• Title/Summary/Keyword: Biological variable

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Pharmacological Treatments for Dysthymic Disorder and Atypical Depression (기분부전장애와 비전형우울증의 약물치료)

  • Lim, Se-Won;Oh, Kang-Seob
    • Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.14-20
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    • 2007
  • Objectives : The diagnosis of depression is based on a highly variable set of symptoms. Therefore, depression should not be viewed as a single disease, but a heterogenous syndrome comprised of different pathophysiologies. There are several subtypes of depression which were already incorporated in DSM-IV. This article provides a systematic review of pharmacological treatments of two recognized subtypes of depression-dysthymic disorder and atypical depression. Methods : Systematic search of relevant literatures on dysthymic disorder and atypical depression was performed by proposed search strategy of the Clinical Research Center for Depression of Korean Health 21 R&D Project. All identified literatures were carefully reviewed and classified according to SIGN grading system and summarized in a narrative manner. Results : For the treatment of dysthymic disorder and atypical depression, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors( SSRIs) and moclobemide have more evidence than the other antidepressants. SSRIs and moclobemide showed superior tolerability than tricyclic antidepressants. Conclusions : The authors proposed treatment recommendations for dysthymic disorder and atypical depression by the methods of evidence-based medicine(EBM). However, guideline developing methods of EBM also have several inevitable limitations. Therefore, in the absence of clear and significant differences in efficacy, the choice of medication must be individualized for a particular patient based on psychiatrist's own clinical decision.

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Physiological Markers in Anxiety and Depression (생리적 지표를 이용한 불안과 우울 측정에 대한 고찰)

  • An, Gyeong-Ju;Jeong, Jae-Sim;Kim, Yoon-Kyung;Jeong, Hye-Sun
    • Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.184-193
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    • 2008
  • Purpose: Anxiety and depression are the concepts that commonly used as an emotional approach in the nursing researches and most of researches have been used questionnaires as a marker of anxiety and depression. There were few researches using physiological markers in measuring anxiety and depression. Methods: Journals published between 1950 and 2007 that include depression and anxiety measuring through physiological markers were reviewed. Results: As in the case of the hypothlamus-pituitary-adrenal axis system, it appeared that cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine belonged to the category of hormones which were responsive to anxiety and depression. Plasma norepinephrine was a marker of the anxiety whereas plasma cortisol was a marker of the depression. The anxiety and depression were correlated with immune and taste, but it considered as an outcome variable not a physiological marker. Conclusion: Catecholamine and cortisol reflect anxiety and depression state. Our findings suggest that further researches are needed to distinguish between markers and outcomes of depression and anxiety using physiological markers.

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Factors affecting the Pregnancy Rate of Intra-Uterine Inseminations in Unexplained Infertile Couples in Korea: Focusing on Treatment Type for Inducing Ovulation (자궁내 인공수정 시술을 받은 원인불명 난임진단 여성의 임신성공 영향 요인: 배란유도 유형을 중심으로)

  • Jang, In Sun;Hwang, Na Mi;Park, Seungmi
    • Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.211-217
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    • 2015
  • Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing the pregnancy rate among unexplained infertile couples who received treatments of assisted reproductive technology (ART) and intra-uterine inseminations (IUI). Methods: The medical records of 24,201 cases of unexplained infertility among a total of 31,684 intrauterine insemination treatment cases, (which benefited by 'National Medical-aid Program for ART in 2011') were used for this analysis. Results: Woman's age (OR=0.94), frequency of IUI (OR=0.86), and treatment type (OR=1.54) were significant factors on pregnancy rates in the logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: Factors, such as the age of the infertile woman, frequency of IUI, and treatment type used to induce ovulation were shown to positively influence pregnancy rate. However, the age of the spouse was not a significant variable. Infertile couples having unprotected sexual intercourse with unexplained infertility had priority. The results demonstrated that about 70% of infertile Korean couples had unexplained infertility. This was a higher rate of unexplained infertility than that of the clinical standard. Therefore, we should assess for causes through future studies. In addition, affective or emotional factors influencing unexplained infertility need to be researched further.

Association between Genetic Variation in the Human Antithrombin III Gene and Essential Hypertension in Korean Population

  • Shin, Jung-Hee;Kang, Byung-Yong;Kim, Ki-Tae;Lee, Kang-Oh;Kim, Jae-Hyoun;Om, Ae-Son;Oh, Sang-Duk;Lee, Chung-Choo
    • Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.30-38
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    • 2002
  • In view of the effect of antithrombin III on essential hypertension, we investigated the 5' untranslated exon 1 length (I/D) polymorphism and intron 5'-DdeI RFLP of the human antithrombin III gene in the Korean patients with essential hypertension. There were no significant differences in the allele, genotype and haplotype frequencies of these polymorphisms between normotensive and essential hypertensive subjects. The significant linkage disequilibrium was however, detected between I/D polymorphism and Dde I RFLP. The I/D polymorphism was also significantly associated with BMI, total cholesterol (TC) and HDL- cholesterol levels, while DdeI polymorphism with age and BMI. Therefore, our results suggest that the significant association between the genetic polymorphisms in the antithrombin III gene and variable cardiovascular risk factors may reflect the potential role of human antithrombin III gene in cardiovascular function.

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A Biological Reaction Modeling in Sewage Water Treatment Systems (하수처리장에서 생물학적 반응 특성에 대한 모델)

  • 이진락;양일화;이해영
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.37-42
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    • 2001
  • This paper resents a biological reaction model of describing processing features in treating wastewater via activated sludge A proposed model is designed by combining fuzzy rules investigating several elements which have influence on variables to be supervised BOD and SS are suggested as common variables in input and output variables, and O$_2$quantity is closed as input variable. We chose triangular type membership functions for input variables and determined the grades in each membership function based upon process data According to simulation result to show the validity of proposed model, fuzzy model's outputs give almost similar data to process output under same input conditions.

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Construction of a Temperature-dependent Simulation Model to Predict Population Growth of the German (바퀴, Blattella germanica 개체군 증가의 예측을 위한 온도의존 Simulation Model 의 구성)

  • Chon, Tae Soo;Tae Sung Kwon
    • The Korean Journal of Ecology
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    • v.8 no.4
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    • pp.179-196
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    • 1985
  • By using temperatures as a key variable, a simulation model was constructed to predict the size and developmental speed for the German cockroach population. The following three research steps were conducted to implement the individual simulation technique to represent the basic life system of the cockroach. First, informations on developmental periods and survival rates in each life stage were obtained through rearing experiments at five different temperatures. Secondly, biological parameters needed for modeling were obtained based on these rearing results. The logistic equation was applied to calculating the developmental speed, while the averages of survival rates were utilized as parameters determining population size. And thirdly, a basic life model was constratued in a stimulative framework in FORTRAN for predicting the populating development on the individual basis. For this purpose the biological characteristics, such as life stage, age in days, developmental speed, fecundity, etc., were assigned as an inherent attribute of the transactiion so that they could accompany each individual automatically all through the simulation. This gave the model flexibility and applicability in representing the isnect life system. The save memory space in computer programing, two files were utilized in translocating the individual informations each other as time proceeded. The developed model could be effectively used as a strategic tool in interpreting and managing the cockroach population. It was also suggested in this study that the individual simulation could efficiently serve as a basis to formulate a fundamental framework on which the advanced and complex life process could be built.

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Involvement of Nitric Oxide During In Vitro Fertilization and Early Embryonic Development in Mice

  • Kim, Bo-Hyun;Kim, Chang-Hong;Jung, Kyu-Young;Jeon, Byung-Hun;Ju, Eun-Jin;Choo, Young-Kug
    • Archives of Pharmacal Research
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.86-93
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    • 2004
  • Nitric oxide (NO) has emerged as an important intracellular and intercellular messenger, controlling many physiological processes and participating in the fertilization process via the autocrine and paracrine mechanisms. This study investigated whether nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitior (L-NAME) and L-arginine could regulate in vitro fertilization and early embryonic development in mice. Mouse epididymal spermatozoa, oocytes, and embryos were incubated in mediums of variable conditions with and without L-NAME or L-arginine (0.5, 1, 5 and 10mM). Fertilization rate and early embryonic development were significantly inhibited by treating sperms or oocytes with L-NAME (93.8% vs 66.3%,92.1% vs 60.3%), but not with L-arginine. In contrast, fertilization rate and early embryonic development were conspicuously reduced when L-NAME or L-arginine was added to the culture media for embryos. Early embryonic development was inhibited by microinjection of L-NAME into the fertilized embryosin a dose-dependent manner, but only by high concentrations of L-arginine. These results suggest that a moderate amount of NO production is essential for fertilization and early embryo development in mice.

Selecting Decision Variable for a Plant-wide Optimization (석유화학공장 규모 최적화를 위한 변수 선정)

  • Jeong, Changhyun;Jang, Kyungsoo;Han, Chonghun
    • Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.714-721
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    • 2008
  • Chemical plants which consume lots of energy are not operating in the best conditions due to their own peculiar nonlinearity, instability, and diverse disturbances. In order to improve this, the plant wide optimization was performed. It is important to select the most appropriate number of decision variables which strongly affect the operating cost because there are too many decision variables which economically have an effect on plant wide. For instance, if all decision variables which can economically affect are applied in optimization and then the result of the optimization is applied to operation, a lot of operating conditions should be going to be changed. As a result of changing a plenty of operating conditions, the cost of the change will absolutely increase. Thus, in this study, the method of selecting the most appropriate decision variables which can influence on saving operation costs was presented in order to optimize plant wide. TPA (Terephthalic-acid) plant is considered as a case study. In other word, after modeling, the most proper decision variables was selected by examining the degree which decision variables influence on operating costs through sensitivity analysis. In TPA process, the three decision variables were selected by the presented method in this study. Then the plant was optimized by selected the decision variables. Consequently, it was seen that the plant are expected to save the 350 million won of energy annually without additional investment for facilities or remodeling of the plant.

Distribution Characteristics of Fish Community to Stream Order in Namhan River Watershed (남한강수계의 하천차수별 어류군집 분포 특성)

  • Lee, Seung-Hyun;Lee, Hwang-Goo;Park, Sang-Jeong;Lee, Soo-Hyung;Choi, Jun-Kil
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.47 no.spc
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    • pp.100-115
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    • 2014
  • For this study, we collected fishes of seven times at the 51 sites by stream orders (2-6) from November 2007 to September 2010. In the results, 55 species belonging 12 families were collected. And there were one species (1.8%) of Natural monument, 6 species (10.9%) of endangered and 22 species (40.0%) of Korea endemic. Dominant species was Zacco koreanus and subdominant species was Zacco platypus in whole. Stream orders (2-6) increased with increasing species, diversity (H'), evenness (EI), richness (RI), tolerant (TS), omnivore (OS) and decreasing individual, dominance (DI), sensitive (SS) insectivore (IS), total IBI score. Principal component analysis results showed location of variable (species, individual, community index, relative abundance of tolerant, sensitive, omnivore, insectivore species) and each site changes in upstream and down-stream changes in their distribution. Correlation analysis showed significant differences between stream orders (2-6) and variable (species: Sp, diversity index: H', omnivore species: OS, stream depth: SD, stream width: SW and water temperature: WT).

Improving the Productivity of Single-Chain Fv Antibody Against c-Met by Rearranging the Order of its Variable Domains

  • Kim, Yu-Jin;Neelamegam, Rameshkumar;Heo, Mi-Ae;Edwardraja, Selvakumar;Paik, Hyun-Jong;Lee, Sun-Gu
    • Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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    • v.18 no.6
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    • pp.1186-1190
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    • 2008
  • Single-chain Fv (scFv) antibody against c-Met is expected to be employed in clinical treatment or imaging of cancer cells owing to the important biological roles of c-Met in the proliferation of malignancies. Here, we show that the productivity of scFv against c-Met in Escherichia coli is significantly influenced by the orientation of its variable domains. We generated anti-c-Met scFv antibodies with two different domain orders (i.e., $V_L$-linker-$V_H$ and $V_H$-linker-$V_L$), expressed them in the cytoplasm of E. coli trx/gor deleted mutant, and compared their specific activities as well as their productivities. Productivity of total and functional anti-c-Met scFv with $V_H/V_L$ orientation was more than five times higher than that with $V_L/V_H$ format. Coexpression of DsbC enhanced the yield of soluble amounts of anti-c-Met scFv protein for both constructs. The purified scFv antibodies of the two different formats exhibited almost the same antigen-binding activities. We also compared the productivities and specific activities of anti-c-Met diabodies with $V_H/V_L$ or $V_L/V_H$ formats and obtained similar results to the case of scFv antibodies.