• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.335-345
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• 2022

Pyroptosis is an inflammatory form of programmed cell death that is linked with invading intracellular pathogens. Cardiac pyroptosis has a significant role in coronary microembolization (CME), thus causing myocardial injury. Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) has powerful cardioprotective effects. Hence, this study aimed to identify the effect of Tan IIA on CME and its underlying mechanism. Forty Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly grouped into sham, CME, CME + low-dose Tan IIA, and CME + high-dose Tan IIA groups. Except for the sham group, polyethylene microspheres (42 ㎛) were injected to establish the CME model. The Tan-L and Tan-H groups received intraperitoneal Tan IIA for 7 days before CME. After CME, cardiac function, myocardial histopathology, and serum myocardial injury markers were assessed. The expression of pyroptosis-associated molecules and TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB/NLRP3 cascade was evaluated by qRT-PCR, Western blotting, ELISA, and IHC. Relative to the sham group, CME group's cardiac functions were significantly reduced, with a high level of serum myocardial injury markers, and microinfarct area. Also, the levels of caspase-1 p20, GSDMD-N, IL-18, IL-1β, TLR4, MyD88, p-NF-κB p65, NLRP3, and ASC expression were increased. Relative to the CME group, the Tan-H and Tan-L groups had considerably improved cardiac functions, with a considerably low level of serum myocardial injury markers and microinfarct area. Tan IIA can reduce the levels of pyroptosis-associated mRNA and protein, which may be caused by inhibiting TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB/NLRP3 cascade. In conclusion, Tanshinone IIA can suppress cardiomyocyte pyroptosis probably through modulating the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB/NLRP3 cascade, lowering cardiac dysfunction, and myocardial damage.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.131-158
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• 2015

This study examined the relationship between physical education and externalizing(aggression) and internalizing(depression, social withdrawal) problem behaviors among adolescents. The moderating role of gender and time in the association between physical education and problem behavior was also identified. This study used data from the second, third, and fourth waves of the middle school student cohort (N=2,133, N=2,151, N=1,979) of the Korean Children-Youth Panel Survey(KCYPS). Main analyses involved multilevel growth model with interaction terms. The dependent variables were aggression, depression, and social withdrawal. The independent variables were gender and physical education (exercise hours) at school. The control variables were abuse, school-adjustment, annual household income and parents' highest level of education. The major longitudinal findings of this study are as follows: First, there was significant change according to the passage of time only in aggression among externalizing and internalizing problems. Second, gender differences exist in aggression and depression. Third, exercise hours of physical education had a negative relationship with internalizing problems. Fourth, there were no gender differences over time in both externalizing and internalizing problems. Fifth, the interaction between exercise hours of physical education and time was statistically significant for social withdrawal. Sixth, the interaction between exercise hours of physical education and gender was statistically significant for depression. The results of this study may become an academic basis for suggesting policy directions that promote increased exercise hours in physical education classes at school.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.371-385
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Soy isoflavone (SIF) and soy lecithin (SL) have beneficial effects on many chronic diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases. Regretfully, there is little evidence to show the combined effects of these soy extractives on the impairment of cognition and abnormal cerebral blood flow (CBF). This study examined the optimal combination dose of SIF + SL to provide evidence for improving CBF and protecting cerebrovascular endothelial cells. MATERIALS/METHODS: In vivo study, SIF50 + SL40, SIF50 + SL80 and SIF50 + SL160 groups were obtained. Morris water maze, laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI), and hematoxylin-eosin staining were used to detect learning and memory impairment, CBF, and damage to the cerebrovascular tissue in rat. The 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and the oxidized glutathione (GSSG) were detected. The anti-oxidative damage index of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH) in the serum of an animal model was also tested. In vitro study, an immortalized mouse brain endothelial cell line (bEND.3 cells) was used to confirm the cerebrovascular endothelial cell protection of SIF + SL. In this study, 50 µM of Gen were used, while the 25, 50, or 100 µM of SL for different incubation times were selected first. The intracellular levels of 8-OHdG, SOD, GSH, and GSSG were also detected in the cells. RESULTS: In vivo study, SIF + SL could increase the target crossing times significantly and shorten the total swimming distance of rats. The CBF in the rats of the SIF50 + SL40 group and SIF50 + SL160 group was enhanced. Pathological changes, such as attenuation of the endothelium in cerebral vessels were much less in the SIF50 + SL40 group and SIF50 + SL160 group. The 8-OHdG was reduced in the SIF50 + SL40 group. The GSSG showed a significant decrease in all SIF + SL pretreatment groups, but the GSH showed an opposite result. SOD was upregulated by SIF + SL pretreatment. Different combinations of Genistein (Gen)+SL, the secondary proof of health benefits found in vivo study, showed they have effective anti-oxidation and less side reaction on protecting cerebrovascular endothelial cell. SIF50 + SL40 in rats experiment and Gen50 + SL25 in cell test were the optimum joint doses on alleviating cognitive impairment and regulating CBF through protecting cerebrovascular tissue by its antioxidant activity. CONCLUSIONS: SIF+SL could significantly prevent cognitive defect induced by β-Amyloid through regulating CBF. This kind of effect might be attributed to its antioxidant activity on protecting cerebral vessels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.23-48
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to investigate the flow of domestic information literacy education research using keyword network analysis and topic modeling and to explore the direction of information literacy education in the future. For this reason, 306 academic papers related to information literacy education published in academic journals of the library and information science field in Korea were chosen. And through the preprocessing process for abstracts of the paper, total keyword appearance frequency, keyword appearance frequency by period, and keyword simultaneous occurrence frequency were analyzed. Subsequently, keyword network analysis analyzed the degree centrality, between centrality, and eigenvector centrality of keywords. Using structural topic modeling analysis, 15 topics -curriculum, information literacy effect, contents of information literacy education, school library education, information media literacy, information literacy ability evaluation index, library anxiety, public library program, health information literacy ability, digital divide, library assisted instruction improvement, research trend, information literacy model, and teacher role-were derived. In addition, the trend of topics by year was analyzed to confirm the change in relative weight by topic. Based on these results, the direction of information literacy education and the suggestions for follow-up research were presented.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.743-759
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• 2009

This study examined the effects of the economic activity status on the mental health of middle and older adults. In terms of mental health, a theoretical model was used to evaluate the mediating role of the income level and the satisfaction in family relationship. Using data from Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, job seekers and those who had never worked before were excluded and employees and retirees (over 45 years old) who have both a spouse and children were selected for the analysis. The variables were the economic activity status, the income level, the satisfaction in family relationship, and the mental health. The results show that the number of employed middle and older adults were higher than that of retirees, and the satisfaction in family relationship were generally high. In terms of mental health, the level of happiness was high, while the level of depression was low. Also, the pathway analysis of the effect of the economic activity status on the mental health shows that the economic activity status directly affects the mental health and gives indirect effects through the medium of the income level and the satisfaction in family relationship.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.359-376
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• 2012

The present study empirically confirmed knowledge of ageing and quality of contact were predictors affecting middle-aged Korean's ageism against the elderly and verified mediating role of intergroup anxiety between not only knowledge of ageing but also quality of contact and ageism. To investigate causalities of factors, we purposively collected 400 samples from 20 Dongs evenly located in Jeonju and 393 samples, survived the data cleaning such as missing values, outliers, normality and covariance conditions, were analyzed by frequency, factor analysis, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis and structural model analysis. Followed were the selected contributions of the present study. First, the knowledge of ageing and quality of contact were predictors of ageism mediated by intergroup anxiety. Second, the knowledge of ageing and quality of contact did not directly affect middle-aged Korean's ageism against the elderly. Third, intergroup anxiety had strong effect on ageism. The contributions suggested increasing knowledge of ageing and providing contact experience to middle-aged Korean as combating strategy against ageism.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.279-308
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• 2010

This study examines the association between family policies and family gap using data for 14 OECD countries. As family policies have different assumptions about women's roles and include variant sub-policies, this study identify two distinct family policies: 'employment support policy' to support women as employed workers and 'caregiving support policy' to support women as caregivers. Meanwhile, women's wage cannot be determined by the effect of 'only' family policy. Therefore, analysis model includes variant macro structure supposed to affect women's labor status and wage, like labor market structure, wage structure(compression), women's social status and economic status, and examines interaction effects between family policies and these labor market and social structures using Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (FSQCA). The FSQCA result shows that relatively low family gap is associated with the conjunctual causation of developed 'employment support policy' and compressed wage structure.

• Korean Journal of Exercise Nutrition
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2012

Oxygen is the final acceptor of electron transport from fat and carbohydrate oxidation, which is the rate-limiting factor for cellular ATP production. Under altitude hypoxia condition, energy reliance on anaerobic glycolysis increases to compensate for the shortfall caused by reduced fatty acid oxidation [1]. Therefore, training at altitude is expected to strongly influence the human metabolic system, and has the potential to be designed as a non-pharmacological or recreational intervention regimen for correcting diabetes or related metabolic problems. However, most people cannot accommodate high altitude exposure above 4500 M due to acute mountain sickness (AMS) and insulin resistance corresponding to a increased levels of the stress hormones cortisol and catecholamine [2]. Thus, less stringent conditions were evaluated to determine whether glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity could be improved by moderate altitude exposure (below 4000 M). In 2003, we and another group in Austria reported that short-term moderate altitude exposure plus endurance-related physical activity significantly improves glucose tolerance (not fasting glucose) in humans [3,4], which is associated with the improvement in the whole-body insulin sensitivity [5]. With daily hiking at an altitude of approximately 4000 M, glucose tolerance can still be improved but fasting glucose was slightly elevated. Individuals vary widely in their response to altitude challenge. In particular, the improvement in glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity by prolonged altitude hiking activity is not apparent in those individuals with low baseline DHEA-S concentration [6]. In addition, hematopoietic adaptation against altitude hypoxia can also be impaired in individuals with low DHEA-S. In short-lived mammals like rodents, the DHEA-S level is barely detectable since their adrenal cortex does not appear to produce this steroid [7]. In this model, exercise training recovery under prolonged hypoxia exposure (14-15% oxygen, 8 h per day for 6 weeks) can still improve insulin sensitivity, secondary to an effective suppression of adiposity [8]. Genetically obese rats exhibit hyperinsulinemia (sign of insulin resistance) with up-regulated baseline levels of AMP-activated protein kinase and AS160 phosphorylation in skeletal muscle compared to lean rats. After prolonged hypoxia training, this abnormality can be reversed concomitant with an approximately 50% increase in GLUT4 protein expression. Additionally, prolonged moderate hypoxia training results in decreased diffusion distance of muscle fiber (reduced cross-sectional area) without affecting muscle weight. In humans, moderate hypoxia increases postprandial blood distribution towards skeletal muscle during a training recovery. This physiological response plays a role in the redistribution of fuel storage among important energy storage sites and may explain its potent effect on changing body composition. Conclusion: Prolonged moderate altitude hypoxia (rangingfrom 1700 to 2400 M), but not acute high attitude hypoxia (above 4000 M), can effectively improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance for humans and antagonizes the obese phenotype in animals with a genetic defect. In humans, the magnitude of the improvementvaries widely and correlates with baseline plasma DHEA-S levels. Compared to training at sea-level, training at altitude effectively decreases fat mass in parallel with increased muscle mass. This change may be associated with increased perfusion of insulin and fuel towards skeletal muscle that favors muscle competing postprandial fuel in circulation against adipose tissues.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2011

The previous studies found the importance of market orientation (MO), learning orientation (LO), and marketing capabilities (MC) in driving firm performance (FP), but respectively. This research attempted to integrate the rather separate research streams of MO, LO, and MC in explaining FP. How MO and LO, as two critical constructs of organizations' cultural values, affect FP was examined with the mediating role of MC (composed of marketing planning capability (MPC) and marketing implementation capability (MIC)). Specifically, we derived specific conceptualizations on the effects of LO on FP through MO, MPC, and MIC as well as the effect of MO on FP through MPC. Accordingly, we empirically tested a process of how LO, MO, and MC translate into FP, using survey data of 146 respondents from Korean companies. The results successfully supported our model. It is worth noting not only that LO and MO are found to have synergistic effects on FP through MC but also that LO fosters MO. The relevant implications of our findings are presented with limitations and further research directions.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.705-720
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• 2024

Analyzing the collapse behavior of thin-walled steel structures holds significant importance in ensuring their safety and longevity. Geometric imperfections present on the surface of metal materials can diminish both the durability and mechanical integrity of steel shells. These imperfections, encompassing local geometric irregularities and deformations such as holes, cavities, notches, and cracks localized in specific regions of the shell surface, play a pivotal role in the assessment. They can induce stress concentration within the structure, thereby influencing its susceptibility to buckling. The intricate relationship between the buckling behavior of these structures and such imperfections is multifaceted, contingent upon a variety of factors. The buckling analysis of thin-walled steel shell structures, similar to other steel structures, commonly involves the determination of crucial material properties, including elastic modulus, shear modulus, tensile strength, and fracture toughness. An established method involves the emulation of distributed geometric imperfections, utilizing real test specimen data as a basis. This approach allows for the accurate representation and assessment of the diversity and distribution of imperfections encountered in real-world scenarios. Utilizing defect data obtained from actual test samples enhances the model's realism and applicability. The sizes and configurations of these defects are employed as inputs in the modeling process, aiding in the prediction of structural behavior. It's worth noting that there is a dearth of experimental studies addressing the influence of geometric defects on the buckling behavior of cylindrical steel shells. In this particular study, samples featuring geometric imperfections were subjected to experimental buckling tests. These same samples were also modeled using Finite Element Analysis (FEM), with results corroborating the experimental findings. Furthermore, the initial geometrical imperfections were measured using digital image correlation (DIC) techniques. In this way, the response of the test specimens can be estimated accurately by applying the initial imperfections to FE models. After validation of the test results with FEA, a numerical parametric study was conducted to develop more generalized design recommendations for the stainless-steel shell structures with the initial geometric imperfection. While the load-carrying capacity of samples with perfect surfaces was up to 140 kN, the load-carrying capacity of samples with 4 mm defects was around 130 kN. Likewise, while the load carrying capacity of samples with 10 mm defects was around 125 kN, the load carrying capacity of samples with 14 mm defects was measured around 120 kN.