• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.855-861
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• 1995

Background: Parathyroid hormone-related protein(PTHrp) was first identified as the cause of hypercalcemia in malignancy. Hypercalcemia can be found in malignancy, especially in the epidermoid carcinoma of the lung, even without extensive metastases to the bones. The application of sensitive assays for PTHrp may help in the early diagnosis of lung cancer, in the monitoring of treatment and in the detection of recurrence. Method: Serum PTHrp was measured by radioimmunoassay detecting the N-terminal 1~34 peptide of human PTHrp(PTHrp 1-34) in 63 histologically confirmed lung cancer patients and 22 healthy controls. Result: Serum PTHrp(mean$\pm$S.E.) was $312{\pm}68.9pg/ml$ in 63 lung cancer patients and $158{\pm}38.2pg/ml$ in 22 controls(p>0.05). PTHrp was $356{\pm}103.9pg/ml$ in 34 epidermoid carcinoma patients, $281{\pm}148.7pg/ml$ in 15 adenocarcinoma patients and $316{\pm}140.8pg/ml$ in 9 small cell carcinoma patients. In epidermoid carcinoma patients, PTHrp was $570{\pm}472.3pg/ml$ in stage II(n=3; p<0.05 vs controls), $166{\pm}22.4pg/ml$ in stage IIIa(n=9), $282{\pm}113.3pg/ml$ in stage IIIb(n=12) and $668{\pm}367.9pg/ml$ in stage IV(n=9; p<0.05 vs controls). PTHrp was significantly increased in 8 epidermoid carcinoma patients with bone metastases($1526{\pm}811.2\;pg/ml$; p<0.0005 vs controls). Hypercalcemia was observed in an epidermoid carcinoma patient whose PTHrp value was 244 pg/ml. Conclusion: The serum PTHrp was increased in advanced epidermoid carcinoma patients even without hypercalcemia. The measurement of PTHrp may be not helpful in the early diagnosis of lung cancer. But the lung cancer should be suspected in the marked elevation of PTHrp. It may be of value in detecting patients of advanced diseases with bone metastases or patients who might develop the malignancy associated hypercalcemia.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.186-193
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• 2005

Purpose: To improve the management of a medical linear accelerator, the records of operational failures of a Varian CL2l00C over a ten year period were retrospectively analyzed. Materials and Methods: The failures were classified according to the involved functional subunits, with each class rated Into one of three levels depending on the operational conditions. The relationships between the failure rate and working ratio and between the failure rate and outside temperature were investigated. In addition, the average life time of the main part and the operating efficiency over the last 4 years were analyzed. Results: Among the recorded failures (total 587 failures), the most frequent failure was observed in the parts related with the collimation system, including the monitor chamber, which accounted for $20\%$ of all failures. With regard to the operational conditions, 2nd level of failures, which temporally interrupted treatments, were the most frequent. Third level of failures, which interrupted treatment for more than several hours, were mostly caused by the accelerating subunit. The number of failures was increased with number of treatments and operating time. The average life-times of the Klystron and Thyratron became shorter as the working ratio increased, and were 42 and $83\%$ of the expected values, respectively. The operating efficiency was maintained at $95\%$ or higher, but this value slightly decreased. There was no significant correlation between the number of failures and the outside temperature. Conclusion: The maintenance of detailed equipment problems and failures records over a long period of time can provide good knowledge of equipment function as well as the capability of predicting future failure. Wore rigorous equipment maintenance Is required for old medical linear accelerators for the advanced avoidance of serious failure and to improve the qualify of patient treatment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.889-896
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• 2013

Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP) have been interested for removing micropollutants in water. Most of water treatment plants (WTPs) located along the lower part of Nakdong River have adopted the $O_3/BAC$ process and have interesting in peroxone process a kind of AOP. This study evaluated the removal characteristics of residual hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) combining with the biofiltration process in the next BAC process when the hydrogen peroxide is applied for the WTP operating $O_3/BAC$ process. In the experiment, changing the temperature and the concentration of $H_2O_2$ of influent, the biofiltration process showed rapidly dropped the biodegradability when the $H_2O_2$ concentration was increased and lowered water temperature while BAC process maintained relatively stable efficiency. The influent fixed at $20^{\circ}C$ and the concentration of $H_2O_2$ at 300 mg/L was continuously input for 78 hours. Most of the $H_2O_2$ in the influent did not remove at the biofiltration process controlled 5 to 15 minutes EBCT condition after 24~71 hours operating time while BAC process controlled 5 to 15 minutes EBCT showed 38~91% removal efficiency condition after 78 hours operating time. Besides, after 78 hours continuously input experiment, the biomass and activity of attached bacterial on the biofilter and BAC were $6.0{\times}10^4CFU/g$, $0.54mg{\cdot}C/m^3{\cdot}hr$ and $0.4{\times}10^8CFU/g$, $1.42mg{\cdot}C/m^3{\cdot}hr$ respectively. These biomass and activity values were decreased 99% and 72% in biofilter and 68% and 53% in BAC compared with initial condition. The biodegradation rate constant ($k_{bio}$) and half-life ($t_{1/2}$) in BAC were decreased from $1.173min^{-1}$ to $0.183min^{-1}$ and 0.591 min to 3.787 min respectively according to increasing the $H_2O_2$ concentration from 10 mg/L to 300 mg/L at $5^{\circ}C$ water temperature and the $k_{bio}$ and $t_{1/2}$ were $1.510min^{-1}$ to $0.498min^{-1}$ and 0.459 min to 1.392 min at $25^{\circ}C$ water temperature. By increasing the water temperature from $5^{\circ}C$ to $15^{\circ}C$ or $25^{\circ}C$, the $k_{bio}$ were increased 1.1~2.1 times and 1.3~4.4 times. If a water treatment plant operating $O_3/BAC$ process is considering the hydrogen peroxide for the peroxone process, post BAC could effectively decrease the residual $H_2O_2$, moreover, in case of spilling the $H_2O_2$ into the water process line, these spilled $H_2O_2$ concentration can be able to decrease by increasing the EBCT at the BAC process.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.125-134
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• 2003

Purpose: To report the early results of preopeartive concurrent radio-chemotherapy (CRCT) for treating rectal cancer. Materials and Methods: From June 1999 to April 2002, 40 rectal cancer patients who either had lesions with a questionable resectability or were candidates for sphincter-sacrificing surgery received preoperative CRCT. Thirty-seven patients completed the planned CRCT course. 45 Gy by 1.8 Gy daily fraction over 5 weeks was delivered to the whole pelvis in the prone position. The chemotherapy regimens were oral UFT plus oral leucovorin (LV) in 12 patients, intravenous bolus 5-FU plus LV in 10 patients, and intravenous 5-FU alone in 15 patients (bolus infusion in 10, continuous infusion in 5). Surgery was planned in 4$\~$6 weeks of the completion of the preoperative CRCT course, and surgery was attempted in 35 patients. Results: The compliance to the current preoperative CRCT protocol was excellent, where 92.5$\%$ (37/40) completed the planned treatment. Among 35 patients, in whom surgery was attempted after excluding two patients with new metastatic lesions in the liver and the lung, sphincter-preservation was achieved in 22 patients (62.9$\%$), while resection was abandoned during laparotomy in two patients (5.7$\%$). Gross complete resection was peformed in 30 patients, gross incomplete resection was peformed in one patient, and no detailed information on the extent of surgery was available in two patients. Based on the surgical and pathological findings, the down-staging rate was 45.5$\%$ (15/33), and the complete resection rate with the negative resection margin 78.8$\%$ (26/33). During the CRCT course, grade 3 $\~$4 neutropenia developed in four patients (10.8$\%$). Local recurrence after surgical resection developed in 12.1$\%$ (4/33), and distant metastases after the preoperative CRCT start developed in 21.6$\%$ (8/37). The overall 3-years survival rate was 87$\%$. Conclusion: Preoperative CRCT in locally advanced rectal cancer is well tolerated and can lead to high resection rate, down-staging rate, sphincter preservation rate, however, longer term follow-up will be necessary to confirm these results.

• 한국유가공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.09a
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• pp.49-58
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• 2007

Inflammatory process leads to the well-known mucosal damage and therefore a further disturbance of the epithelial barrier function, resulting abnormal intestinal wall function, even further accelerating the inflammatory process[1]. Despite of the records, etiology and pathogenesis of IBD remain rather unclear. There are many studies over the past couple of years have led to great advanced in understanding the inflammatory bowel disease(IBD) and their underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms. From the current understanding, it is likely that chronic inflammation in IBD is due to aggressive cellular immune responses including increased serum concentrations of different cytokines. Therefore, targeted molecules can be specifically eliminated in their expression directly on the transcriptional level. Interesting therapeutic trials are expected against adhesion molecules and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-${\alpha}$. The future development of immune therapies in IBD therefore holds great promises for better treatment modalities of IBD but will also open important new insights into a further understanding of inflammation pathophysiology. Treatment of cytokine inhibitors such as Immunex(Enbrel) and J&J/Centocor(Remicade) which are mouse-derived monoclonal antibodies have been shown in several studies to modulate the symptoms of patients, however, theses TNF inhibitors also have an adverse effect immune-related problems and also are costly and must be administered by injection. Because of the eventual development of unwanted side effects, these two products are used in only a select patient population. The present study was performed to elucidate the ability of TNF-${\alpha}$ antibodies produced in sheep colostrums to neutralize TNF-${\alpha}$ action in a cell-based bioassay and in a small animal model of intestinal inflammation. In vitro study, inhibitory effect of anti-TNF-${\alpha}$ antibody from the sheep was determined by cell bioassay. The antibody from the sheep at 1 in 10,000 dilution was able to completely inhibit TNF-${\alpha}$ activity in the cell bioassay. The antibodies from the same sheep, but different milkings, exhibited some variability in inhibition of TNF-${\alpha}$ activity, but were all greater than the control sample. In vivo study, the degree of inflammation was severe to experiment, despite of the initial pilot trial, main trial 1 was unable to figure out of any effect of antibody to reduce the impact of PAF and LPS. Main rat trial 2 resulted no significant symptoms like characteristic acute diarrhea and weight loss of colitis. This study suggested that colostrums from sheep immunized against TNF-${\alpha}$ significantly inhibited TNF-${\alpha}$ bioactivity in the cell based assay. And the higher than anticipated variability in the two animal models precluded assessment of the ability of antibody to prevent TNF-${\alpha}$ induced intestinal damage in the intact animal. Further study will require to find out an alternative animal model, which is more acceptable to test anti-TNF-${\alpha}$ IgA therapy for reducing the impact of inflammation on gut dysfunction. And subsequent pre-clinical and clinical testing also need generation of more antibody as current supplies are low.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.871-881
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• 1996

Objective: In the early short-term therapy of pulmonary tuberculosis, PZA is used for the first two months on 6EHRZ therapy but PZA is not effective in the case of long-tenn use PZA for retreatment in the sensitive relapse or acquired drug resistance for PZA. But in the endemic area as Korea, if we can't use PZA in the retreatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, we can't expect the success for retreatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, therefore we need new drugs substituting for PZA. In these days, 4 - fluoroquinolone derivatives were investigated and only ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin of derivatives were known to be effective but the effectiveness was also not certain because the result was experimental or combined with other bacteriocidal drugs and datas on effectiveness of pulmonary tuberculosis were so little. Therefore these drugs should be use with other two or three strong-acting drugs in the last period of retreatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. The ofloxacin or ciprofloxacin is used in some area in Korea but randomly and needed more study. We did this study for proving the effectiveness of these drugs and establishment of retreatment regimen for pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 83 drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis patients at National Masan Tuberculosis Hospital from Jan. 1994 to dec. 1995 was made. All the patients taken medicine for 2nd ami-tuberculosis regimens for the first lime. We separated the patients by two groups.(Group I : OFX+ PTA + CS+PAS + Injection, Group II: PZA + PTA+ CS + PAS + Injection). We compared the difference between two groups and tested the confidence limit about results after treatment by $\chi$2-test and T-test. Results : 1. The age distribution was most frequent in fourth decade(29.2% in Group I, 37.1% in Group II) and the mean age was 43.9 year in Group I, and 39.0 year in Group II, but had no significant difference between two groups. The sex distribution was more frequent in the males(68.8% in Group I, 85.7% in Group II), but had no significant difference. 2. Family history was 29.2% in Group I, 28.6% in Group II, but had no significant difference. 3. In the respect of extent of disease, far-advanced stare was 60.4% in Group I, 74.3% in Group II, but had no significant difference. 4. The side effects for drugs showed in 58.3% in Group I and 65.7% in Group II, and the gastrointestinal trouble showed 25.0% in Group and arthralgia 34.3% in Group II predominantly respectively and had the significant difference(p<0.05). 5. The negative conversion rate on sputum AFB smear was 87.5% in Group I and 80.0% in Group II, but had no significant difference. But the negative conversion rate on sputum AFB culture was 83.3% in Group I and 57.1 % in Group II and had the significant difference(p<0.05). 6. The success rate of treatment was 87.5 % in Group I and 83.3 % in Group II but had no significant difference. Conclusion : In the retreatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, ofloxacin is useful drug for the patients who are not available to use PZA and can be use effectively substituting for PZA.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.237-243
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• 1993

The primary and secondary structure of the 5S rRNA isolated from Xanthomonas celebensis were determined by enzymatic and chemical degradation methods. It consists of 119 nucleotides and contains no modified nucleosides. As with the 5S rRNAs of X. maltophilia and X. citri, it contains an additional uridine residue on the 5'-terminus. Its secondary structure was almost identical to the models previously proposed by us for the 5S rRNA of two Xanthomonas species. Its secondary structure consists of five helices, five loops and two bulges. The tertiary interactions in the 5S rRNA molecule were analyzed by Fe(II)-EDTA treatment and hybridization method using deoxyhexamer. From the fact that some adenine residues in loop M, region $I_1-C$, loop $H_1$, and loop $H_2$ become susceptible to diethylpyrocarbonate when the 5S rRNA was hybridized with deoxyhexamer complementary to the sequence $U_{35}CCCAU_{40}$ and that some nucleotide residues in loop M, loop $H_1$ and region $D-I_2$ become resistant Fe(II)-EDTA cleavage in the presence of $Mg^{2+}$, it is presumed that loops $H_1$ and $H_2$ interact with loop M in some way. In the tertiary interaction, the regions $I_1-C$ and $D-I_2$ seem to act as hinges in folding the stems $B-I_1-C$ and $D-I_2-E.$ It was found that loop $H_1$ changes into a smaller loop of three bases by forming noncanonical A : C base-pairs ih acidic environment.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2012

To treat nitrate and non-biodegradable organics effectively in sewage, industrial wastewater and livestock wastewater, the activated sludge process integrated by a membrane separation and a porous electrode- electrolysis was proposed and its efficiency was investigated. The proposed system was consisted of 3 processes; activated sludge, membrane filtration and electrolysis. In the study, the membrane filtration played a role in reducing the load of the electrolysis to operate the proposed process stably. The electrolysis consisted of a porous electrode to increase the efficiency due to the extension of the specific surface area. Additionally, redox reaction in the electrolysis was induced by decomposing influent water as current was applied. As a result, hydrogen free radicals and oxygen radicals as intermediates were produced and they acted as oxidants to play a role in decomposing non-degradable organics. It was environmentally-friendly process because intermediates produced by porous electrode were used to treat waste matters without supplying external reagent. Experimental data showed that the proposed process was more excellent than activated sludge process. SS removal efficiencies of the proposed process, membrane filtration and activated sludge process were about 100%, about 100% and about 90%, respectively. COD removal efficiencies of the proposed system, membrane filtration and activated sludge process were about 92%, about 84% and about 78%, respectively. T-N removal efficiencies of the proposed system, membrane filtration and activated sludge process were about 88%, about 67%, and about 58%, respectively. The SS data showed that SS was efficiently removed in the single of the membrane filtration. The COD/T-N data showed that COD/T-N of membrane hybrid process was treated by removing a little soluble organics and SS, and that COD/T-N of electrolysis hybrid process was treated by oxidize organics with high removal rate.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.5-12
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• 2012

Antibiotics have been considered emerging compounds due to their continuous input and persistence in environment. Due to the limited biodegradability and widespread use of these antibiotics, an incomplete removal is attained in conventional wastewater treatment plants and relative large quantities are released into the environment. In this study, it was determined the adsorption and photocatalysis kinetics of antibiotics (Sulfamethoxazole, SMX) with various catalyst (Titanium dioxide; $TiO_2$, Hydroxyapatite; HAP) conditions under UV/$TiO_2$/HAP system. In addition, the statistical analysis of response surface methods (RSM) was used to determine the effects of operating parameters on UV/$TiO_2$/HAP system. $TiO_2$/HAP adsorbent were found to follow the pseudo second order reaction in the adsorption. In the result of applied intrapaticle diffusion model, the constants of reaction rate were $TiO_2$=$0.064min^{-1}$, HAP=$0.2866min^{-1}$ and $TiO_2$/HAP=$0.3708min^{-1}$, respectively.The result of RSM, term of regression analysis in analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significantly p-value (p<0.05) and high coefficients for determination values($R^2$=96.2%, $R^2_{Adj}$=89.3%) that allowed satisfactory prediction of second order regression model. And the estimated optimal conditions for Y(Sulfamethoxazole removal efficiency, %) were $x_1$(initial concentration of Sulfamethoxazole)=-0.7828, $x_2$(amount of catalyst)=0.9974 and $x_3$(reation time)=0.5738 by coded parameters, respectively. According to the result of intraparticle diffusion model and photocatalysis experiments, it was shown that the $TiO_2$/HAP was more effective system than conventional AOPs(advanced oxidation processes, UV/$TiO_2$ system).

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.249-258
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• 2020

This study aims to provide reference material for effective forest management techniques at the catchment scale, based on the field investigation of large woody debris (LWD) in 11 streams within a third-order forest catchment in Gangwon Province, Korea. To achieve this aim, we analyzed the morphological features of LWD pieces, and the storage and distribution status of LWD by stream order throughout the entire investigation. As a result, a total of 1,207 individual pieces of LWD were categorized into three types as follows: (ⅰ) 1,142 pieces (95%) as only trunk and 65 pieces (5%) as a trunk with root wad, (ⅱ) 1,015 pieces (84%) as non-thinned and 192 pieces (16%) as the thinned, and (ⅲ) 1,050 pieces (87%) as conifer and 157 pieces (13%) as broadleaf. Additionally, in-stream LWD loads (㎥/ha) decreased with increasing stream order, yielding 105.4, 71.3, and 35.6 for first-, second-, and third-order streams, respectively. On the other hand, the ratio of LWD jams to the total LWD volume increased with increasing stream order, yielding 11%, 43%, and 49% for first-, second-, and third-order streams, respectively. Finally, a comparison of the in-stream LWD load with previous studies in several countries around the world indicated that in-stream LWD load was positively correlated with forest stand age even though the climate, topography, forest soil type, forest composition, stand growth rate, disturbance regime, and forest management practices were different. These results could contribute to understanding the significance of LWD as a by-product of forest ecosystems and an indicator of riparian forest disturbance. Based on this, we conclude that advanced forest management techniques, including treatment of thinning slash and stand density control of riparian forest by site location (hillslope and riparian zone, or stream order), should be established in the future, taking the forest ecosystem and the aquatic environment from headwater streams to low land rivers into consideration.