• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.45-55
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• 2008

Purpose: This study evaluates the association of estrogen receptor(ER), progesterone receptor(PR), Her-2, COX-2, and survivin with the clinicopathological features and outcomes in young Korean women with breast cancer using recently developed tissue microarray(TMA) technology. Materials and Methods: A cohort of 212 young patients with breast cancer diagnosed at the age of 45 years or younger from March 1994 to August 2005, were enrolled in this study. The age range of patients was $23{\sim}45$ years(median age, 39 years). The minimum and median follow-up periods were 24 months and 60 months, respectively. Serial sections of primary tumors were processed by the use of a TMA for immunohistochemical staining for five biomarkers. The correlation of these five biomarkers and the clinicopathological features and outcomes were analyzed by statistical methods. Results: The majority of the patients were stage T1(90 patients) or T2(101 patients), and 105 patients(49.5%) had an axillary node metastasis. The 5-year overall and relapse free survival rates for all of the patients were 90.4% and 82.3%, respectively, and 36 patients had a locoregional or distant metastasis as a first event. Positive expression of ER, PR, Her-2, COX-2, and survivin was determined in 38.2%, 45.3%, 25.9%, 41.5%, and 43.4%, of the tumor samples, respectively. Tumor stage, nodal status, age, as well as expression of ER, PR, and HER-2 status were significantly associated with the disease free survival rate. Tumor stage, nodal status, as well as expression of ER, PR, and HER-2 were significantly related with the overall survival rate. Expression of COX-2 and survivin were not single independent prognostic factors for the disease free and overall survival rate although co-expression of HER-2 and COX-2 had a tendency as a poor prognostic factor. By multivariate analysis, only T stage and lymph node status were significant prognostic factors, and ER status was a marginally significant prognostic factor(p=0.075). Conclusion: Expression of ER, PR and HER-2 were significant prognostic factors for the relapse free and overall survival rate. Expression of COX-2 and survivin were not prognostic factors for young women with breast cancer.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.96-103
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• 1998

Purpose : We performed this study to evaluate the immune responses and protective efficacies of the HBV vaccine in infants born from hepatitis B virus(HBV) carrier mothers. Methods : Seventy eight infants born from HBV carrier mothers, who were able to follow up for 12months in the Catholic University St. Vincents hospital, were involved in this study from July 1995 to December 1996. Samples were collected at birth, 4, 8 and 12months after injection of HBIG and HBV heat-inactivated plasma derived vaccines. We evaluated the changes and relationships of viral markers detecting by enzyme immunoassay and radioimmunoassay between HBV carrier mothers and their infants. Results : 1) A total of 5.0%(106/2,117) of pregnant women were found to be a HBV carrier. The rates of HBeAg positive and negative were 38.5%(37/96) and 61.5%(59/96), respectively. 2) The seroconversion rates of anti-HBs with infants of HBV carrier mothers at 4, 8 and 12 months were 85.9%(67/78), 75.6%(59/78) and 73.1%(57/78), respectively. Although these were statistically significant differences(P<0.05), they were not related to HBeAg status of the mothers. The geometric mean titers of anti-HBs at 8 and 12 months were significantly higher than at 4 months, statistically(P<0.05). The protective efficacy of the HBV vaccine and HBIG at 12 months in infants from HBeAg positive and negative mothers were 89.8% and 100%, respectively. 3) Five of 78(6.4%) infants became infected by HBV from only HBeAg positive mothers during the follow up period of 12 months. Three of 5 infected infants became HBV carriers. HBsAg positive at birth from HBeAg positive and negative mother were 4 infants, respectively. Three of 4 infants became infected by HBV from only HBeAg positive mothers. Conclusion : We confirmed that the seroconversion rate of HBV heat-inactivated plasma derived vaccine which was one of other vaccines manufacturing in Korea was 85.9%. The protective efficacy of this HBV vaccine and HBIG at 12 months in infants from HBeAg positive and negative mothers were 89.8% and 100%, respectively.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.39 no.1 s.258
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• pp.35-41
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• 2006

Background: The radial arteries are being used more often for coronary artery bypass grafting, We tried to the endoscopic radial artery harvest to reduce the cosmetic problems and neurologic complications of the conventional open harvesting and report the techniques and early results. Material and Method: The 86 patients underwent coronary artery bypass grafting between May 2003 and April 2005 had their nondominant radial artery endoscopically removed through a 2 cm incision at the wrist. The radial pedicle was dissected and was divided at antecubial area through a 5 mm counterincision. Result: The 23 patients complained of neuralgias on territory of superficial raidal none but no one complained of neuralgias on territory of lateral antebrachial cutaneous none. There was no functional impairment of the hand. There was no wound complication except a localized hematoma. All patients were contacted by telephone after postoperative 7.9$\pm$3.6 months. The 4 patients still complained of neuralgia. All the patients were satisfied with the aesthetics of the wounds. The multidetectional tomography was done on the 66 patients for the estimation of early patency of radial artery. There were 2 cases of stenosis and a case of occlusion. Conclusion: Endoscopic radial artery harvest had no functional impairment of the hand, lesser rate of neurologic complications and outstanding aesthetics. The results of early patency of the radial artery was similar to conventional methods. Therefore, we think that endoscopic radial artery harvest is the optimal procedure.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.245-263
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• 2013

This study was conducted to find out the influence of elevated atmospheric $CO_2$ concentrations and air temperature on photosynthesis and fruit quality of 'Fuji'/M.9 apple trees and to investigate these to the effects of climate change during the last four years (2009-2012). The treatments employed were: 'Ambient' (ambient temperature + ambient $CO_2$ concentration); 'High $CO_2$' (ambient temperature + elevated $CO_2$ concentration); 'High Temp'. (elevated temperature + ambient $CO_2$ concentration); and 'High $CO_2$ + High Temp'. (elevated temperature + elevated $CO_2$ concentration). The elevated temperature plots were maintained at $4^{\circ}C$ higher than ambient air temperature, while the elevated $CO_2$ plots were maintained at 700 ${\mu}mol{\cdot}mol^{-1}$. Annual treatment period was applied from end of April to beginning of November for four years. Results showed that elevated $CO_2$ decreased stomatal conductance and leaf SPAD value, but increased photosynthetic rate, intercellular $CO_2$ concentration (Ci), and starch content of mesophyll tissue. In the vegetative growth, elevated temperature increased total number of shoot and total shoot growth per tree, but elevated $CO_2$ decreased average shoot length. In the fruit quality, elevated $CO_2$ increased soluble solid content, fruit red color, and ethylene production. In conclusion, elevated $CO_2$ increased photosynthetic rate of apples during the early growth, but effect of increased photosynthetic rate due to elevated $CO_2$ was decreased during latter growth stage. Elevated temperature, on the other hand, tended to decrease photosynthetic rate of apples during the early growth, but that tended to increase during latter growth stage. Both elevated $CO_2$ and temperature tended to decrease the degree of decreased photosynthetic rate due to each factor.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2009

Purpose : Pertussis was very common in the past, but reported cases have dramatically decreased. The improvement of vaccination programs and unreadiness of laboratory confirmation seems to have developed this situation. This study investigated the frequency of pertussis among infants with a paroxysmal cough and compared the clinical characteristics between infants with and without pertussis. Methods : Between June and November 2006, 27 infants admitted to the hospital that were 15-90 days old with a history of a cough for more than seven days were enrolled. The cough was described as: paroxysmal, whooping, and post-tussive vomiting. PCR and cultures for Bordetella pertussis with nasopharyngeal aspirates were obtained. The patients were divided into two groups: (1) the pertussis group that had positive results by PCR or culture; (2) the control group that had negative results by PCR and culture. Clinical and laboratory characteristics were compared between the two groups. Results : Among the 27 cases, five (18.5%) were finally diagnosed with pertussis. Only one out of the five pertussis cases was initially diagnosed with a pertussis-like syndrome on admission. Compared to the group without pertussis, the pertussis group had a significantly higher frequency of: no fever (P =0.043), a paroxysmal cough (P =0.040), cyanosis (P =0.001), non-immunized status for DTaP (P =0.047), normal auscultation (P =0.028), normal chest X-ray findings (P =0.027), high absolute lymphocyte count (P =0.039), and low CRP (P =0.046). The patients with the diagnosis of pertussis had a significantly longer duration of coughing (27.2${\pm}$10.6 vs. 12.6${\pm}$5.6 days, P =0.039). Conclusion : Pertussis should be suspected in any infant with typical symptoms of pertussis in addition to: a persistent cough without fever, accompanied by paroxysms or cyanosis prior to the age of DTaP immunization. Active laboratory confirmation should be carried out to confirm more cases with pertussis.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.205-213
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• 2002

Objective : Whether exposure to chronic noise induces an increase in blood pressure, or the development of hypertension, has not been established. A cohort study was performed to identify the effects of chronic noise exposure on blood pressure. Methods : 530 males working at a metal manufacturing factory in Busan, Korea were enrolled for the study. They were monitored for 9 consecutive years, from 1991 to 1999, with an annual health check-up. The subjects were divided into 4 groups, which were determines by noise level categories(NLC) according to noise intensity ; NLC-I: office workers, exposed to noise a level below 60dB(A) ; NLC-II: field technical supporters or supervisors, frequently exposed to workplace noise, wearing no hearing protection device; NLC-III: workers, exposed to workplace noise below 85dB(A), wearing ear plugs or muffs; NLC-IV: workers, exposed to workplace noise over 85 dB(A), wearing both ear plugs and muffs. Results : After controlling possible confoundens, such as baseline age, smoking, alcohol intake, exercise, family history of hypertension, systolic(SBP) of diastolic blood pressure(DBP) and changes in BMI (body mass index), the pooled mean for the systolic blood pressures, over the duration of the study period, were 3.8mmHg, 2.0mmHg and 1.7mmHg higher in NLC-IV, NLC-III NLC-II groups, respectively, than in the NLC-I group. There were no significant differences in the diastolic blood pressures between the groups. Conclusion : This study suggests that chronic noise exposure increases systolic blood pressure independently, among male workers.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.453-469
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• 2016

Many image fusion quality assessment techniques, which include Wald's, QNR and Khan's protocols, have been proposed. A total procedure for the quality assessment has been defined as the quality assessment protocol. In this paper, we compared the performance of the three protocols using KOMPSAT-2/3/3A satellite images, and tested the applicability to the fusion quality assessment of the KOMPSAT satellite images. In addition, we compared and analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the three protocols. We carried out the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the protocols by applying five fusion methods to the KOMPSAT test images. Then we compared the quantitative and qualitative results of the protocols from the aspects of the spectral and spatial preservations. In the Wald's protocol, the results from the qualitative and quantitative analysis were almost matched. However, the Wald's protocol had the limitations 1) that it is timeconsuming due to downsampling process and 2) that the fusion quality assessment are performed by using downsampled fusion image. The QNR protocol had an advantage that it utilizes an original image without downsampling. However, it could not find the aliasing effect of the wavelet-fused images in the spectral preservation. It means that the spectral preservation assessment of the QNR protocol might not be perfect. In the Khan's protocol, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the spectral preservation was not matched in the wavelet fusion. This is because the fusion results were changed in the downsampling process of the fused images. Nevertheless, the Khan's protocol were superior to Wald's and QNR protocols in the spatial preservation.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.28-34
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• 2006

Laboratory column tests using $Cl^-$ tracer were conducted to study the correlation of soil particle distribution and hydrodynamic dispersion mechanism with three kinds of ununiformed soil samples, in which the ratio of gravel and sand versus silt and clay is 24.5 for S-1 soil, 4.48 for S-2 soil, and 0.4 for S-3 soil. Chloride breakthrough curves with time were fitted with gaussian functions. The relative concentrations of chloride were converged to 1.0 after 0.7 hours for S-1, 6.3 hours for S-2, and 389 hours for S-3. Average linear velocity, longitudinal dispersion coefficient, and longitudinal dispersivity were calculated by chloride breakthrough curves. Longitudinal dispersion coefficients were $1.20{\times}10^{-4}\;m^2/sec$ for S-1, $8.87{\times}10^{-7}\;m^2/sec$ for S-2, and $1.94{\times}10^{-9}\;m^2/sec$ for S-3. Peclet numbers calculated by the molecular diffusion coefficient of chloride and the mean grain diameters of soils were $2.59{\times}10^2$ for S-1, $6.27{\times}10^0$ for S-2, and $1.35{\times}10^{-4}$ for S-3. Mechanical dispersion was dominant for the hydrodynamic dispersion mechanism of S-1. Both mechanical dispersion and molecular diffusion were dominant for the hydrodynamic dispersion mechanism of S-2, but mechanical dispersion was ascendant over molecular diffusion. Hydrodynamic dispersion in S-3 was occurred mainly by molecular diffusion. When plotting three soils on the graph of $D_L/D_m$ versus Peclet number produced by Bijeljic and Blunt (2006), the values of $D_L/D_m$ for S-1 and S-2 were more than 2.0 order compared to their graph. S-3 was not plotted on their graph because the Peclet number was as small as $1.35{\times}10^{-4}$.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.174-181
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• 2003

Purpose: The target volume for the three field technique in breast cancer include the breast tangential and supraclavicular areas. The techniques rotating the gantry and couch angles, to match these two areas, will geometrically produce mismatching of the posterior edge between the medial and lateral tangential beams. This mismatch was confirmed by film dosimetry and three-dimensional computer planning. The correction methods of this mismatching were studied in this article. Materials and Methods: After the supraclavicular field was simulated using a half beam block and the medial and lateral tangential fields, by the rotation of the couch and gantry, we compared the following two methods to correct the mismatch. The first method was the rotation of coillmator until a line drawn on the posterior edge of tangential beams before the rotation of couch aligned the line drawn on the posterior edge after the rotation. The second method was the rotation of collimator according to the formula developed by the author as follows; Co=$2sin^{-1}${$sin\{theta}\{cdot}sin(C/2)$} (Co: collimator angle, $\theta$: angle between tangential beam and table, C: couch angle) Results: The film dosimetry showed the mismatching of posterior edges of the medial and lateral tangential fields prior to the rotation of collimator, while the posterior edges matched well after the rotation of collimator according to the formula. The three-dimensional computer plan also showed that the posterior edges matched well after the rotation of collimator accordingly. The DVH of the ipsilateral lung with the proper rotation of collimator angle was better than that without the rotation of collimator angle. Conclusion: The mismatching of the posterior edges of the medial and lateral tangential fields can be recognized on the three fileld technique in breast irradiation when the gantry and couch are simultaneously rotated and can be corrected with the proper rotation of the collimator angle. The radiation dose to the ipsilateral lung could be lowered with this technique.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.355-361
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• 1993

Since May 1991, authors have conducted a pilot study to determine the feasibility and evaluate the effect of concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy with 5-FU and Cis-platinum for locally advanced cervical cancer (stage IIB-IVA). Radiation therapy consisted of external irradiation to whole pelvis (4140 cGy/23 fx) in 4.5 weeks followed by high dose rate intracavitary radiation therapy (HDR ICRT) to deliver a dose of 30 to 35 Gy to A point in 6 to 7 fractions. After the intracavitary radiation therapy, parametrial boost was delivered for B point dose of 60 Gy in Stage IIB and 65 Gy in stage IIIB. 5-FU (1000 $mg/m^2/24hr$ for 96 hour iv infusion) and Cis-platinum (20 $mg/m^2/day$ IV bolus for 3 days) were given during the second week of external RT and the second course chemotherapy administered at the first HDR ICRT with the same method as the first chemotherapy. Sixteen patients (10 stage IIB,4 stage IIIB,2 stage IVA) were registered to this protocol. Among these 16 patients, two refused treatment after 2 fractions of external irradiation, and one could not continue intracavitary irradiation because of treatment related genitourinary toxicity. So 14 patients were evaluated for toxicity and 13 patients were evaluated for response analysis. Five of 14 patients developed grade 3 gastrointestinal toxicity but 4 of them recovered at the completion of treatment. One stage IIIB patient with inguinal lymph node metastasis who received higher dose of radiation in spite of initial poor performance status did not recover from gastrointestinal toxicity at the completion of treatment. And she died of distant metastasis at one month after the completion of treatment. Two of 14 evaluable patients showed weight loss, more than $10\%$ of initial weight. One patient developed grade 3 leukopenia. In this study, the average total treatment period of completely treated patients was 75 days and three of them took more than 80 days (84, 84, 89 days). Toxicities were generally acceptable and there were no treatment related death. At the last follow-up, complete response was achieved in $62\%(8/13)$ and especially of nine patients with stage IIB, eight patients showed complete response. This study suggests that concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy (5-FU and Cis-platinum) is tolerable and effective. Further follow-up is needed to determine whether this protocol will have a favorable impact on survival and to evaluate the late effect on normal tissues. In future, prospective randomized trials are needed to compare the standard radiation therapy alone with concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy for locally advanced cervical carcinoma.