• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.16-24
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• 1991

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is an enzyme which is essential for the differentiation of lymphoid cells, especially T-cells and ADA plays a role in the maturation of monocyte to macrophage. Therefore ADA levels are related to stimulation of cellular immunity. We have investigated the measurement of ADA activity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of the patients with active and inactive pulmonary tuberculosis and control group. The results obtained are as follows: 1) The ADA activity and corrected ADA activity from the BAL fluid in active tuberculosis group (Total Lavage ADA; $18.4{\pm}22.5\;mU$, Total Lavage ADA/Albumin; $2.45{\pm}1.61\;mU/mg$) were increased when compared with those in inactive tuberculosis (TL-ADA; $5.8{\pm}2.5\;mU$, TL-ADA/Alb; $1.83{\pm}O.53\;mU/mg$) and control (TL-ADA; $6.6{\pm}4.3\;mU$, TL-ADA/Alb; $1.62{\pm}0.60\;mU/mg$) groups. 2) The ADA activity and lavage ADA/serum ADA activity ratio in BAL fluid from the lesion site (TL-ADA; $42.9{\pm}42.3\;mU$, L-ADA/S-ADA; $0.53{\pm}0.32$) were increased when compared with those from the non-lesion site (TL-ADA; $12.5{\pm}11.2\;mU$, L-ADA/S-ADA; $0.29{\pm}0.12$)and normal side (TL-ADA; $12.7{\pm}11.0\;mU$, L-ADA/S-ADA; $0.34{\pm}0.27$) in active tuberculosis group. 3) The ADA activity in BAL fluid from far advanced group (TL-ADA; $62.5{\pm}30.3\;mU$) was increased when compared with those from the mild group (TL-ADA; $10.5{\pm}7.5\;mU$) and moderate advanced group (TL-ADA; $13.2{\pm}11.7\;mU$) in active tuberculosis. 4) The albumin level from the BAL fluid was correlated with the ADA activity (R=0.89). 5) The ADA activity recovered from the BAL fluid was correlated with the recovered lymphocyte percentage (R=0.60). In conclusion, the ADA activity from the BAL fluid in active tuberculosis group was increased when compared with that in inactive tuberculosis and control groups, especially from the lesion site. To evaluated the specificity of ADA determination for diagnosis of active tuberculosis, BAL must be done at lesion site of the diseased lung and the proper correcting material other than albumin must be chosen to correct the dilution factor of lavage fluid.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2010

Concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) in air were analyzed from seven urban roadside (U-RS) stations in Seoul, Korea over an 11-year period (1998-2008). As noticeable changes in CO levels coincided with the Natural Gas Vehicle Supply (NGVS) program in the year 2000, its concentration data were examined between 1998-2000 (period I) and 2001-2008 (period II). The mean values of CO from all 7 stations for the whole study period were recorded as $1.19{\pm}0.22$ ppm with large drops in its mean from $1.83{\pm}0.43$ ppm in period I to $0.94{\pm}0.21$ ppm in period II. As such, CO levels between the two periods undertook the mean reduction rate of $46.9{\pm}16.2%$ (range of 18.3 to 59.9%). According to the analysis of longterm trends of CO, its concentrations in the U-RS stations decreased very rapidly with the annual mean reduction rate of 9.5% $yr^{-1}$. A line of evidence collected in this study suggests that the implementation of the NGVS program has been quite effective to induce the alterations in CO levels in all urban roadside locations throughout the city of Seoul.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.92-99
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• 2012

The optimal physical factors affecting enzyme production in an airlift fermenter have not been studied so far. Therefore, the physical parameters such as aeration rate, pH, and temperature affecting PLA-degrading enzyme production by Actinomadura keratinilytica strain T16-1 in a 3 l airlift fermenter were investigated. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize PLA-degrading enzyme production by implementing the central composite design. The optimal conditions for higher production of PLA-degrading enzyme were aeration rate of 0.43 vvm, pH of 6.85, and temperature at $46^{\circ}C$. Under these conditions, the model predicted a PLA-degrading activity of 254 U/ml. Verification of the optimization showed that PLA-degrading enzyme production of 257 U/ml was observed after 3 days cultivation under the optimal conditions in a 3 l airlift fermenter. The production under the optimized condition in the airlift fermenter was higher than un-optimized condition by 1.7 folds and 12 folds with un-optimized medium or condition in shake flasks. This is the first report on the optimization of environmental conditions for improvement of PLA-degrading enzyme production in a 3 l airlift fermenter by using a statistical analysis method. Moreover, the crude PLA-degrading enzyme could be adsorbed to the substrate and degraded PLA powder to produce lactic acid as degradation products. Therefore, this incident indicates that PLA-degrading enzyme produced by Actinomadura keratinilytica NBRC 104111 strain T16-1 has a potential to degrade PLA to lactic acid as a monomer and can be used for the recycle of PLA polymer.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.17-40
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• 2006

With the prospect of rapidly growing health insurance expenditures, particularly spending for ambulatory care, the introduction of a case-based payment method is discussed as an alternative to the current fee-for-service based method. A system to measure case mixes of providers is a core component of such payment systems. The objective of this study were to develop a classification system for ambulatory care, Korean Ambulatory Patient Group (KAPG) based on the U.S. APG version 2.0 and to evaluate the classification accuracy of the system. A database of 64,258,386 records was constructed from insurance claims submitted to the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) during three months from August 2002. A total of 41,347,307 records with a single visit was used for the development and 7% random sample of the database was used for the evaluation. Additional groups were defined to include both physician and hospital fees in the classification, age splits were added to classify the entire population as well as the population older than 65, and the definition of medical groups used by the HIRA was adopted. The variance reduction in charges achieved by KAPGs was computed to evaluate the accuracy of classification. A total of 474 KAPGs was defined compare to 290 groups in the U.S. APG. The variance reduction for charges of all visits ranged from 20% to 37% depending on the type of provider, and ranged from 22% to 42% for non-outliers, that were better than those achieved by the system currently used by the .HIRA for its internal review purpose. Although further study is required to improve the classification for complicated care in larger hospitals, the results indicated that KAPGs could be used for better management of costs for ambulatory care.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.22 no.1 s.176
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• pp.57-66
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• 1984

Twelve patients of localized juvenile periodontitis were evaluated to detection of serum IgG and IgM antibodies to Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans Y4 strain. Sera were isolated from those patients. Antibody titer of patients sera to Aa stran Y4 strain. Sera were isolated from those patients. Antibody titer of patients sera to Aa stran Y4 were determined by modified enzyme-linked immunosorbent assey (ELISA) using sonicated and formalin-fixed whole Aa y4 strain for detection of serum IgG and IgM antibody titers. To compare with health control and L.J.P., we used 12 healthy dental student who did not exhibited any gingivits. Results were determined by using ELISA reader at 400mm absorbance value. Data analysis were performed with comparison of the regression functions relating absorbance to dilution and Dunnett t-test. Significant high antibody titer to As Y4 in L.J.P. sera were shown in this examination(281. 4 Eu-G to 162.80 Eu-G, 106.0 Eu-M to 40.0 Eu-M for sonicated As Y4 antigen and 653.960. to 138.117 Eu-M for intact As Y4) and this data were also statistically significant (P<0.05). This work was supported in part from Seoul national University Hospital Grant and Korean Science Foundation.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.95-109
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• 1997

The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence on mandibular movements and TMJ sounds with changes of head and neck posture. For the research, twenty patients who had complained of TMJ sounds without any other symptoms of cranio-mandibular disorders, were selected as subjects for measurements of TMJ sounds, and radiographs on transcranial view of TMJ were taken on ten of the subjects. From NHP, UHP, DHP and FHP, aspects of mandibular movement and TMJ sound were investigated from each posture. Aspects of mandibular movement and TMJ sound were observed by measuring total vibration energy(Integral), peak amplitude, maximum amound of mouth opening, and TMJ sound-emitting point using Sonopak for windows (version 1.33) and Bio-EGN(Bioresearch Inc. WI. U.S.A.). Head and neck movement-measuring instrument, CROM(perfomance attainment Inc. U.S.A.) was to maintain even head posture. Degrees of inclination of UHP and DHP were determined at 30' and distance of FHP was 4cm. The results obtained were as follows. 1. Total vibration energy and peak amplitude of TMJ sounds were decreased more on UHP and on UHP and increased more on DHP and FHP than that on NHP. 2. At the maximum mouth opening, distance of TMJ sound-emitting point were decreased more on UHP and increased more on DHP and FHP than that on NHP. 3. The amounts of the maximum mouth opening were increased more on UHP and decreased more on DHP and FHP than that on NHP. 4. For the changes of the head posture with mouth opening observed in radiograph, condylar head was positioned more lower-anteriorly on UHP, and more upper-posteriorly on DHP and FHP than that on NHP. From the results obtained as above, considering positive influence of the change of head and neck posture, avoiding down-head and forward-head posture, and recommending upper- head posture can prevent the progress of temporomandibular disorder and lead to successful treatment for the patients with temporomandibular joint sounds.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.219-227
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• 1989

A new devised conductivity meter was used in the rapid and convinient determination of freshness of fish meats. Electric conductivity of frozen fishes like cod, tuna, flounder, Alaksa pollock were demonstrated about $6,100\pm200{\mu}u$ at the beginning of spoilage showed VBN content of $30\~35mg\%$ while that of fresh meat of yellow tail, rock trout, and mackerel were in the range of $5,100\~5,400{\mu}u$. The relationship between electric conductivity and freshness as measured by VBN content was direct proportion during the deterioration of fish meat. It was presumed that electric conductivity change of red muscled fish was more temperature dependence than that of white muscled fishes. $Q_{10}$ value of mackerel meat was about 2.34 at the temperature ranged from 15 to $30^{\circ}C(\pm1^{\circ}C)$). The electric conductivity obtained with conductivity meter could be a valuable criteria for the freshness test of fish meat determining in 10 seconds by handy compact portable meter.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_1
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• pp.1273-1283
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• 2022

Recently, forest fires have frequently occurred due to climate change, leading to human and property damage every year. The forest fire monitoring technique using remote sensing can obtain quick and large-scale information of fire-damaged areas. In this study, the Gangneung and Donghae forest fires that occurred in March 2022 were analyzed using the spectral band of Sentinel-2, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the normalized difference water index (NDWI) to classify the affected areas of forest fires. The U-net based convolutional neural networks (CNNs) model was simulated for the fire-damaged areas. The accuracy of forest fire classification in Donghae and Gangneung classification was high at 97.3% (f₁=0.486, IoU=0.946). The same model used in Donghae and Gangneung was applied to Uljin and Samcheok areas to get rid of the possibility of overfitting often happen in machine learning. As a result, the portion of overlap with the forest fire damage area reported by the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS) was 74.4%, confirming a high level of accuracy even considering the uncertainty of the model. This study suggests that it is possible to quantitatively evaluate the classification of forest fire-damaged area using a spectral band and indices similar to that of the Compact Advanced Satellite 500 (CAS500-4) in the Sentinel-2.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.371-388
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• 2001

A novel glucanhydrolase(DXAMase) from a mutant of Lipomyces starkeyi(KSM 22) has been shown effective in hydrolysis of mutan, reduction of mutan formation by Streptococcus mutans and removal pre-formed sucrose-dependentadherent microbial film and DXAMase has been strongly bound to hydroxyapatitie. These in vitro properties of Lipomyces starkeyi DXAMase are desirable for its application as a dental plaque control agent. This study was performed to determine the adjunctive oral hygiene benefits and safety of dextranase(Lipomyces starkeyi KSM 22 DXAMase)-containing mouthwash when used alongside normal tooth-brushing. This 6-month clinical trial was placebo-controlled double-blind design evaluating 1U/ml dextranase mouthwash and 0.12% chlorhexidine mouthwash. A total 39 systemically healthy subjects, who had moderate levels of plaque and gingivitis were included. At baseline, 1, 3 and 6 months, subjects were scored for plaque accumulation(Turesky modification of Quingley-Hein's plaque index), gingivitis status($L\ddot{o}e$ and Silness gingival index), and tooth stain(Area and severity index system by Lang et al). Additionally, oral mucosal examinations were performed and subjects questioned for adverse symptoms. Two weeks after pre-experiment examinations and a professional prophylaxis, the subjects provided with allocated mousewash and instructed to use 20-ml volumes for 30s twice daily after toothbrushing. All the groups showed significant increase in plaque accumulation since 1 month of experiment. During 6 months' period, the Dextranase mouthwash group showed the least increase in plaque accumulation, compared to the Chlorhexidine mouthwash and placebo groups. As for gingival inflammation, all the groups showed significant increase during 6 months of experiment. The Experimental group(Dextranase mouthwash) also showed the least increase in gingival index score, compared to the Positive control(Chlorhexidine mouthwash)as well as the Negative control(placebo)groups. Whereas the tooth stain was increased significantly in the Positive control group, compared to the baseline score and the Negative controlgroup since 3 months of mouthrinsing. It was significantly increased after 6 months in the Experimental group, still less severe than the Positive control group. As for the oral side effect, the Experimental group showed less tongue accumulation, bad taste, compared to the Positive control group. From these results, mouthrinsing with Lipomyces starkeyi KSM 22 dextranase provided adjunctive benefits to toothbrushing, comparable to 0.12% chlorhexidine mouthwash in inhibition of plaque accumulation and gingival inflammation and local side effects were if anything less frequent and less intense than chlorhexidine, with long-term use of the mouthwash. All data had provided positive evidence for Lipomyces starkeyi KSM 22 dextranase as an antiplaque agent and suggested that further development of dextranase formulations for plaque control are warranted.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2011

Objectives : Obesity has been linked to various psychological problems as well as medical complications, especially among adolescents. Previous studies have suggested an association between body weight and depression or self-esteem ; however, there has been little evidence on self-perception of weight and mental health. The aim of this study was to examine the association of perceptional weight status with mental health in Korean adolescents. Methods : This study was based on data obtained from the third Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (2005). The study sample consisted of 583 adolescents (268 boys, 315 girls) aged 12-18 years, who had completed the health survey, the health examination, and the nutritional survey. Participants were divided into two groups based on the actual or perceptional weight status: non-obese and obese. Questionnaires for stress, depressive mood, and suicidal thoughts were utilized as mental health indicators. Results : The agreement between actual and perceptional weight status was moderate (k value, 0.585 ; p<0.01). The influencing factors for the discrepancy between actual and perceptional weight status were body mass index of subjects and their parents' education. The obese group was likely to have higher stress levels and more experience of depressive mood or suicidal ideation in regard to both actual and perceptional weight status. A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that girls who had perceived themselves as obese were more likely to have an experience of depressive mood than other girls (unadjusted OR, 4.98 ; adjusted OR, 5.15). Conclusion : An experience of depressive mood was significantly associated with the perception of weight status and not actual weight status in Korean female adolescents.