COMPARISON OF VOLATILE COMPOSITION OF SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE EXTRACT FROM RHIZOMES OF KOREAN MEDICINAL PLANT 'CHUN-KUNG' (CNIDIUM OFFICINALE MAKINO) BY DIRECT-AND SPME-GC/MS

Objective: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the volatile composition of supercritical fluid extract (SFE) obtained from Cnidium officinale Makino rhizomes. Methods: GC/MS analyses were carried out with the direct- and solid phase microextraction (SPME) of SFE obtained from rhizomes. In addition, GC/MS analysis was performed for the rhizomes of C. officinale using SPME. Results: SPME-GC/MS analysis of the rhizomes revealed the separation of 23 components. Among these, β-phellandrene (20.38%), dictyotene (12.98%), β-pinene (10.59%), β-selinene (9.45%), eugenol (7.71%) and β-farnesene (7.09%) were found to be major components. In the SFE analyzed by direct-GC/MS, linoleic acid (19.26%), 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (18.98%), hexadecanoic acid (12.15%), and β-selinene (9.44%) were identified as major components. Whereas, 3,4-dihydrocoumarin (16.94%), shyobunone (14.07%), dictyotene (10.65%), p-cresol (10.17%), zierone (6.36%) and umbellulone (5.71%) were major components in the SFE analyzed by SPME-GC/MS. Conclusion: The present study clearly suggested that the SPME-GC/MS analysis of SFE provided the separation of more number with diverse groups of compounds than the direct-GC/MS

Antioxidant, inhibition of α-glucosidase and suppression of nitric oxide production in LPS-induced murine macrophages by different fractions of Actinidia arguta stem

AbstractIn traditional systems of medicine, fruits, leaves, and stems of Actinidia arguta (Sieb. et Zucc.) Planch. ex Miq. have been used to treat various inflammatory diseases. The present study determined the proximate composition, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and hypoglycemic potential of A. arguta stem. Phenolic composition of hot water extract and its sub-fractions was determined by Folin–Ciocalteu’s reagent method. In vitro antioxidant activities of the samples were evaluated using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) radical scavenging assays. Anti-inflammatory activity of different fractions was investigated through the inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production in lipopolysaccharide (1μg/ml) stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. In addition, inhibition of α-glucosidase activity of hot water extract was determined using p-nitrophenyl-α-d-glucopyranoside (pNPG) as a substrate. Ethyl acetate (557.23mgGAE/g) fraction contains higher level of total phenolic content. The antioxidant activity evaluated by DPPH radical scavenging assay showed a strong activity for ethyl acetate (IC50 of 14.28μg/ml) and n-butanol fractions (IC50 of 48.27μg/ml). Further, ethyl acetate fraction effectively inhibited NO production in RAW 264.7 cells induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) than other fractions (nitrite level to 32.14μM at 200μg/ml). In addition, hot water extract of A. arguta stem exhibited appreciable inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase enzyme with IC50 of 1.71mg/ml. The obtained results have important consequence of using A. arguta stem toward the development of effective anti-inflammatory drugs

Korean Version of Mini Mental Status Examination for Dementia Screening and Its' Short Form

Objective We developed a Korean version of Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) optimized for screening dementia (MMSE-DS) and its short form (SMMSE-DS). Methods We constructed the MMSE-DS using the items of the two current Korean versions of MMSE and then construct the SMMSE-DS consisted of 13 items from the MMSE-DS based on the diagnostic accuracy of individual items for dementia. We investigated reliability and validity of MMSE-DS and SMMSE-DS on 1,555 subjects (1,222 nondemented controls, 333 dementia patients). We compared the diagnostic accuracy of the SMMSE-DS with that of the three full Korean versions of MMSE, and examined its age- and education-specific optimal cutoff scores for dementia. Results The internal consistency obtained by Cronbach`s coefficient alpha was 0.826. The inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability were 0.968 (p<0.001) and 0.825 (p<0.001), respectively. It showed significant correlation with the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) (r=-0.698, p<0.05) and the three full Korean versions of MMSE (r=0.839-0.938, p<0.001). The area under the receiver operator curve for dementia of the SMMSE-DS was larger than those of the three full Korean versions of MMSE (p<0.001). Age, education and gender explained 19.4% of the total variance of SMMSE-DS scores. The optimal cutoff scores for dementia of the SMMSE-DS were estimated differently by age and educational attainment of the subjects. Conclusion The SMMSE-DS was found to be accurate, brief and portable instrument for screening dementia in Korean elders, and may be particularly useful for screening dementia in elderly populations with wide variation in educational levels. Psychiatry Investig 2010;7:102-108This study was supported by a research grant from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea (Grant NO. 08-2009-014).Han C, 2008, ARCH GERONTOL GERIAT, V47, P302, DOI 10.1016/j.archger.2007.08.012PARK JH, 2007, PSYCHIAT INVEST, V4, P84Kim KW, 2005, DEMENT GERIATR COGN, V19, P324, DOI 10.1159/000084558JHOO JH, 2005, J KOREAN NEUROPSYCHI, V44, P98KIM HS, 2005, HYEONDAE GUGEO SAYON, V2Boustani M, 2003, ANN INTERN MED, V138, P927KANG Y, 2003, NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL SLee JH, 2002, J GERONTOL B-PSYCHOL, V57, pP47LEE DY, 2002, J KOREAN NEUROPSYCHI, V41, P508PARK J, 1999, J KOREAN NEUROPSYCHI, V38, P173Malloy PF, 1997, J NEUROPSYCH CLIN N, V9, P189KANG Y, 1997, J KOREAN NEUROL ASS, V15, P300WOO JL, 1996, J KOREAN NEUROPSYCHI, V35, P122LINN RT, 1995, ARCH NEUROL-CHICAGO, V52, P485MASUR DM, 1994, NEUROLOGY, V44, P1427*AM PSYCH ASS, 1994, DIAGN STAT MAN MENTIMAI Y, 1994, J HONG KONG COLL PSY, V4, P20MORRIS JC, 1993, NEUROLOGY, V43, P2412CRUM RM, 1993, JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC, V269, P2386TOMBAUGH TN, 1992, J AM GERIATR SOC, V40, P922FEHER EP, 1992, ARCH NEUROL-CHICAGO, V49, P87HODGES JR, 1990, J NEUROL NEUROSUR PS, V53, P1089GALASKO D, 1990, ARCH NEUROL-CHICAGO, V47, P49OCONNOR DW, 1989, PSYCHOL MED, V19, P771PARK JH, 1989, J KOREAN NEUROPSYCHI, V28, P508OCONNOR DW, 1989, J PSYCHIAT RES, V23, P87HANLEY JA, 1983, RADIOLOGY, V148, P839HUGHES CP, 1982, BRIT J PSYCHIAT, V140, P566ANTHONY JC, 1982, PSYCHOL MED, V12, P397FOLSTEIN MF, 1975, J PSYCHIATR RES, V12, P198

Exposure to Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields Induces Fos-Related Antigen-Immunoreactivity Via Activation of Dopaminergic D1 Receptor

We previously demonstrated that repeated exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) increases locomotor activity via stimulation of dopaminergic D1 receptor (J. Pharmacol. Sci., 2007;105:367-371). Since it has been demonstrated that activator protein-1 (AP-1) transcription factors, especially 35-kDa fos-related antigen (FRA), play a key role in the neuronal and behavioral adaptation in response to various stimuli, we examined whether repeated ELF-MF exposure induces FRA-immunoreactivity (FRA-IR) in the striatum and nucleus accumbens (striatal complex) of the mice. Repeated exposure to ELF-MF (0.3 or 2.4 mT, 1 h/day, for consecutive fourteen days) significantly induced hyperlocomotor activity and FRA-IR in the striatal complex in a field intensity-dependent manner. ELF-MF-induced FRA-IR lasted for at least 1 year, while locomotor activity returned near control level 3 months after the final exposure to ELF-MF. Pretreatment with SCH23390, a dopaminergic D1 receptor antagonist, but not with sulpiride, a dopaminergic D2 receptor antagonist, significantly attenuated hyperlocomotor activity and FRA-IR induced by ELF-MF. Our results suggest that repeated exposure to ELF-MF leads to prolonged locomotor stimulation and long-term expression of FRA in the striatal complex of the mice via stimulation of dopaminergic D1 receptor

Impaired Design Fluency Is a Marker of Pathological Cognitive Aging; Results from the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging

ObjectiveaaWe investigated neuropsychological markers that can be used to discriminate pathological cognitive aging from normal cognitive aging. MethodsaaWe administered frontal lobe function tests including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), digit span test, lexical fluency test, fixed condition design fluency test, and Trail Making Test B (TMT-B) to 92 individuals with pathological cognitive aging (PCA) and 222 individuals with normal cognitive aging (NCA). We examined the main effects of participants ’ diagnoses (PCA, NCA) and age (65-69 years old, 70-74 years old and 75 years old or over) on their test performance using multivariate analysis of variance. ResultsaaThe main effects of both the diagnosis (F=2.860, p=0.002) and the age group (F=2.484, p&lt;0.001) were significant. The PCA group showed lower performance on the backward digit span test (F=14.306, p&lt;0.001), fixed condition design fluency test (F=8.347, p=0.004) and also exhibited perseverative errors in the WCST (F=4.19, p=0.042) compared with the NCA group. The main effect of the diagnosis on the backward digit span test and the fixed condition design fluency test remained significant after Bonferroni correction

NICE 2023 Zero-shot Image Captioning Challenge

In this report, we introduce NICE project\footnote{\url{https://nice.lgresearch.ai/}} and share the results and outcomes of NICE challenge 2023. This project is designed to challenge the computer vision community to develop robust image captioning models that advance the state-of-the-art both in terms of accuracy and fairness. Through the challenge, the image captioning models were tested using a new evaluation dataset that includes a large variety of visual concepts from many domains. There was no specific training data provided for the challenge, and therefore the challenge entries were required to adapt to new types of image descriptions that had not been seen during training. This report includes information on the newly proposed NICE dataset, evaluation methods, challenge results, and technical details of top-ranking entries. We expect that the outcomes of the challenge will contribute to the improvement of AI models on various vision-language tasks.Comment: Tech report, project page https://nice.lgresearch.ai

Osmotin-loaded magnetic nanoparticles with electromagnetic guidance for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent age-related neurodegenerative disease, pathologically characterized by the accumulation of aggregated amyloid beta (Aβ) in the brain.</p

Clinical Characteristics of a Nationwide Hospital-based Registry of Mild-to-Moderate Alzheimer's Disease Patients in Korea: A CREDOS (Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea) Study

With rapid population aging, the socioeconomic burden caused by dementia care is snowballing. Although a few community-based studies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been performed in Korea, there has never been a nationwide hospital-based study thereof. We aimed to identify the demographics and clinical characteristics of mild-to-moderate AD patients from the Clinical Research Center for Dementia of Korea (CREDOS) registry. A total of 1,786 patients were consecutively included from September 2005 to June 2010. Each patient underwent comprehensive neurological examination, interview for caregivers, laboratory investigations, neuropsychological tests, and brain MRI. The mean age was 74.0 yr and the female percentage 67.0%. The mean period of education was 7.1 yr and the frequency of early-onset AD (< 65 yr old) was 18.8%. Among the vascular risk factors, hypertension (48.9%) and diabetes mellitus (22.3%) were the most frequent. The mean score of the Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) was 19.2 and the mean sum of box scores of Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR-SB) 5.1. Based on the well-structured, nationwide, and hospital-based registry, this study provides the unique clinical characteristics of AD and emphasizes the importance of vascular factors in AD in Korea

Prevalence of the Major Mental Disorders among the Korean Elderly

With a rapidly aging society, geriatric mental health is emerging as important public health concern. Despite the short history of psychiatric epidemiology in Korea, recently, epidemiologic data regarding geriatric psychiatric problems has started to accumulate. In the current study, we reviewed epidemiological findings regarding geriatric mental health in Korea. It was found that up to 10% of the elderly suffer from dementia, and 10% to 20% from depressive disorder. Further, prevalence estimates of Alzheimer's disease ranged from 4.2% to 9.0%, and vascular dementia from 1.0% to 4.8%. Annual incidence rates for Alzheimer's were 2.7% to 3.4% whereas that for vascular dementia was found to be as low as 0.3%. The prevalence of major depressive disorder was 4.2% to 9.1%, while that of clinically significant depressive symptom was between 9.1% and 33.0%. Finally, those with alcohol use disorders were found to comprise up to 13.6% of elderly population and additionally, 22% to 58% of the elderly were found to have sleep difficulties. Thus major mental disorders are already prevalent among the Korean elderly and are likely to increase rapidly