• Journal of Marine Life Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.91-95
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• 2019

The changes of plasma cortisol concentration to high water temperature on common carp, Cyprinus carpio were studied. 20℃, 24℃ and 28℃ groups showed significantly increased plasma cortisol levels until 6 hours, and decreased plasma cortisol levels after 24 hours. Cortisol levels of 20℃ and 24℃ groups decreased to values close to the cortisol content before the experiment. However, 32℃ group showed significantly increased plasma cortisol levels until 24 hours, and maintained plasma cortisol level until 48 hours. The Cumulative mortality rates of 20℃, 24℃ and 28℃ groups increased until 12 hours, and maintained until 48 hours. Cumulative mortality rate of 32℃ group increased continuously until the end of the experiment. Using the results of this study, it could be used as a method to confirm the risk of mass perish in a specific area through hormone analysis.

• Journal of Breast Cancer
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.406-414
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• 2018

Purpose: T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing molecule 3 (TIM-3) is an emerging immune response molecule related to T-cell anergy. There has been tremendous interest in breast cancer targeting immune checkpoint molecules, especially in the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This study was designed to investigate TIM-3 expression on tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), its relationships with clinicopathological parameters and expression of programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1)/programmed death receptor ligand 1 (PD-L1), and its prognostic role. Methods: Immunohistochemistry on tissue microarray blocks produced from 109 samples of invasive ductal carcinoma type TNBC was performed with antibodies toward TIM-3, PD-1, PD-L1 and breast cancer-related molecular markers. Associations between their expression and clinicopathological parameters as well as survival analyses were performed. Results: TIM-3 was expressed in TILs from all 109 TNBCs, consisting of 17 cases (<5%), 31 cases (6%-25%), 48 cases (26%-50%), and 13 cases (>51%). High TIM-3 was significantly correlated with younger patients (p=0.0101), high TILs (p=0.0029), high tumor stage (p=0.0018), high PD-1 (p=0.0001) and high PD-L1 (p=0.0019), and tended to be associated with higher histologic grade, absence of extensive in situ components and microcalcification. High TIM-3 expression was significantly associated with a combinational immunophenotype group of high PD-L1 and high PD-1 (p<0.0001). High TIM-3 demonstrated a significantly better disease-free survival (DFS) (p<0.0001) and longer overall survival (OS) (p=0.0001), together with high TILs and high PD-1. In univariate survival analysis, high TIM-3 showed reduced relapse risk (p<0.0001) and longer OS (p=0.0003), together with high PD-1 expression. In multivariate analysis, high TIM-3 was statistically significant in predicting prognosis, showing better DFS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.0994; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.0296-0.3337; p=0.0002) and longer OS (HR, 0.1109; 95% CI, 0.0314-0.3912; p=0.0006). Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrate that TIM-3 expression is an independent positive prognostic factor in TNBC, despite its association with poor clinical and pathologic features.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.136-143
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• 2018

Cellular automata have been applied to simulations in many fields such as astrophysics, social phenomena, fire spread, and evacuation. Using cellular automata, this study develops a model for consequence analysis of the dispersion of hazardous chemicals, which is required for risk assessments of and emergency responses for frequent chemical accidents. Unlike in cases of detailed plant safety design, real-time accident responses require fast and iterative calculations to reduce the uncertainty of the distribution of damage within the affected area. EPA ALOHA and KORA of National Institute of Chemical Safety have been popular choices for these analyses. However, this study proposes an initiative to supplement the model and code continuously and is different in its development of free software, specialized for small and medium enterprises. Compared to the full-scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which requires large amounts of computation time, the relative accuracy loss is compromised, and the convenience of the general user is improved. Using Python open-source libraries as well as meteorological information linkage, it is made possible to expand and update the functions continuously. Users can easily obtain the results by simply inputting the layout of the plant and the materials used. Accuracy is verified against full-scale CFD simulations, and it will be distributed as open source software, supporting GPU-accelerated computing for fast computation.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2019

The needs for precise diagnostics and farm management-decision aids have increased to reduce the risk of climate change and environmental stress. Crop simulation models have been widely used to search optimal solutions for effective cultural practices. However, limited knowledge on physiological responses to environmental variation would make it challenging to apply crop simulation models to a wide range of studies. Advanced research facilities would help investigation of plant response to the environment. In the present study, the sunlit controlled environment chambers, known as Korean SPAR (Soil-Plant-Atmosphere-Research) system, was developed by renovating existing SPAR system. The Korean SPAR system controls and monitors major environmental variables including atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, temperature and soil moisture. Furthermore, plants are allowed to grow under natural sunlight. Key physiological and physical data such as canopy photosynthesis and respiration, canopy water and nutrient use over the whole growth period are also collected automatically. As a case study, it was shown that the Korean SPAR system would be useful for collection of data needed for understanding the growth and developmental processes of a crop, e.g., soybean. In addition, we have demonstrated that the canopy photosynthetic data of the Korean SPAR indicate the precise representation of physiological responses to environment variation. As a result, physical and physiological data obtained from the Korean SPAR are expected to be useful for development of an advanced crop simulation model minimizing errors and confounding factors that usually occur in field experiments.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.584-591
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• 2018

This study was conducted to determine the levels of cognitive impairment (MMSE-K) among centenarians, and to reveal their association with related variables. The study subjects were 268 centenarians who received medical check-ups from the National Health Insurance Corporation during the period of 2016-2017. The levels of cognitive impairment were significantly reduced among females as well as those living with spouses and children, lower monthly income, lower BMI and individuals who engaged in smoking and alcohol consumption without regular exercise relative to their respective counterparts. The risk of definitive cognitive impairment in study subjects was significantly higher among women (ORs=9.85, 95% CI=2.88-33.59) than men and was lower in obese group (ORs=0.25, 95% CI=0.07-0.86) than in low weight groups, as well as in non-smoking (ORs=0.30, 95% CI=0.10-0.83) than smoking groups. The factors influencing the cognitive impairment of study subjects were sex, living status, monthly income, BMI and smoking status. Taken together, these results suggest that the levels of cognitive impairments among centenarians differed significantly in response to socio-demographic characteristics and health related variables. Especially, the levels of cognitive impairments decreased among those with poor health related variables such as smoking, alcohol consumption and regular exercise.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.36-44
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• 2019

Swallowing impairment is a frequent complication following stroke. The characteristics of swallowing impairment with stork patient can facilitate identification of individuals at risk of dysphagia would be of great helpful. The present study examined oropharyngeal swallowing impairment with subacute stroke patients using the Modified Barium Swallowing Impairment Profile(MBSImP). The 49 consecutive patients with the supratentorial stroke met inclusion criteria for the present study. A retrospective review was performed of patients who underwent the videofluoroscopic swallowing study(VFSS). Of Stroke patients, 95.9% exhibited abnormal function of lip closure. 98% and 57.1 % shown abnormal tongue function and lingual motion, respectively. Oral residue was present in 51% and delayed pharyngeal response was present in 89.9%. In addition, abnormal laryngeal and hyoid excursion was seen in 42.9% and 87.8%, respectively. Abnormal function of soft palate elevation was present in 18.4% and abnormal epiglottic movement was seen in 4.1%. 30.6% of 30.6% of these patients exhibited abnormal laryngeal closure. All of the stroke patients(100%) in this study exhibited abnormal pharyngeal stripping wave and pharyngoesophageal segment opening. Abnormal tongue base retraction and oral reside were present 91.8%, respectively. The results suggest that stroke patient is more likely to exhibit reduced swallowing functions including lip closure, tongue control, initiation of pharyngeal swallow, anterior hyoid motion, tongue base retraction, pharyngeal residue and pharyngoesophageal contraction. Therefore, these data could provide valid and precise information regarding physiological evidence to delineate symptoms of dysphagia in this stroke cohort. Future studies should explore the bolus effect in the swallowing impairment.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.59-67
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• 2019

Most of the prior researches in brand extension evaluation have utilized purchase intention as a n effective variable to assess the effectiveness of brand extensions. In contrast, the author proposes that trial intention is to better predict consumers' behavioral response in the newly launched brand extension markets where relate to high risk and uncertainty. Furthermore, the study explores the effects of attitude toward parent brand and consumers' characteristics (perceived similarity and consumption experience) on trial intention of brand extensions. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the data collection was conducted for actual consumers who had experience using parent brand products. This study employed experiment and questionnaire survey and collected data of 186 was analyzed using clustering analysis and regression analysis. The main results are as follows. First, attitude toward parent brand has a positive effect on trial intention of the extensions. Second, perceived similarity and consumption experience of parent brand have moderating effects on the relation of attitude toward parent brand and trial intention of brand extensions. The results provide that both industry and academic researchers with a guide to process trial intention of brand extension from a comprehensive perspective.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.38-49
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• 2021

Airway mucus secretion is an essential innate immune response for host protection. However, overproduction and hypersecretion of mucus, mainly composed of the gel-forming MUC5AC protein, are significant risk factors for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) signaling pathway negatively regulates MUC5AC expression; however, the underlying molecular mechanism is not fully understood. Here, we showed that TGFβ significantly reduces the expression of MUC5AC mRNA and its protein in NCI-H292 cells, a human mucoepidermoid carcinoma cell line. This reduced MUC5AC expression was restored by a TGFβ receptor inhibitor (SB431542), but not by the inhibition of NF-κB (BAY11-7082 or Triptolide) or PI3K (LY294002) activities. TGFβ-activated Smad3 dose-dependently bound to MUC5AC promoter. Notably, TGFβ-activated Smad3 recruited HDAC2 and facilitated nuclear translocation of HDAC2, thereby inducing the deacetylation of NF-κB at K310, which is essential for a reduction in NF-κB transcriptional activity. Both TGFβ-induced nuclear translocation of Smad3/HDAC2 and deacetylation of NF-κB at K310 were suppressed by a Smad3 inhibitor (SIS3). These results suggest that the TGFβ-activated Smad3/HDAC2 complex is an essential negative regulator for MUC5AC expression and an epigenetic regulator for NF-κB acetylation. Therefore, these results collectively suggest that modulation of the TGFβ1/Smad3/HDAC2/NF-κB pathway axis can be a promising way to improve lung function as a treatment strategy for asthma and COPD.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.375-388
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• 2021

This paper aims to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by analyzing confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Daejeon. A high volume of visitors, downtown areas, and psychological fatigue with prolonged social distancing were considered as risk factors associated with the spread of COVID-19. We considered the weekly confirmed cases in each administrative district as a response variable. Explanatory variables were the number of passengers getting off at a bus station in each administrative district and the elapsed time since the Korean government had imposed distancing in daily life. We employed a mixed-effects zero-inflated Poisson regression model because the number of cases was repeatedly measured with excess zero-count data. We conducted k-means clustering to identify three groups of administrative districts having different characteristics in terms of the number of bars, the population size, and the distance to the closest college. Considering that the number of confirmed cases might vary depending on districts' characteristics, the clustering information was incorporated as a categorical explanatory variable. We found that Covid-19 was more prevalent as population size increased and a district is downtown. As the number of passengers getting off at a downtown district increased, the confirmed cases significantly increased.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.415-427
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• 2021

It is generally recognized that high stocking density can increase the risk of immune dysfunction and reduction in productivity cause of elevated stress in broiler farm. The domestic livestock industry is implementing a certification system for animal welfare and livestock farms to reduce the problem of dense breeding. This study compared broiler from the general farm and animal welfare farm to confirm the effectiveness of animal welfare farms against stress. Gas concentrations in a farm of general and animal welfare farms were analyzed, blood (n=10) of the 28-day-old broiler was collected, the partial pressure of the gas in the blood was analyzed using whole blood, and biochemical factors and hormones were analyzed using the serum. Glycogen and L-lactate are analyzed using ELISA kit on finely pulverized muscles (n=10). CO₂ and NH₃ levels in the farm were significantly higher in general farm. Partial carbon dioxide tension (PCO₂) in blood was significantly higher and partial oxygen tension (PO₂) was significantly lower in the general farm. Creatinine (CREA), glucose (GLU), aspartateaminotransferase (AST), and creatinekinase (CK) in the blood were significantly higher in the general farm, and total protein (TP) and globulin (GLOB) were significantly higher in animal welfare farm. Blood corticosterone and norepinephrine were significantly higher in general farm and epinephrine was significantly higher in animal welfare farm. These results imply that animal welfare farm provides a stress-reduced breeding environment.