• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권14호
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• pp.5733-5739
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• 2014

Background: Breast cancer is the most common female malignancy in the world. Beta glucan can be a hematopoietic and an immune modulator agent in cancer patients. The aim of this trial was to determine the effect of beta glucan on white blood cell counts and serum levels of IL-4 and IL-12 in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: This randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted on 30 women with breast carcinoma aged 28-65 years. The eligible participants were randomly assigned to intervention (n=15) or placebo (n=15) groups using a block randomization procedure with matching based on age, course of chemotherapy and menopause status. Patients in the intervention group received two 10-mg capsules of soluble 1-3, 1-6, D-beta glucan daily and the control group receiving placebo during 21 days, the interval between two courses of chemotherapy. White blood cells, neuthrophil, lymphocyte and monocyte counts as well as serum levels of IL-4 and IL-12 were measured at baseline and at the end of the study as primary outcomes of the study. Results: In both groups white blood cell counts decreased after 21 days of the intervention, however in the beta glucan group, WBC was less decreased non significantly than the placebo group. At the end of the study, the change in the serum level of IL-4 in the beta glucan group in comparison with the placebo group was statistically significant (p=0.001). The serum level of IL-12 in the beta glucan group statistically increased (p=0.03) and comparison between two groups at the end of the study was significant after adjusting for baseline values and covariates (p=0.007). Conclusions: The findings suggest that beta glucan can be useful as a complementary or adjuvant therapy and immunomodulary agent in breast cancer patients in combination with cancer therapies, but further studies are needed for confirmation.

• 한국가구학회지
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.91-102
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• 2003

Modern design background of Scandinavia counts the Industrial Revolution and functionalism of Deustscher Werkbund and Bauhaus. However, Scandinavian has created their characteristic 'Scandinavian Modern Furniture' as an adaptation to their environment which are organic form based on their nature, affection of natural material, and handicraft tradition. Finish architect Alvar Aalto and Danish architect Arne Jacobsen rendered great contribution to worldwide reputation of Scandinavian furniture design. Both of them have hold tradition shared historically and culturally in common, brought the weighty traditional thoughts enable to develope their unique design. Especially they had continuous experiment of wood shaping and renovation of manufacturing technique so that they could made their chair design -the laminated bentwoods chair and moulded plywood chair- functionally comfortable. In point of view, the purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of the chair design of Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen, focusing un their bentwoods chair. For this purpose, the background of bentwoods chair design was investigated and in the philosophical, formative, and technical aspect, their bentwoods chair design were compared and analyzed.

• 한국멀티미디어학회논문지
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• 제17권10호
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• pp.1150-1159
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• 2014

This paper proposes a method for extracting tissue cells from an organism image by an electron microscope and getting the whole cell number and the area from the cell. In general, the difference between the cell color and the background is used to extract tissue cell. However, there may be a problem when overlapped cells are seen as a single cell. To solve the problem, we split them by using cell size and curvature. This method has a 99% accuracy rate. To measure the cell area, we compute two areas, the inside and boundary of the cell. The inside is simply calculated by the number of pixels. The cell boundary is obtained by applying super sampling, linear interpolation, and cubic spline interpolation. It improves the error rate, 18%, 19%, and 120% respectively, in comparison to the counting method that counts a pixel area as 1.

• 한국물환경학회지
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.275-283
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• 2020

Fecal coliforms are indicator bacteria to evaluate fecal contamination and microbiological safety in environment water. To examine fecal coliforms by membrane filtration, 1% rosolic acid solution dissolved in sodium hydroxide(0.2 M) should be added to m-FC medium according to Korean standard method. To reduce the exposure of researchers to harmful chemicals and expenditure of unnecessary cost, we evaluated if the rosolic acid solution is required to detect fecal coliforms. For 113 samples collected from five intake sources of Seoul, 42 samples of six tributaries, and 11 samples of sewage, the number of fecal coliforms was compared in medium with or without the reagent. As a result, the number was higher in m-FC medium without the reagent, but there was not a statistically significant difference. In the water intake, m-FC medium without the reagent could be used to examine fecal coliforms except in July, August and in case of rainfall. When heterotrophic plate counts exceeded 1,000 CFU/filter, or during rainfall, there was an effect of background bacteria in two types of the medium. However, it was more appropriate to use m-FC medium with the reagent to suppress gram-positive bacteria that can grow on medium without the reagent. In the tributary and sewage samples, the effect of the background bacteria was low, allowing the use of medium without the reagent regardless rainfall. Thus, it is necessary to present in standard method that the addition of rosolic acid solution in m-FC medium can be selected according to the characteristics of samples.

• 대한후두음성언어의학회지
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.55-60
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• 2001

Background and Objectives : Syllable Maximum Repetition Rate(MRR) is ability to repeat rapidly the articulators and is assessed for oromechanism function as one of the MPT. MRR is measured by rate(counts/sec), also simultaneously considered accuracy and consistency. The objective of the present was to examine stimuli effects and age and sex differences for MRR. Materials and Method : This study was participated 60 normal males and females(1 : 1) who were divided into two groups young(<40 years old) and old($\geq$40 years old). Stimuli were $/{P^=}a/,/{t^=}a/,/{k^=}a/,/{P^h}a/,/{t^h}a/,/{k^h}a/,/{P^=}{at^=}{ak^=}a/$ for, manner(tense and aspirated) of articulation, $/{p^h}{at^h}{ak^h}a/,/{t^h}{ap^h}{ak^h}a/$ for the effect of the order of syllable, glide /u-i/ for coordination of lip and tongue, interrupted vowel /i/ for laryngeal function. Results : There were little differences in two age groups and sex and manner of articulation for MRR tasks. The fastest average MRR of the single syllable included in this study was $/{t^=}a/$. significant differences existed between MRR for ${p^h}{at^h}{ak^h}a/ and /{t^h}{ap^h}{ak^h}a/$, which suggested that MRR was affected by the order of the syllables. MRR for interrupted vowel /i/ was about 2 counts/sec slower than average rate of 1 syllables. Conclusion : From these results, the order of the syllables was a crucial variable in MRR. rather than age or sex. There were no difference age, sex and manner of rate. The interrupted vowel repetition rate was slightly slow used and can provide basic information to assess the speech mechanism and can be useful to develop effective stimuli to differentiate the disordered group from normal.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권9호
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• pp.5473-5476
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• 2013

Background: In our study, the LDH, albumin, hemoglobin, neutrophile, thrombocyte, lymphocyte counts and prognostic significance of neutrophile-lymphocyte and thrombocyte-lymphocyte ratios in NSCLC derived from these counts obtained during regular examinations of patients were examined. Materials and Methods: Histopathologically diagnosed non-small-cell-lung cancer patients between 2008 and 2010 were included in the study. Before the treatment, full blood count including routine lymphocyte count, blood biochemistry examinations including liver (AST, ALT, total protein, Albumin), LDH and kidney (BUN, Cre) function tests were performed. Results: A total of 156 patients, 76 of whom (48.7%) were female and 80 of whom (51.3%) were male were included. Mean hemoglobin level was determined as 12. Overall survival was found to be significantly dependent on whether patients were anemic or not (p: 0.005). Mean LDH level was determined as 233.4. There was nosurvival difference between patients with and without high LDH (p: 0.532). In patients where NLR showed systemic inflammatory response, overall survival was 10.8 months whereas this duration was 19.6 months in patients where the systemic inflammatory response was negative (p: 0.012). In patients where TLR showed systemic inflammatory response, overall survival was 13.6 months whereas this duration was 21.9 months in patients where the systemic inflammatory response was negative (p: 0.04). Conclusions: Molecular methods have been changing rapidly in today's world and they manage the treatment besides defining the prognosis of patients. However, easily accessible and cheap laboratory parameters should be considered in the prognosis of patients besides these new methods.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• 제58권4호
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• pp.16.1-16.7
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• 2016

Background: This study was conducted to examine the quality and storage characteristics of yogurt containing antifungal-active lactic acid bacteria (ALH, Lacobacillus sakei ALI033) isolated from kimchi and cinnamon ethanol extract. The starter was used for culture inoculation (1.0 % commercial starter culture YF-L812 and ALH). Results: The antifungal activity of cinnamon extracts was observed in treatments with either cinnamon ethanol extracts or cinnamon methanol extracts. Changes in fermented milk made with ALH and cinnamon extract during fermentation at $40^{\circ}C$ were as follows. The pH was 4.6 after only 6 h of fermentation. Titratable acidity values were maintained at 0.8 % in all treatment groups. Viable cell counts were maintained at $4{\times}10^9CFU/mL$ in all groups except for 1.00 % cinnamon treatment. Sensory evaluations of fermented milk sample made with ALH and 0.05 % cinnamon ethanol extract were the highest. Changes in fermented milk made with ALH and cinnamon ethanol extract during storage at $4^{\circ}C$ for 28 days were as follows. In fermented milk containing ALH and cinnamon ethanol extracts, the changes in pH and titratable acidity were moderate and smaller compared with those of the control. Viable cell counts were maintained within a proper range of $10^8CFU/mL$. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the overgrowth of fermentation strains or post acidification during storage can be effectively delayed, thereby maintaining the storage quality of yogurt products in a stable way, using cinnamon ethanol extract, which exhibits excellent antifungal and antibacterial activity, in combination with lactic acid bacteria isolated from kimchi.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제64권1호
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• pp.37-43
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• 2021

Background: Animal studies have shown that a leukocyte influx precedes the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in premature sheep. The CXC chemokine receptor 2 (CXCR2) pathway has been implicated in the pathogenesis of BPD because of the predominance of CXCR2 ligands in tracheal aspirates of preterm infants who later developed BPD. Purpose: To test the effect of CXCR2 antagonist on postnatal systemic and pulmonary inflammation and alveolarization in a newborn Sprague-Dawley rat model of BPD. Methods: Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) into the newborn rats on postnatal day 1 (P1), P3, and P5 to induce systemic inflammation and inhibit alveolarization. In the same time with LPS administration, CXCR2 antagonist (SB-265610) or vehicle was injected i.p. to investigate whether CXCR2 antagonist can alleviate the detrimental effect of LPS on alveolarization by attenuating inflammation. On P7 and P14, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and peripheral blood (PB) were collected from the pups. To assess alveolarization, mean cord length and alveolar surface area were measured on 4 random nonoverlapping fields per animal in 2 distal lung sections at ×100 magnification. Results: Early postnatal LPS administration significantly increased neutrophil counts in BALF and PB and inhibited alveolarization, which was indicated by a greater mean cord length and lesser alveolar surface area. CXCR2 antagonist significantly attenuated the increase of neutrophil counts in BALF and PB and restored alveolarization as indicated by a decreased mean cord length and increased alveolar surface area in rat pups exposed to early postnatal systemic LPS. Conclusion: CXCR2 antagonist preserved alveolarization by alleviating pulmonary and systemic inflammation induced by early postnatal systemic LPS administration. These results suggest that CXCR2 antagonist can be considered a potential therapeutic agent for BPD that results from disrupted alveolarization induced by inflammation.

• 치위생과학회지
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• 제21권3호
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• pp.150-157
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• 2021

Background: Stress as a cause of mental health problems is known to be more prevalent in women than in men and has a negative effect on several aspects of physical health, such as the composition of blood and saliva. This study investigated the relationship of perceived stress with blood cell counts, saliva flow rate, and saliva factors. Methods: We recruited women in their 20s with a high prevalence of stress. Stress was evaluated using the Korean version of the perceived stress scale. Blood tests included white blood cell, hemoglobin, and platelet. We then examined the saliva flow rate and cariogenic bacteria level, acidity, occult blood, buffer capacity, leukocyte level, protein level, and ammonia level using rinse water with the SILL-Ha^Ⓡ saliva test system. Results: In a total of 70 participants, the average age was 21.64 years old, the average perceived stress score was 16.96±4.32, and high levels of stress were reported by 80% of the participants (n=56). The high-stress group had lower hemoglobin levels. In addition, the high-stress group showed a lower saliva flow rate than the low-stress group, and there was a difference in the salivary acidity and buffer capacity. The total perceived stress score showed a positive correlation with acidity and negative correlation with buffer capacity and the hemoglobin level. Conclusion: This study found that stress in female college students might affect the composition of blood and saliva. High levels of stress were positively correlated with the hemoglobin level, saliva flow rate, and acidity and negatively correlated with the buffer capacity.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제46권4호
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• pp.194-203
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• 2021

Background: Surface soil radiation monitoring around nuclear facilities is important to classify and characterize the contaminated areas. A scanning and direct measurement technique can survey the sites rapidly before starting sampling analysis. Materials and Methods: Regarding this, we test and suggest a measurement technique for gross alpha/beta and ⁹⁰Sr activities in surface soil based on a mobile ZnS(Ag)/PVT (polyvinyltoluene) array and a handheld PVT rod, respectively. To detect ⁹⁰Sr selectively in soil mixed with naturally occurring radioactive materials, chosen energy channel counts from the multichannel analyzers were used instead of whole channel counts. Soil samples contaminated with exempt liquid ⁹⁰Sr with 1 Bq·g^-1, 3 Bq·g^-1, and 10 Bq·g^-1 were prepared and hardened by flocculation. Results and Discussion: The mobile ZnS(Ag)/PVT array could discriminate gross alpha, gross beta, and gamma radiation by the different pulse-shaped signal features of each sensor material. If the array is deployed on a vehicle, the scan minimum detectable concentration (MDC) range will be about 0.11-0.17 Bq·g^-1 at 18 km·h^-1 speed, highly sensitive to actual sites. The handheld PVT rod with 12 mm (Φ) × 20 mm (H) size can directly measure ⁹⁰Sr selectively if channels on which energies are from 1,470 and 2,279 keV are gated, minimizing crossdetection of other radionuclides. These methods were verified by measuring soil samples fabricated with homogeneous ⁹⁰Sr concentrations, showing static MDC of 2.16 Bq·g^-1 at a measurement time of 300 seconds. Conclusion: Based on the results, comprehensive procedures using these detectors are suggested to optimize soil sites survey.