• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2009

urpose : The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been demonstrated to play a major role in regulating blood pressure. Therefore, components of the RAS are likely candidate genes that may predispose an individual to essential hypertension and cardiovascular complications. Among them, the M235T polymorphism of the angiotensinogen gene has been speculated to be associated with elevated circulating angiotensinogen concentrations and essential hypertension. This study aimed to analyze the angiotensinogen M235T polymorphism in hypertensive adolescents and investigate its relationship with cardiovascular risks. Methods : Forty Korean hypertensive adolescents (aged 16-17, systolic $BP{\geq}140 mmHg$ and/or diastolic $BP{\geq}90 mmHg$) and fifty seven normal adolescents were included. Obesity index (OI), body mass index (BMI) were calculated. BP was measured by oscillometric methods in resting state. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was performed on DNA from the hypertensives subjects to analyze the M235T polymorphism. Serum homocysteine, insulin, renin, aldosterone and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) were tested according to each genotype. The carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and carotid artery diameter, Pulse wave velocity (PWV) and ankle-brachial index (ABI) were measured according to each genotype. Results : Genotype frequencies of T/T, M/T and M/M were 62.5%, 35.0%, 2.5%, respectively in hypertensive adolescents. The results were not significantly different compared to control group. Serum insulin, renin levels, BMI and OI were significantly higher in thoses with the M/M genotype as compared to those with the T/T of M/T genotype. Conclusion : This study showed that the M235T polymorphism was not associated with essential hypertension or any cardiovascular risks. Further clinical research is required to ascertain the relationship between this polymorphism and cardiovascular complications in Korean hypertensive adolescents.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.9
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• pp.971-976
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• 2008

Purpose : Surveillance for detecting and managing latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is a key component of tuberculosis control. The classic surveillance tool, the tuberculin skin test (TST), may have some limitations when used in the Bacillus Calmette-$Gu{\acute{e}}rin$ (BCG)-vaccinated population. The object was to perform a blood test $QuantiFERON^{(R)}$-TB Gold In Tube (QFT-G IT) based on the detection of interferon-$\gamma$ ($IFN-{\gamma}$) released by T cells in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigens, and to compare the efficacy of this new diagnostic tool for LTBI with that of TST. Methods : For six months, between October 1, 2006 and April 30, 2007, data were collected from 111 patients under 15 years of age at Severance Children's Hospital. TST and QFT-G IT tests were performed with children with or without contact histories of tuberculosis. In addition to these tests, we examined comparative data from 29 adults who had tuberculosis, to detect false negative rates in the QFT-G IT method. Results : Thirty-three children had household contact histories. In this group, 15% and 42% of cases were found to be positive using the QFT-G IT assay and TST, respectively. Agreement was low between these two tests (${\kappa}=0.39$). In the adult active tuberculosis group, the QFT-G IT false negative rate defined as a positive culture and a negative QFT-G IT result was 12.5%. Conclusion : In diagnosing LTBI in children, the usefulness of a whole-blood $IFN-{\gamma}$ assay employing TB-specific antigens will be revealed only by examining additional longitudinal clinical data; this study serves as a starting point in that process.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.197-207
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• 2016

This study aims at providing basic data to objectively evaluate the areas suitable for reintroduction of the species of Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) in order to effectively preserve the Asiatic black bears in the Korean protection areas including national parks, and for the species restoration success. To this end, this study predicted the potential habitats in East Asia, Southeast Asia and India, where there are the records of Asiatic black bears' appearances using the Maxent model and environmental variables related with climate, topography, road and land use. In addition, this study evaluated the effects of the relevant climate and environmental variables. This study also analyzed inhabitation range area suitable for Asiatic black and geographic change according to future climate change. As for the judgment accuracy of the Maxent model widely utilized for habitat distribution research of wildlife for preservation, AUC value was calculated as 0.893 (sd=0.121). This was useful in predicting Asiatic black bears' potential habitat and evaluate the habitat change characteristics according to future climate change. Compare to the distribution map of Asiatic black bears evaluated by IUCN, Habitat suitability by the Maxent model were regionally diverse in extant areas and low in the extinct areas from IUCN map. This can be the result reflecting the regional difference in the environmental conditions where Asiatic black bears inhabit. As for the environment affecting the potential habitat distribution of Asiatic black bears, inhabitation rate was the highest, according to land coverage type, compared to climate, topography and artificial factors like distance from road. Especially, the area of deciduous broadleaf forest was predicted to be preferred, in comparison with other land coverage types. Annual mean precipitation and the precipitation during the driest period were projected to affect more than temperature's annual range, and the inhabitation possibility was higher, as distance was farther from road. The reason is that Asiatic black bears are conjectured to prefer more stable area without human's intervention, as well as prey resource. The inhabitation range was predicted to be expanded gradually to the southern part of India, China's southeast coast and adjacent inland area, and Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia in the eastern coastal areas of Southeast Asia. The following areas are forecast to be the core areas, where Asiatic black bears can inhabit in the Asian region: Jeonnam, Jeonbuk and Gangwon areas in South Korea, Kyushu, Chugoku, Shikoku, Chubu, Kanto and Tohoku's border area in Japan, and Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Fujian border area in China. This study is expected to be used as basic data for the preservation and efficient management of Asiatic black bear's habitat, artificially introduced individual bear's release area selection, and the management of collision zones with humans.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.657-665
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• 2019

In this study, we conducted a study on the transcranial magnetic electrode, a method for the study of dementia and muscle pain, a neurodegenerative disease caused by an aging society, which is becoming a problem worldwide. In particular, transcranial magnetic electrodes have been studied to improve their ability to be deteriorated by dementia symptoms such as speech, cognitive ability, and memory by outputting magnetism deep into the brain using coils on the head epidermis. In this study, simulation was performed using Maxwell 3D program for the design of coil, the core of transcranial magnetic electrode. As a result of the simulation comparison between the coil designed by the previous research and the coil through the research and development, the output was found to be superior to the conventional designed coil. The graphs of the coil outputs of B-Field and H-Field are found to be symmetrical, but the symmetry between each coil is pseudo-symmetrical and not accurate. Based on these results, an experiment was conducted to confirm whether the output of the head epidermis through both coils is possible. In the magnitude field of the reverse-coil 2-coil analysis, the maximum output was 3.3920e + 004 H [A_per_meter], and the vector field showed the strongest magnetic field around 35 to 165 degrees. It was confirmed that the magnetic output canceled due to the magnetic output. In the case of the forward 2-coil, a maximum of 3.2348e + 004H [A_per_meter] similar to the reverse coil was observed, but in the case of the vector field, the magnetic output regarding the forward output and the head skin output was confirmed. However, when the height change in the output coil, the magnetic output was reduced.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.38-46
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• 2013

The goal of vocational school is to provide students with basic skills and help develop them to have satisfactory careers. With the knowledge they have learned, it helps them to find their interests and aptitudes when they graduate. The government is putting a lot of effort into clarifying the goal accomplishment and the vision proposals of vocational schools, and the structure-oriented guidance controlled by the government is thought to be very influential to the social structure and individual perceptions. Social stereotypes(discrimination) and perceptions that can be the core of a social structure need to be transformed for people to be fulfilled in their careers in the upcoming advanced Korean society. The important solution is to form correct values and a system of career selection which can ensure a stable future for students. Therefore, to carry out research regarding training human resources in terms of students from vocational schools' landscape architecture majors in an approaching method with a new perspective, we analyzed education plans from vocational schools in 11 regions, textbooks used in common, governmental publications regarding career education policies of vocational schools and questionnaires from students who are majoring in landscape architecture at vocational schools. As a result, we were able to find out the types and the frequencies of career-occupation education at each school through analysis of education plans and the necessity to control the amount and the level of the contents for high school students to have careers in analyzing textbooks. In addition, in Ministry of Education, Science and Technology's analyzing career education policies of vocational schools, we figured out the government's policies and directions of training. From the questionnaires from students majoring in landscape architecture, we were able to compare and analyze the satisfaction level of students on career education(education plans), textbooks, governmental career policies and career selection.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1339-1344
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• 2014

Inflammatory bowel disease is an immune disorder associated with chronic mucosal inflammation and severe ulceration in the gastrointestinal tract. Antibodies against proinflammatory cytokines, including TNF${\alpha}$, are currently used as promising therapeutic agents against the disease. Stabilization of the transcript is a crucial post-transcriptional process in the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. In the present study, we assessed the expression and histological distribution of the HuR protein, an important transcript stabilizer, in tissues from experimental animals and patients with Crohn's disease. The total and cytosolic levels of the HuR protein were enhanced in the intestinal epithelia from dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-treated mice compared to those in control tissues from normal mice. Moreover, the expression of HuR was very high only in the mucosal and glandular epithelium, and the relative localization of the protein was sequestered in the lower parts of the villus during the DSS insult. The expression of HuR was significantly higher in mucosal lesions than in normal-looking areas. Consistent with the data from the animal model, the expression of HuR was confined to the mucosal and glandular epithelium. These results suggest that HuR may contribute to the post-transcriptional regulation of proinflammatory genes during early mucosal insults. More mechanistic investigations are warranted to determine the potential use of HuR as a predictive biomarker or a promising target against IBD.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.39 no.2 s.116
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• pp.198-208
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• 2006

This research was to apply a multi-metric approach, so called the Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) as a tool for biological evaluations of water environments, to a wadable stream. For the study, we surveyed 5 sampling locations in Kap Stream during August 2004 ${\sim}$ September 2005. We also compared the biological data with long-term water quality data, obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Korea and physical habitat conditions based on the Quantitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI). We used ten metric systems for the IBI model to evaluate biological stream health. Overall IBI values in Kap Stream averaged 24 (range: 20${\sim}$30, n=5), indicating a "fair ${\sim}$ poor" conditions according to the modified criteria of Karr (1981) and US EPA(1993). Exclusive of 4th survey, average IBI values at the upstream reach (S1 ${\sim}$ S3)and downstream reach (S4 ${\sim}$ S5) were 20 and 24, respectively. However, in 4th survey the averages were 21 and 20 in the upstream and downstream reaches, respectively. This difference was larger in the upstream than in the downstream because of physical condition disturbed during summer monsoon. Values of the QHEI varied from 75(fair condition) to 148 (good condition) and values of QHEI in the S3 were significantly (P=0.001, n=5) lower than other sites. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were greater by 3 ${\sim}$ 8 fold in the downstream than in the upstream reach. We believe that present IBI approach applied in this study may be used as a key tool to set up specific goals for restoration of Kap Stream.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.1 s.118
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• pp.133-155
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• 2007

The sustainable urban development has emerged as a new paradigm of urban studies in recent years. A review of the literature of land use and transport policies in relation to sustainable development reveals a consensus that the main objectives of sustainable strategy should decrease the numbers and length of journeys, and change the land use pattern towards mixed use and high density. However, there is a lack of empirical research as to what types of policies might influence effectively the reduction in the energy consumption and emission of $CO_2$. in order to sustain urban development. This paper tries to construct the conceptual structure of the PSS(planning support system), which is designed to the simulation of the probable effects of policies and planning of different kinds in cities, and evaluate the sustainablilty level according to construct the structure of the PSS(planning support system), which is designed to the simulation of the probable effects of policies and planning of different kinds in cities, and evaluate the sustainablilty level according to the alternative scenarios. The PSS is composed of three components (input-modeling-output). The core of PSS is integrating land use-transport-environment modeling. The advantages of integrating land use-transport-environment modeling are well known, but there are very few such integrated modeling packages in practice. So this paper tries to apply TRANUS software, which is an integrated land use and transport model. The TRANUS system was calibrated to city of Yongin for the base year. The purpose of the application of TRANUS to Yongin is to examine the operability of TRANUS system in Korea. From the outputs and results of operating the system, TRANUS may be effectively used to evaluate the effects of alternative sustainable urban development policies, since sustainablilty indicators can be extracted from several aspects such as land use consumption, total trips, distance and cost, energy consumption, ratio of transport split.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.182-190
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• 2005

The fiber Raman amplifier(FRA) is a distinctly advantageous technology. Due to its wider, flexible gain bandwidth, and intrinsically lower noise characteristics, FRA has become an indispensable technology of today. Various FRA modeling methods, with different levels of convergence speed and accuracy, have been proposed in order to gain valuable insights for the FRA dynamics and optimum design before real implementation. Still, all these approaches share the common platform of coupled ordinary differential equations(ODE) for the Raman equation set that must be solved along the long length of fiber propagation axis. The ODE platform has classically set the bar for achievable convergence speed, resulting exhaustive calculation efforts. In this work, we propose an alternative, highly efficient framework for FRA analysis. In treating the Raman gain as the perturbation factor in an adiabatic process, we achieved implementation of the algorithm by deriving a recursive relation for the integrals of power inside fiber with the effective length and by constructing a matrix formalism for the solution of the given FRA problem. Finally, by adiabatically turning on the Raman process in the fiber as increasing the order of iterations, the FRA solution can be obtained along the iteration axis for the whole length of fiber rather than along the fiber propagation axis, enabling faster convergence speed, at the equivalent accuracy achievable with the methods based on coupled ODEs. Performance comparison in all co-, counter-, bi-directionally pumped multi-channel FRA shows more than 102 times faster with the convergence speed of the Average power method at the same level of accuracy(relative deviation < 0.03dB).

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.137-157
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• 2019

Companies are trying to use enterprise SNS for collaboration and speedy decision-making. This study verified the mediating effect of communication between enterprise SNS and job performance, and proved the moderating effect of nationality between enterprise SNS and communication. This study collected survey data of 81 Korean and 81 Chinese from employees who have used enterprise SNS in Korea and China. As results of data analysis, first, enterprise SNS improved job performance through speedy information sharing and error reduction. Second, communication mediated the effect of enterprise SNS on job performance. Third, enterprise SNS increased the level of organizational communication through decreasing the burden of offline face-to-face communication. Compared with Chinese corporate organizations, Korean corporate organizations have high power distances, centralized control, and high superior authority. Therefore, in the off-line communication situation, the subordinate feels the social pressure to follow the command of the superior. Thus communication is one-way and closed. In this Korean organizational situation, corporate SNS can be used as a means to bypass rigid offline communication. In the online communication environment of non face-to-face corporate SNS, anxiety and stress of face-to-face communication can be reduced, so communication between the upper and lower sides can flow more smoothly. The contribution of this paper is that it proved that enterprise SNS promotes communication and improve job performance by reducing the anxiety or stress of offline communication, while according to prior research successful adoption of many types of information systems requires the fit between an organization and its organizational culture.