• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.99-110
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• 1991

This study was initiated to investigate the effects of organic germanium on cadmium and mercury intoxication. The effect was determined by the metallothionein induction in liver and kidney. Male rats (Sprague-Dawley) were treated with CdCI$_{2}$ (2mg/kg), HgCI$_{2}$ (1 mg/kg) and organic germanium (GE-132) (100 mg/kg) in single and in combination via intraperitoneal injection or intragastric administration every other days for 17 days. Experimental animals were sacrificed after 7, 12 and 17 days treatment. The serum transaminase activities (SGOT, SGPT), concentration of metal and metallothionein, metal-binding capacity of metallothionein in liver and kidney were determined and pathomorphological observations were undertaken. The combined treatment of GE-132 and CdCI$_{2}$ significantly decreased the increment of serum transaminase activities in rats treated with CdCI$_{2}$ only, but the combined treatment of GE-132 and HgCI$_{2}$ did not affect to activities of transaminases induced by mercury only. The concentration of metals (Cd and Hg) except Ge in the liver and kidney of rats increased with the time of treatment. Mercury concentration in kidney of rat treated with HgCI$_{2}$ only was significantly higher than the combined treatment of GE-132 and HgCI$_{2}$. The combined treatment of GE-132 and CdCI$_{2}$ significantly increased the concentration of metallothionein in liver compared to the CdCI$_{2}$ only, although the concentration of cadmium in liver were not significantly different between two groups. This indicates that GE-132 decreased toxicity of cadmium in liver by promoting metallothionein induction. There were no significant differences in metallothionein concentration in liver and kidney of rats between the combined treatment of GE-132 and HgCI$_{2}$ and HgCI$_{2}$ only. Metal-binding capacity of metallothionein varied with each time intervals in liver and kidney of metals treated rats except the liver of the combined treatment of GE-132 and CdCI$_{2}$. This finding explains the concentration of metallothionein in liver keeps abreast with the concention of metal. Furthermore, the combined treatment of GE-132and CdCl$_{2}$ revealed pathologically less changes in liver tissue than CdCl$_{2}$ only; the damages of liver cell, such as lobular necrosis and portal inflammation, were relieved and appeared more later. From the above results, organic germanium is considered to have some beneficial effect on the protection of liver from the cadmium intoxication.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.190-201
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• 2020

Purpose: This study sought to investigate the prognostic significance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in relation to tumor location within the stomach. Materials and Methods: The densities and prognostic significance of TIL subsets were evaluated in 542 gastric cancer patients who underwent gastrectomy. Immunohistochemical staining for CD3, CD4, CD8, forkhead/winged helix transcription factor (Foxp3), and granzyme B was performed. Results: Cardia cancer was associated with significantly lower densities of CD8 T-cells and higher densities of Foxp3 and granzyme B T-cells than non-cardia tumors. Multivariate analysis showed that advanced age (hazard ratio [HR], 1.023; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.006-1.040), advanced T classification (HR, 2.029; 95% CI, 1.106-3.721), lymph node metastasis (HR, 3.319; 95% CI, 1.947-5.658), low CD3 expression (HR, 0.997; 95% CI, 0.994-0.999), and a high Foxp3/CD4 ratio (HR, 1.007; 95% CI, 1.001-1.012) were independent predictors of poor overall survival in cardia cancer patients. In non-cardia cancer patients, total gastrectomy (HR, 2.147; 95% CI, 1.507-3.059), advanced T classification (HR, 2.158; 95% CI, 1.425-3.266), lymph node metastasis (HR, 1.854; 95% CI, 1.250-2.750), and a low Foxp3/CD4 ratio (HR, 0.978; 95% CI, 0.959-0.997) were poor prognostic factors for survival. Conclusions: The densities and prognostic effects of TILs differed in relation to the location of tumors within the stomach. The contrasting prognostic effects of Foxp3/CD4 ratio in cardia and non-cardia gastric cancer patients suggests that clinicians ought to consider tumor location when determining treatment strategies.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2007

This paper is a study on continuous speech recognition in the Korean language using HMM-based models with continuous density functions. Here, we propose the most efficient method of continuous speech recognition for the Korean language under the condition of a continuous HMM model with 2 to 44 density functions. Two voice models were used CI-Model that uses 36 uni-phones and CD-Model that uses 3,000 tri-phones. Language model was based on N-gram. Using these models, 500 sentences and 6,486 words under speaker-independent condition were processed. In the case of the CI-Model, the maximum word recognition rate was 94.4% and sentence recognition rate was 64.6%. For the CD-Model, word recognition rate was 98.2% and sentence recognition rate was 73.6%. The recognition rate of CD-Model we obtained was stable.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7645-7649
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• 2013

Background: Immune functions and their relation to prognosis in breast cancer patients have become areas of great interest in recent years. Correlations between survival outcomes and peripheral blood flow cytometry parameters are therefore of interest. Here we focused on patients with non-metastatic breast cancer (BC). Materials and Methods: A total of 29 patients with pathological confirmed breast carcinoma and flow cytometry data were assessed for overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS). Results: The median age of the patients was 54 years (range, 29-83). Multivariate analysis revealed that OS was significantly associated with absolute cytotoxic T cell count (95%CI, coef 2.26, p=0.035), tumor size (95%CI, coef -14.5, p 0.004), chemotherapy (95%CI, coef 12.9, p 0.0001), MFI of CD4 (95%CI, coef -5.1, P 0.04), MFI of HLA DR (95%CI, coef -5.9, p 0.008) and tumor grade (95%CI, coef -13, P 0.049) with R-Sq(adj)=67%. Similar findings were obtained for PFS. Conclusions: OS and PFS were significantly associated with tumor grade, tumor size, chemotherapy, MFI of CD4, HLA DR and absolute cytotoxic T cell count. The study revealed that MFI of basic CD markers and absolute cytotoxic T cell number may be a prognostic factors in women with non-metastatic BC.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.197-206
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• 2021

Purpose: Celiac disease (CD) is a common autoimmune disease with extra-intestinal manifestations, including neurological disorders. There are few reports to assess various factors in increasing the chances of developing neurological disorders in CD, so we designed this study. Methods: All patients with CD at any age who had been referred to the Celiac Clinic were evaluated for neurological problems. CD was defined as IgA anti-transglutaminase antibodies (anti-tTG) of 18 IU/mL or higher in serology and Marsh type I or more severe in histopathological evaluation. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the impact of various independent variables on the neurological manifestations. Results: A total of 540 patients enrolled in this study. A 360 (66.7%) of patients were children. A 64.8% and 35.2% were female and male, respectively. Overall, 34.1% of patients had neurological manifestation, including headache, neuropathy, epilepsy, and ataxia. The odds of developing neurological manifestations in children were significantly lower than in adults (odds ratio [OR], 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.45-0.96; p=0.03) and in patients with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms significantly higher than in the group without GI manifestations (OR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.18-2.63; p=0.005). Other variables, including Marsh classification (OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.18-1.11; p=0.08) and anti-tTG levels (OR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.999-1.001; p=0.59) did not significantly increase the chances of developing neurological disorders. Conclusion: Our study showed that increasing age and the presence of GI symptoms, but not serological and histological findings, could increase the chances of developing neurological diseases in CD patients.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.919-922
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• 2004

The effect of an extract of Dalbergiae Lignum and four components that were isolated from the extract on the anticarcinogenic phase II marker enzyme, quinone reductase (QR), was investi-gated. Of the solvent extracts of Dalbergiae Lignum, the CH$_2$CI$_2$ fraction was the most potent in inducing QR activity, with a CD value (the concentration required to double the QR activity) of 29.5 $\mu$/mL. The CH$_2$CI$_2$ extract was further separated into six compounds, four of which were identified as 4-methoxydalbergione, latifolin, 4＇,6-dihydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone, and obtusafu-ran. Obtusafuran ［CD ＝ 1.1 $\mu$M； chemopreventive index (CI) ＝ 101.9］ and latifolin (CD ＝ 1.7 $\mu$M； CI ＝ 154.6) displayed potent QR inducing activity and high chemopreventive indices. Lati-folin and 4-methoxydalbergione were identified as strong DPPH-scavengers with half-maximal free radical scavenging concentrations of 15.9 and 17.2 $\mu$M, respectively.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.16
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• pp.6761-6766
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• 2014

Background: CD44v6 (CD44 variant exon 6) is the chief CD44 variant isoform regulating tumor invasion, progression, and metastasis. The prognostic value of CD44v6 expression in non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been evaluated in many studies, but the results have remained controversial. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis of currently available studies to investigate the prognostic value of CD44v6 expression in NSCLC patients and the relationship between the expression of CD44v6 and clinicopathological features. Materials and Methods: Two independent reviewers searched the relevant literature in Pubmed, Medline and Embase from 1946 to January 2014. Overall survival (OS) and various clinicopathological features were collected from included studies. This meta-analysis was accomplished using STATA 12.0 and Revman 5.2 software. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were calculated to estimate the effects. Results: A total of 921 NSCLC patients from ten studies met the inclusion criteria. The results showed that CD44v6 high expression was a prognostic factor for poor survival (HR=1.91, 95%CI=1.12-3.26, p<0.05). With respect to clinicopathological features, CD44v6 high expression was related to histopathologic type (squamous cell carcinoma versus adenocarcinoma: OR=2.72, 95%CI=1.38-5.38, p=0.004), and lymph node metastasis (OR=3.02, 95%CI=1.93-4.72, p<0.00001). Conclusions: Our results suggested CD44v6 high expression as a poor prognostic factor for NSCLC, and CD44v6 expression is associated with lymph node metastasis and histopathologic type. Therefore, CD44v6 expression can be used as a novel prognostic marker in NSCLC cases.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.446-457
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was done to evaluate the effects of psychosocial interventions on cortisol and immune response in adult patients with cancer. Methods: MEDLINE via PubMed, Cochrane Library CENTRAL, EMBASE, CINAHL and domestic electronic databases were searched. Twenty controlled trials (11 randomized and 9 non-randomized trials) met the inclusion criteria with a total of 862 participants. Methodological quality was assessed using the Cochrane's Risk of Bias for randomized studies and the Risk of Bias Assessment tool for non randomized studies. Data were analyzed using the RevMan 5.2.11 program of Cochrane library. Results: Overall, study quality was moderate to high. The weighted average effect size across studies was -0.32 (95% CI [-0.56, -0.07], p=.010, $I^2 $=45%) for cortisol concentration, -0.62 (95%CI [-0.96,-0.29], p<.001, $I^2 $=0%) for T lymphocyte (CD3) and -0.45 (95%CI [-0.74, -0.16], p=.003, $I^2 $=0%) for Th lymphocyte (CD4) numbers. Psychosocial interventions were not effective for Tc lymphocyte (CD4), NK cell, monocyte, and cytokine response. Conclusion: Although these results provide only small evidence of successful immune modulation, they support the conclusion that psychosocial interventions can assist cancer patients in reducing emotional distress and improving immune response.

• MALSORI
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• v.68
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• pp.33-47
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a hybrid acoustic and pronunciation model adaptation method based on context dependency for Korean-English speech recognition. The proposed method is performed as follows. First, in order to derive pronunciation variant rules, an n-best phoneme sequence is obtained by phone recognition. Second, we decompose each rule into a context independent (CI) or a context dependent (CD) one. To this end, it is assumed that a different phoneme structure between Korean and English makes CI pronunciation variabilities while coarticulation effects are related to CD pronunciation variabilities. Finally, we perform an acoustic model adaptation and a pronunciation model adaptation for CI and CD pronunciation variabilities, respectively. It is shown from the Korean-English speech recognition experiments that the average word error rate (WER) is decreased by 36.0% when compared to the baseline that does not include any adaptation. In addition, the proposed method has a lower average WER than either the acoustic model adaptation or the pronunciation model adaptation.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.323-328
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• 2019

Tuberculosis, a chronic bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), differs in its status latency and activity because of the characteristics of MTB, immune status of the host, and genetic susceptibility. The host defense mechanism against MTB is caused mainly by interactions between macrophages, T cells, and dendritic cells. CD44 is expressed in activated T cells when infected with MTB and regulates lymphocyte migration. In addition, CD44 mediates leukocyte adhesion to the ECM and plays a role in attracting macrophages and $CD4^+$ T cells to the lungs. Therefore, genetic polymorphism of the CD44 gene will inhibit the host cell immune mechanisms against MTB. This study examined whether the genetic polymorphism of the CD44 gene affects the susceptibility of tuberculosis. A total of 237 SNPs corresponding to the CD44 genes were analyzed using the genotype data of 443 tuberculosis cases and 3,228 healthy controls from the Korean Association Resource (KARE). Of these, 17 SNPs showed a significant association with the tuberculosis case. The most significant SNP was rs75137824 (OR=0.231, CI: 1.51~3.56, $P=1.3{\times}10^{-4}$). In addition, rs10488809, one of the 17 significant SNPs, is important for the tuberculosis outbreak can bind to the JUND and FOS transcription factors and can affect CD44 gene expression. This study suggests that polymorphism of the CD44 gene modulates the host susceptibility to tuberculosis in a variety of ways, resulting in differences in the status of tuberculosis.