the new system. There has been a dramatic decrease, especially, in the department of OB-GYN and Pediatrics of tertiary hospitals. Decrease in re-visits is much higher than the first visits. Female patients decreased more than the male patients. Outpatient visits by economically active patients group aged 25-44 declined much. Tertiary hospitals in Seoul and Kyonggi Province, as well. Outpatient income of tertiary hospitals has dropped up to 14.7% due to the decline in outpatient visits and pharmaceutical income, and resell price system which in turn has caused the hospital financial deficits. While the new program has succeeded in lowering the use of antibiotics and injections, it has the pitfall of prescribing long days and expensive drugs. A full-fledged review of the system should be conducted for the establishment of the new system and I believe this study may be a useful references. Furthermore, more profound and overall studies on the chance in the patients use of hospitals are needed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.776-784
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• 2019

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), the most well-known polyhydroxyalkanoate, is a bio-based, biodegradable polymer that has the potential to replace petroleum-based plastics. Lignocellulose hydrolysate, a non-edible resource, is a promising substrate for the sustainable, fermentative production of PHB. However, its application is limited by the generation of inhibitors during the pretreatment processes. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of PHB production in E. coli in the presence of inhibitors found in lignocellulose hydrolysates. Our results show that the introduction of PHB synthetic genes (bktB, phaB, and phaC from Ralstonia eutropha H16) improved cell growth in the presence of the inhibitors such as furfural, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, and vanillin, suggesting that PHB synthetic genes confer resistance to these inhibitors. In addition, increased PHB production was observed in the presence of furfural as opposed to the absence of furfural, suggesting that this compound could be used to stimulate PHB production. Our findings indicate that PHB production using lignocellulose hydrolysates in recombinant E. coli could be an innovative strategy for cost-effective PHB production, and PHB could be a good target product from lignocellulose hydrolysates, especially glucose.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.1278-1295
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• 2014

The Sixteenth Meeting of the Conferences of Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which was held in March 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand, listed five shark species and one genus, and uplisted one sawfish species. All new species listings will be come into force of the eighteen months delay, on the fourteenth of September, 2014. The purpose of the delay is to support the preparation of the domestic measures on shark trade by the parties, as there has been no previous experience in trading the commercially exploited aquatic species in the CITES. The CITES Secretary-General has visited several potential shark trade countries to encourage and facilitate the implementation of the new CITES listings. The newly listed sharks have been caught as a target or non-target species by Korean distant water fisheries and introduced into Korea. So the establishment or change of the domestic laws, regulations, and measures for the implementation of the new CITES species must be prepared before the effective entry date. This paper is prepared to assess the effects of the trade of the CITES listed shark species, and to suggest effective government service measures for the management of Korean distant water fisheries. The Ministry of Environment (MOE) is the general Management Authority of the CITES, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) is in charge of the medical trade of CITES listed species in Korea. By law, all imported medicines and medical materials must be inspected by the MFDS during the customs examination; this kind of authority sharing is reasonable and effective way of providing government service. Similarly, the designation of new CITES Management Authority for the trade of commercially exploited aquatic CITES species is critical and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF), which is now in charge of the trade of fisheries products, is the most appropriate governing body for this purpose in Korea. The revision of the National Plan of Action for Conservation and Management of Sharks, initially submitted to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2011 as a practical guideline for shark conservation in all Korean fisheries, could be a effective measure to achieve unification of conservation of endangered species and sustainable use of fisheries stocks. The proper CITES measures for the trade of listed species, such as the establishment of the documenting system for Non-detriment Findings, domestic measures suitable for the "Introduction from the Sea" clause, species specific Harmonized System Codes for the customs service, and an effective shark catch data reporting system should be in place prior to the fourteenth of September 2014.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.2.1-2.7
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• 2012

Introduction: Histone deacetylases (HDAC) are a class of enzymes that remove acetyl groups from ${\varepsilon}$-N-acetyl lysine amino acids of histone proteins. Their action is opposite to that of histone acetyltransferase that adds acetyl groups to these lysines. Only few HDAC inhibitors are approved and used as anti-cancer therapeutics. Thus, discovery of new and potential HDAC inhibitors are necessary in the effective treatment of cancer. Materials and Methods: This study proposed a method using support vector machine (SVM) to classify HDAC8 inhibitors and non-inhibitors in early-phase virtual compound filtering and screening. The 100 experimentally known HDAC8 inhibitors including 52 inhibitors and 48 non-inhibitors were used in this study. A set of molecular descriptors was calculated for all compounds in the dataset using ADRIANA. Code of Molecular Networks. Different kernel functions available from SVM Tools of free support vector machine software and training and test sets of varying size were used in model generation and validation. Results and Conclusion: The best model obtained using kernel functions has shown 75% of accuracy on test set prediction. The other models have also displayed good prediction over the test set compounds. The results of this study can be used as simple and effective filters in the drug discovery process.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.307-313
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• 2017

Objectives: Chemicals derived from various environment media contaminates food across the food supply chain. In Korea, levels of contaminants in food have been sporadically measured by monitoring programs of different government agencies. There is difficulty with data compilation and integrated analysis across media. Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose an overall integrated database and analytical platform design for the 'ECO-FOOD NET (Environmental COntaminant reduction platform for FOOD through an interagency collaboration NETwork)', a tool to support the reduction of environmental contaminants in food. Methods: We developed a new data structure and standardized protocols for the compilation of integrated data. In addition, we conducted subject-oriented logical and physical relational database modeling and created the architecture design of the platform. Results: We established a standardized code system related to exposure media and route, analysis method and food matrix. In addition, we designed the seven software modules of 'About the System', 'Introduction to Interagency Work', 'Media-Chemicals Profiles', 'Method Bank', 'Monitoring Data Base', 'Integrated Media Analysis', and 'Risk-Benefit Analysis'. Conclusions: This study will contribute to decision-making as a tool for executing risk management, such as sustainable reduction policies of contaminants in food.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.5.1-5.5
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• 2011

Introduction: Many signal transduction pathways mediate cell's behavior by regulating expression level of involved genes. Abnormal behavior indicates loss of regulatory potential of pathways, and this can be attributed to loss of expression regulation of downstream genes. Therefore, function of pathways should be assessed by activity of a pathway itself and relative activity between a pathway and downstream genes, simultaneously. Results and Discussion: In this study, we suggested a new method to assess pathway's function by introducing concept of 'responsiveness'. The responsiveness was defined as a relative activity between a pathway itself and its downstream genes. The expression level of a downstream gene as a function of an upstream pathway activation characterizes disease status. In this aspect, by using the responsiveness we predicted potential progress in cancer development. We applied our method to predict primary and metastatic status of melanoma cancer. The result shows that the responsiveness-based approach achieves better performance than using gene or pathway information alone. The mean of ROC scores in the responsiveness-based approach was 0.90 for GSE7553 data set, increased more than 40% compared to a gene-based method. Moreover, identifying the abnormal regulatory patterns between pathway and its downstream genes provided more biologically interpretable information compared to gene or pathway based approaches.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2009

As many new drug substances contained various aromatic rings and fluorine attached to an electron rich aromatic ring or on the meta-position, a strategy towards improvement in aromatic fluorination of these compounds is highly desirable. The introduction of fluorine-18 onto aromatic rings showed in the limited condition containing electron withdrawing group (EWG) on the para- or ortho-position to get reasonable radiochemical yield so far. No-carrier added (NCA) [$^{18}F$]fluoroarene syntheses by iodonium salts recently reported that has the potential to greatly increase the yield in systems or positions that normally not reactive enough to give sufficient yields in simple model reaction. This review describes the methodological approach towards effective aromatic fluorination by diaryliodonium salts and future prospects in an application of novel PET radiotracer.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.177-191
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• 2022

Objectives: Recent epidemiological data reported that young adults in their 20 ~ 30s are a vulnerable population with unhealthy dietary practices and a few signs of deteriorated health indicators. However, there are no dietary guidelines that are specifically developed for the young adult population. This study introduces some data collection tools that are mostly used in the service design field, and demonstrates how these tools can be used in nutrition research for developing dietary guidelines for specific target groups. Methods: To understand the context of food choices among young people, 39 people were enrolled to complete a probes booklet. Thematic analysis and word cloud were performed to capture the main themes from the probes and a persona was developed based on the findings. Results: Data from the probes enabled us to grasp the various contextual meanings of eating practices among young people. Most participants understand what a healthy diet is and often have a willingness to practice it. However, there were very few participants who were following the practices. We created four types of persona for developing dietary guidelines: healthy eating, emotional eating, convenient eating, and trendy eating. Conclusions: Probes and persona were used in order to understand the lives of young adults and develop targeted messages. We hope that this introduction will be helpful to researchers who are looking for new ways of understanding their target population in the field of community nutrition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2012

Botulinum toxin is a potent neurotoxin that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The agent causes muscle paralysis by preventing the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction of striated muscle. Botulinum toxin A (Botox, AllerganInc., Irvine, California) is the most potent of seven distinct toxin subtypes that are produced by the bacterium. The toxin was initially used clinically in the treatment of strabismus caused by hypertonicity of the extraocular muscles and was sub-sequently described in the treatment of multiple disorders of muscular spasticity and dystonia. In treating patients with Botox for blepharospasm, Carruthers and Carruthers [5] noticed an improvement in glabellar rhytids. This ultimately led to the introduction and development of Botox as a mainstay in the treatment of hyperfunctional facial lines in the upper face. Since its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of facial rhytids (2002), botulinum toxin A has expanded into wide-spread clinical use. Forehead, glabellar, and periocular rhytids are the most frequently treated facial regions. Indications for alternative uses for Botox in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery are expanding. These include a variety of well-established procedures that use Botox as an adjunctive agent to enhance results. In addition, Botox injection is finding increased usefulness as an independent modality for facial rejuvenation and rehabilitation. The agent is used beyond its role in facial rhytids as an effective agent in the management of dynamic disorders of the face and neck. Botox injection allows the physician to precisely manipulate the balance between complex and conflicting muscular interactions, thus resetting their equilibrium state and exerting a clinical effect. This article will address some of the new and unique indications on Botox injection in the face (the lower face and neck, combination with fillers). Important points in terms of its clinical relevance will be stressed, such as an understanding of functional facial anatomy, the importance of precise injections, and correct dosing all are critical to obtaining natural outcomes.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.51-57
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• 2016

The epidemiology of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PNENs) in Asia has been clarified through epidemiological studies, including one conducted in Japan, and subsequently another in South Korea. As endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) has become more widely accessible, endoscopic ultrasound-fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) has been performed in pancreatic tumors for which the clinical course was only monitored previously. This has enabled accurate diagnosis of pancreatic tumors based on the 2010 WHO classification; as a result, the number of patients with an accurate diagnosis has increased. Although surgery has been the standard therapy for PNENs, new treatment options have become available in Japan for the treatment of advanced or inoperable PNENs; of particular note is the recent introduction of molecular target drugs (such as everolimus and sunitinib) and streptozocin. Treatment for progressive PNENs needs to be selected for each patient with consideration of the performance status, degree of tumor differentiation, tumor mass, and proliferation rate. Somatostatin receptor (SSTR)-2 is expressed in many patients with neuroendocrine tumor. Somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS), which can visualize SSTR-2 expression, has been approved in Japan. The SRS will be a useful diagnostic tool for locating neuroendocrine neoplasms, detecting distant metastasis, and evaluating therapy outcomes. In this manuscript, we review the latest diagnostic methods and treatments for PNENs.