• Toxicological Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.207-214
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• 2007

Chronic oxidative stress produced by exposure to environmental chemicals or pathophysiological states can lead animals to aging, carcinogenesis and degenerative diseases. Indirect antioxidative mechanisms, in which natural or synthetic agents are used to coordinately induce the expression of cellular antioxidant capacity, have been shown to protect cells and organisms from oxidative damages. Electrophile and free radical detoxifying enzymes, which were originally identified as the products of genes induced by cancer chemopreventive agents, are members of this protective system. The NFE2 family transcription factor Nrf2 was found to govern expression of these detoxifying enzymes, and screening for Nrf2-regulated genes has identified many gene categories involved in maintaining cellular redox potential and protection from oxidative damage as Nrf2 downstream genes. Further, studies using Nrf2-deficient mice revealed that these mutant mice showed more susceptible phenotypes towards exposure to environmental chemicals/carcinogens and in oxidative stress related disease models. With the finding that cancer chemopreventive efficacy of indirect antioxidants (enzyme inducers) is lost in the absence of Nrf2, a central role of Nrf2 in the antioxidative protective system has been firmly established. Promising results from cancer prevention clinical trials using enzyme inducers propose that pharmacological interventions that modulate Nrf2 can be an effective strategy to protect tissues from oxidative damage.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.75-82
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• 2006

Synaptic plasticity, which is a long lasting change in synaptic efficacy, underlies many neural processes like learning and memory. It has long been acknowledged that new protein synthesis is essential for both the expression of synaptic plasticity and memory formation and storage. Most of the research interests in this field have focused on the events regulating transcriptional activation of gene expression from the cell body and nucleus. Considering extremely differentiated structural feature of a neuron in CNS, a neuron should meet a formidable task to overcome spatial and temporal restraints to deliver newly synthesized proteins to specific activated synapses among thousands of others, which are sometimes several millimeters away from the cell body. Recent advances in synaptic neurobiology has found that almost all the machinery required for the new protein translation are localized inside or at least in the vicinity of postsynaptic compartments. These findings led to the hypothesis that dormant mRNAs are translationally activated locally at the activated synapse, which may enable rapid and delicate control of new protein synthesis at activated synapses. In this review, we will describe the mechanism of local translational control at activated synapses focusing on the role of cytoplasmic polyadenylation of dormant mRNAs.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.36 no.4 s.143
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• pp.338-343
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• 2005

Inflammatory mediators such as interleukin-1 (IL-1), tumor necrosis $factor-{\alpha}\;(TNF-{\alpha}),\;interferon-{\gamma}\;(IFN-{\gamma})$ and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are thought to play major roles in joint diseases such as a rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and there is considerable evidence playing a role for these cytokines in osteoarthritis (OA). Therefore, we have studied the effects on anti-inflammation and analgesic by ethyl acetate fraction from 70% ethanol extract of Artemisia capillaries (EAC). As a positive control, apigenin, which is known as an anti-inflammatory agent as an iNOS inhibitor, was used and showed the dose-dependent inhibitory effect. EAC showed strong inhibitory efficacy against cytokine-induced proteoglycan degradation, $PGE_2$ production, nitric oxide (NO) production, and matrix-matalloproteinases (MMPs) expression in rabbit articular chondrocyte. In the writhing test induced by acetic acid, EAC $(200{\sim}400\;mg/kg)$ exhibited a dose-dependent inhibition of writhing. The results indicate that EAC have anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities, and could be a good herbal medicine candidate for curing of RA and/or OA.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.273-288
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• 2013

This paper is a general review contextualizing the state of the domestic health technology assessment. The aim of the paper is to present an overview of health technology assessment in Korea based on examining clinical efficacy as well as cost-benefit analysis, and to suggest the issue of appraisal based on social value. We have included a discussion of a major case study of the technology appraisal process of NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) in the UK. The review of the existing process of NICE shows that the appraisal both gives interest in health technology a sense of value perspective and raises methodological issues in terms of reliability. Details of the appraisal process and several guidelines for best practice have emerged. Suggestions are listed and their role in assessing is explained as a conclusion.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.187-194
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• 2011

Aldose reductase (AR), the key enzyme in the polyol pathway, plays an important role in the development of the diabetic complications. None of Aldose reductase Inhibitor (ARI) has achieved worldwide use because of limited efficacy or undesirable side effects. Therefore, evaluating natural sources for ARI potential may lead to the development of safer and more effective agents against diabetic complications. Fifty two Chinese herbal medicines have been investigated for inhibitory activities on AR. Among them, twelve herbal medicines, Artemisia anomala (aerial part), Centella asiatica (aerial part), Scutellaria baicalensis (root), Senecio chrysanthermoides (whole plant), Gleditsia japonica (twig), Zizyphus jujube (twig, leaf), Citrus aurantium (fruit), Hydnocarpus anthelmintica (fruit), Potaninia mongolica (aerial part), Tribulus terrestris (fruit), Artemisia apiacea (aerial part) and Eclipta prostrate (aerial part) exhibited a significant inhibitory activity against AR. Particularly, Artemisia anomala, Centella asiatica and Scutellaria baicalensis showed four times more potent inhibitory activity than the positive control, 3,3-tetramethyleneglutaric acid (TMG).

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2013

In engineering education, team projects play an important role to increase students' capability of solving problems and teamworking. Student achieves a success experience, which in turn provides self-efficacy, through successfully performed project. This paper deals with an analysis of team performance variation in accordance with the team member formation. Team members are categorized into three different charater types based on the three triads of Enneagram. The analysis result shows that the team performance varies with the member formation pattern.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.64-85
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• 2008

This study purports to investigate the determinant of job satisfaction among workers working at Long-term care hospitals. The independent variables contain three groups of determinants: organizational characteristics variables(job autonomy, job variety, distributive justice, role conflict, supervisor support, job suitability, job significance, job security, organizational support, job growth, promotional opportunity), environmental variables(job opportunity), and psychological variables (met expectation, job efficacy, positive affectivity, and negative affectivity). The sample used in this study consisted of 250 workers from 4 Long-term care hospitals nationwide. Data were collected with self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The results of the study are as follows: 1) the following variables, listed in order of size, have significant effects on job satisfaction: negative affectivity(-), job significance(+), job growth(+), age(+), positive affectivity(+), organizational support(+), job opportunity(-). 2) the variance of job satisfaction explained by the variables used in the study are 53.8%. When demographic variables added to Model I, job satisfaction explained by variables are 55.4%. 3) the results of this study indicate that three variables of negative affectivity, job significance, job growth are especially important for improving the level of job satisfaction among workers at Long-term care hospitals.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2005

Class I and class II MHC genes have been identified in most of the jawed vertebrate taxa. In all investigated bony fish species, unlike mammals, the classical class I and class II MHC genes are not linked and even are found on different chromosomes. Linking and clustering of the class I and class II MHC genes is not the only phenomenon clearly detected in the evolution of immune system from cartilaginous to mammals. In all non-mammalian classes the LMP/TAP genes are highly conserved within class I genes region, while these genes are conserved within class II genes region only in mammals. Today we know that LMP/TAP genes in mammals have a crucial role in peptide processing for presentation within class I molecules, as well as in anti-tumor immunity. For these reasons, differences in clustering of LMP/TAP/MHC genes can be responsible for the differences in mechanisms and efficacy of anti-tumor immunity in non-mammalian vertebrates compared to same mechanisms in mammals. Also, the differences in cytokine network and anti-tumor antigens presentation within classes of vertebrates can be explained by toe peculiarity of LMP/TAP/MHC gene clustering.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.163-181
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• 2015

Objectives : In order to select the key factors of formulae and to identify the relationship of formulae with comparing these factors. Methods : We selected the five key factors that the source, the name of formula, the efficacy, the constituent herbs, and the capacity of herbs. When we compared between two formulae with five key factors, there was 32 cases. So we investigated the example which is corresponded to each cases and analyzed the relationship of formulae. Results : Among the 32 cases, analyzed two formulae was same in 8 cases, altered from same formula in different ways in 14 cases, and different with each other in 20 cases. Conclusions : These five key factors play a decisive role to comparing formulae and analyzing the relationship of them. So these factors and the relationship of formulae would be considerated to construct formula ontology.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.247-254
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• 2005

This study aimed at clarifing clinical effects of eight-step continuum treatment in a patient who showed apraxia of speech after stroke. The eight-step continuum treatment consisted of 8 steps and its clinical efficacy has been proven with American apraxic patients. However, it has not been clinically proven to be effective in Korean patients with apraxia of speech as of yet. Therefore, this study was conducted in an effort to provide preliminary clinical evidence regarding its effectiveness regardless of the linguistic differences between Korean and English. The therapy took place twice a week for 6 months, a total of 48 times. The results showed that the patient's receptive language was improved from 83% to 89% and 37% in accuracy, and expressive language from 15% to 37%. It seemed that spontaneous recovery did not playa role in his improvement since the study was conducted 2 years after the stroke. In addition, the improvement of expressive language was much greater(22%) than that of receptive language(6%), which implied that the therapy was effective in apraxia of speech because apraxia of speech is relatively confined to expressive ability, more specifically motor programming and sequencing.