• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2017

Natural anti-oxidative compounds have important disease prevention and food preservation properties, in addition to anti-bacterial, anti-inflammation, anti-cancer, and skin whitening effects. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), with an ultra vilolet (UV) detector coupled to a reverse phase C18 column and an online measurement system for 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radicals, was used to search for potent antioxidative compounds in crude extracts. The online HPLC-DPPH assay was then applied to confirm antioxidative compounds in water extracts from Radix of Pueraria lobata, Rhizoma of Zingiber officinale, Fructus of Chaenomeles sinensis, Cortex of Ulmus pumila, and Radix of Astragalus membranaceus. To determine the yields of the extracts, the Brix% of each extract solution was measured using a refractometer. When the relative DPPH radical scavenging ability values of the water extracts were compared with those of a positive control (ascorbic acid), the water extracts of P. lobata, C. sinensis, and U. pumila were 7.77%, 4.71%, and 4.19%, respectively. The results suggest that this method provides a useful assay for rapid measurement of DPPH radical scavenging abilities and conformation of antioxidative compounds in natural products. Moreover, it can reduce the time spent on the separation of active compounds from natural materials, such as medicinal plants, in addition to the use of reagents for separation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.733-737
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• 2018

Cucurbitacin-I, a natural triterpenoid derived from Cucurbitaceae family plants, exhibits a number of potentially useful pharmacological and biological activities. Indeed, the previous study demonstrated that cucurbitacin-I reduced the proliferation of colon cancer cells by enhancing apoptosis and causing cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase. CD44, a type I transmembrane protein with the function of adhering to cells, mediates between the extracellular matrix and other cells through hyaluronic acid. Recent studies have demonstrated that an overexpression of the CD44 membrane receptor results in tumor initiation and growth, specific behaviors of cancer stem cells, the development of drug resistance, and metastasis. The aim was to examine the effect of cucurbitacin-I on CD44 expression human ovarian cancer cells because the effect of cucurbitacin-I on CD44 expression has not been reported. The expressions of CD44 mRNA and protein were detected using a quantitative real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and a Western blot analysis, respectively. Treatment with cucurbitacin-I inhibited the expression of CD44 mRNA and protein. A subsequent analysis revealed that cucurbitacin-I blocked the phosphorylation of activator protein-1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor kappa-B ($NF-{\kappa}B$), which are key regulators of CD44 expression. Taken together, the data demonstrate that cucurbitacin-I regulates the AP-1 and $NF-{\kappa}B$ signaling pathways, leading to decreased CD44 expression.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.68-84
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• 1995

Background: Guideline for practice is useful because it can be the standard for assessment and way to improve quality. We need to take account of expert opinion and consensus as well as scientific evidences to develope practice guideline because it should be practical. Delphi method has been developed to gather opinions from experts fairly. This study was designed to develop practice guideline and apply it to practices as a method to improve quality in primary medical care. Methods: Hypertension(in adults over 18 years old) was selected as a target problem. Self questionnaires about management of hypertensive patients were developed by a researcher with advice of 11 experts. The questionnaires were designed to response as a 5 pont scale. The results of previous questionary were given to respondents in second and third questionnaires. If needed, the questionnaires were changed on the previous responses. The items with medium greater than or equal to 4 point in 1st and 2nd responses were accepted in guideline. The items with medium lesser than or equal to 3 point were questioned again about whether they can be excluded or not. The criteria for assessment was made with reference to guideline and applied to 85 hypertensive patients of 9 family practitioners. At 3 months after practice guideline had been given to family practitioners, performance of same practitioners was assessed with 36 new hypertensive patients. Results: 23 professors in family medicine, 22 family practitioners and 6 cardiologists, responded among 50, 50, 15 respectively. Practice guideline with 33 items was developed as a result of 3 times questionaires. The difference of responses between professors in family medicine, family practitioners and cardiologists was not significant. Performance of practice was improved in diagnosis, history taking about 6 fields, laboratory examination and decision making about time of pharmaceutical prescription. It was not improved in physical examination, life style modification, method of pharmaceutical prescription, choice of initial antihypertensives and history taking about duration of disease and diet habit. It was decreased in history taking about psychosocial factors. The assessment scores were low in history taking, physical examination and life style modification before and after use of practice guideline. Conclusion: Practice guideline for hypertension could be developed by Delphi method. Performance of practice improved partially after use of guideline.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.257-271
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• 1996

Livestock products like meat, milk and egg have been principal food sources for human beings since the historic periods of time. Nowadays consumption of these food items have been avoided due to its high contents of SFA, cholesterol and total fat which are major culprits of chronic adult diseases causing major deaths of people. However, the relationship between livestock products and diseases is not always true because the amounts of fat and cholesterol and types of fatty acids in meat and meat by-products depend on the part of the meat and types of animals. Although meat intakes do not always cause mai or adult diseases, still the developmental necessity does exist for animal foods equipped with biologically active properties, which in turn can improve nutritional status and health more than ever Meat with high protein lean part and low fat can be produced by applying synthetic somatotropin and beta-adrenergic agonists like clenbuterol, cimaterol etc. during breeding. This application brings benefits like higher growth rate, lower fat contents and improve feed efficiency ratios. Meats fortified with long chain PUFA($\omega$-3 fatty acids) can also be produced by modulating feed composition.Egg Products have faced the reduced sales annually because of its high cholesterol contents. Recently brand eggs fortified with special nutrients or chemical components having functional proper ties in the human body system are very popular Research Interests have been focused on eggs with low cholesterol and high omega-3 fatty acids. Low cholesterol eggs and high omega-3 eggs can be produced in several different ways, but popular way to increase is feeding the feeds with different oil sources containing high omega-3 and 6 fatty acids such as fish oil, perilla oil, linseed oil and lecithin etc. But proper compositon of feed formula should be found and economically beneficial. Brand eggs fortified with vitamin, mineral, unknown growth factors are also manufactured. Low cholesterol and high $\omega$-3 PUFA milk are marketed recently Cholesterol removal technology is not completely established and has several limitations to be overcome. Milk fortified with $\omega$-3 fatty acids is made by incorporating high &13 fatty acid foods in feed despite of extraordinary way of fatty acid metabolism In cow. All these biologically active products will be very beneficial and useful for human consumption when limitations of manufacturing technology such as safety and lowered sensory qualities are resolved. Furthermore, thorough and precise tests and quality control for these products should be performed to ensure the effectiveness and usefulness in terms of improving health and nutritional status in general. However one caution should be pointed out to lay people informing that these items are nothing but a food and not panacea. Therefore, it is important to remember that the only way of maintaining good health is absolutely through consuming balanced diet.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1245-1250
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• 2009

Beimu (Fritillaria thunbergii Miquel), a bulbous plant of Liliaceae found in Korea, Japan and China, has been used as an antitussive and expectorant agent, and is also useful in alleviating stonsillitis and bronchiolitis. Most researches have been focused on micro-propagation and plant regeneration, component analysis, and dormancy relieving of beimu. Reports regarding the biological activity of beimu, such as anti-Helicobacter pyroli or platelet aggregation inhibition activity, are few and not widely available. In this study, methanol extract and its organic solvent fractions were prepared from Fritillaria thunbergii Miquel and their antimicrobial, antithrombin, and antioxidant activities were evaluated, respectively. The methanol extract contained lots of water-soluble materials (58.98%) and hexane-soluble oils (14.85%). The ethylacetate and butanol fraction at $500{\mu}g$/disc concentration showed strong antibacterial activity against tested bacteria, except Escherichia coli. Antifungal activity was not observed in methanol extract and its fractions. The hexane, ethylacetate and butanol fractions showed strong antithrombin activity at 4.8 mg/ml concentration. Especially, the ethylacetate fraction showed 95.4 sec of thrombin time at a concentration of 1.2 mg/ml, which is comparable to aspirin, a widely used antithrombosis agent. For antioxidation activity, the ethylacetate and butanol fraction showed good 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl scavenging activity ($IC_{50}$ of $344{\sim}368{\mu}g$/ml). In superoxide dismutase-like activity and reducing power, the fractions showed $20{\sim}25%$ of vitamin C, and $51{\sim}54%$ of butyl hydroxytoluene, respectively.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.271-277
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• 2011

Background: A chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) assessment test (CAT) has recently been developed as a short and simple method for assessing the quality of life in COPD patients. The object of this study was to assess the usefulness of the Korean version of the CAT for assessing COPD patients in an outpatient clinic. Methods: The study included 60 COPD patients in a stable state from an outpatient clinic. The authors investigated the frequency of acute exacerbation during aprevious year through reviewing medical records. We evaluated the spirometry test, a 6-min walk distance test, and obtained the MMRC dyspnea scale, the Korean version of the CAT, and the BODE index at the time of visit. To assess the usefulness of the CAT, correlations between the CAT and other methods were evaluated. Results: The mean age of patients was $68.3{\pm}8.6$ years and 95% of patients were male. There was a significant correlation between the CAT score and $FEV_1%$ (r=-0.323, p=0.012), the frequency of acute exacerbation (r=0.292, p=0.024), the MMRC dyspnea scale (r=0.554, p<0.001), the BODE index (r=0.380, p=0.003), and 6 MWD (r=-0.372, p=0.004). The mean CAT score increased according to the GOLD stage (stage 1, $10.7{\pm}4.5$; stage 2, $13.1{\pm}7.9$; stage 3, $16.3{\pm}6.2$; stage 4, $16.5{\pm}14.8$; p=0.746). Conclusion: The CAT was shown to be useful for the assessment of COPD severity. Therefore, the CAT is an easily applied and simple method for assessing COPD severity in an outpatient clinic.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.1299-1305
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• 2010

Cardiac troponin-I (cTnI), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), and C-reactive protein (CRP) are routine cardiac markers for the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. Recently, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) has garnered attention as a marker of heart failure. This study was retrospectively designed to investigate the relationships between preoperative BNP, other cardiac markers levels and perioperative parameters in seventy-four adult patients that underwent off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) and to assess its usefulness for predicting postoperative outcomes. Preoperative levels of BNP, cTnI, CK-MB, and CRP had significantly positive or negative correlations with echocadiographic parameters. There were significantly positive relationships between BNP, cTnI, CK-MB, and CRP concentration. Postoperative mechanical ventilation time had a positive correlation to preoperative levels of cTnI, CK-MB, and CRP, while ICU-staying period had a positive correlation with BNP, cTnI and CK-MB. These results reveal that a preoperative level of BNP is a good predictor and that its combination with cTnI, CK-MB, and CRP might be useful for diagnosis and comprehensive risk stratification of patients with coronary heart diseases, as well as prognosis of perioperative outcomes in OPCAB patients.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.1314-1323
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• 2010

In this study, we constructed various kinds of binary vectors with the pPZP backbone for co-overexpression, tissue- or development-specific expression and stress-inducible expression, and validated them for ectopic expression of target genes. Using a modified CaMV 35S promoter, a binary vector was generated for co-overexpression of two different genes and was confirmed to be efficient for overexpressing two different target genes at the same time and place. Binary vectors containing At2S3, KNAT1 or LFY promoters were constructed for tissue-specific or development-specific gene expression, and the binary vectors were suited for embryo/young seedling stage-, shoot apical meristem- or leaf primordia-specific expressions. Furthermore, the binary vectors containing RD29A or AtNCED3 promoters were validated as suitable vectors for gene expression induced by abiotic stresses such as high salt, ABA, MV and low temperature. Taken together, the binary vectors constructed in this study would be very useful for analyzing the biological functions of target genes and molecular mechanisms through ectopic expression.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.483-487
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• 2018

Cypermethrin, a commonly used domestic and agricultural pyrethroid pesticide, is widely considered detrimental to the environment and to many organisms because of its residual property and toxicity. Cellulophaga lytica DAU203, isolated from coastal sediment, was chosen because it degrade cypermethrin. Cellulophaga lytica DAU203 effectively degraded cypermethrin, as the utilized carbon source and substrate, in a mineral salt medium. Effective factors, such as carbon source, nitrogen source, initial pH, and temperature, for cypermethtin biological degradation by Cellulophaga lytica DAU203 were analyzed by one factor at a time method. Temperature ($22{\sim}42^{\circ}C$), initial pH (5~9), and yeast extract concentration (0.1~2.5%[w/v]) were selected as the three most important factors. There were optimized at $33.4^{\circ}C$, pH 7.7, and 2.4%(w/v) by response surface methodology, respectively. The Box- Behnken design consisting of 46 experimental runs with three replicates was used to optimize the independent variables which significantly influenced the cypermethrin biological degradation. This model for cypermethrin degradation by Cellulophaga lytica DAU203 is highly significant (p<0.05). Under the optimized condition, Cellulophaga lytica DAU203 degraded approximately 83.7 % of the cypermethrin within 5 days. These results suggest that Cellulophaga lytica DAU203 may be useful for the biological degradation of cypermethrin in cypermethrin-contaminated environments.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2018

Background and Objectives : The effect of palliative injection laryngoplasty in cancer-related unilateral vocal cord paralysis patients on voice and swallowing function is uncertain and there are few previous studies of its suitability, benefits as a palliative treatment option. The purpose of this study is to confirm the objective results of voice and swallowing function after palliative office-based hyaluronic acid injection laryngoplasty in cancer-related unilateral vocal cord paralysis patients. Materials and Method : 36 patients who had unilateral vocal cord paralysis from non-thyroidal, extralaryngeal neoplasms were included in this study. To evaluate the clinical outcome, we analyzed perceptual GRBAS grading, acoustic analysis, aerodynamic study, Electroglottography (EGG), Voice Handicap Index (VHI-30) about voice function and disability rating scale (DRS), gastric tube dependency, aspiration pneumonia about swallowing function and 36-Item Short Form Survey version 2 (SF-36v2) about quality of life. Results : In GRBAS scale, G (p<0.001), R (p=0.004), B (p=0.001), A (p=0.011), and S (p=0.007) showed significant improvement. Jitter, shimmer, speaking fundamental frequency, maximal phonation time, VHI-30, DRS score, gastric tube dependency, aspiration pneumonia, and SF-36v2 were significantly improved after injection (p=0.016, p=0.011, p=0.045, p=0.005, p<0.001, p<0.001 p=0.003, p<0.001, and p<0.001 respectively). Conclusion : From this study we concluded office-based hyaluronic acid injection can be used as a useful palliative treatment option in cancer-related ill patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis. Palliative hyaluronic acid injection laryngoplasty avoids the need for tube feeding, thus reducing the risk of aspiration pneumonia. These outcomes are accompanied by significant improvement in voice quality.