• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.368-375
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• 2020

Objectives: Some animal studies have reported that methyl mercury causes developmental toxicities such as placental and fetal weight loss, but the mechanism is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the developmental toxicities of methyl mercury, focusing on placental endocrine function and fetal growth retardation in rats. Methods: Positively same-time-mated female Sprague-Dawley rats were purchased on gestational day (GD) eight and treated with 0, 5, 10 and 20 ppm of methyl mercury (n=5) dissolved in tap water from GD eight through 19. During treatment, the drinking water (methyl mercury) intake and body weight of each pregnant rat was measured daily. On day 19, caesarean sections were performed and blood samples were collected. Developmental data such as placental and fetal weights, fetus numbers, and placental efficiency (fetal weight/placental weight) were also collected. Placental prolactin-growth hormone (PRL-GH) family, such as placental lactogen (PL) -Iv, II, and prolactin-like protein (PLP) -B, levels in serum were analyzed by ELISA. Also, placental tissues were assigned to histochemistry. Results: The mean cumulative methyl mercury exposure for the 5, 10, and 20 ppm groups were 2.37, 4.63, and 9.66 mg, respectively. The mean daily exposure of the 5, 10, and 20 ppm groups were 0.24, 0.47, and 0.97 mg, respectively. Maternal body weight increased in accordance with GD. There was no significant difference in weight gain among the experimental groups. Histopathologic changes were not observed in placental tissues among the experimental groups. However, mean placental and fetal weights were lower in the 10 and 20 ppm exposed groups compared to the control. Placental efficiency was also lower in the 10 and 20 ppm exposed groups compared to the control. Serum PL-Iv and II levels were lower in the 10 and 20 ppm exposed groups than the control, in accordance with the changing pattern of placental and fetal weights and placental efficiency. Conclusion: The inhibitory effects of methyl mercury on the serum levels of placental PRL-GH family such as PL-Iv and II may be secondary leads to the reduction of placental efficiency and fetal growth retardation in rats.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.60 no.12
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• pp.403-407
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• 2017

Purpose: Quadriplegic children with cerebral palsy are more susceptible to osteoporosis because of various risk factors that interfere with bone metabolism. Pamidronate is effective for pediatric osteoporosis, but there are no guidelines for optimal dosage or duration of treatment in quadriplegic children with osteoporosis. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of low-dose pamidronate treatment in these patients. Methods: Ten quadriplegic patients on antiepileptic drugs (6 male, 4 female patients; mean age, $10.9{\pm}5.76years$), with osteoporosis and gross motor function classification system level V, were treated with pamidronate (0.5-1.0 mg/kg/day, 2 consecutive days) every 3-4 months in a single institution. The patients received oral supplements of calcium and vitamin D before and during treatment. The lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) z score and biochemical markers of bone metabolism were measured regularly during treatment. Results: The main underlying disorder was perinatal hypoxic brain damage (40%, 4 of 10). The mean cumulative dose of pamidronate was $4.49{\pm}2.22mg/kg/yr$, and the mean treatment period was $10.8{\pm}3.32months$. The BMD z score of the lumbar spine showed a significant increase from $-4.22{\pm}1.24$ before treatment to $-2.61{\pm}1.69$ during treatment (P=0.008). Alkaline phosphatase decreased during treatment (P=0.037). Significant adverse drug reactions and new fractures were not reported. Conclusion: Low-dose pamidronate treatment for quadriplegic children with cerebral palsy increased lumbar BMD and reduced the incidence of fracture.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1186-1192
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• 2008

The reliability of gas turbine engine blades was studied. Yield strength, Young’s modulus, engine speed and gas temperature were considered as statistically independent random variables. The failure probability was calculated using five different methods. Advanced Mean Value Method was the most efficient without significant loss in accuracy. When random variables were assumed to have normal, lognormal and Weibull distributions with the same means and standard deviations, the CDF of limit state equation did not change significantly with the distribution functions of random variables. The normalized sensitivity of failure probability with respect to standard deviations of random variables was the largest with gas temperature. The effect of means and standard deviations of random variables was studied. The increase in the mean of gas temperature and the standard deviation of engine speed increased the failure probability the most significantly.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.150-156
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• 2018

This study aims to develop an improved Feldkamp-Davis-Kress (FDK) reconstruction algorithm using anisotropic total variation (ATV) minimization to enhance the image quality of low-dose cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). The algorithm first applies a filter that integrates the Shepp-Logan filter into a cosine window function on all projections for impulse noise removal. A total variation objective function with anisotropic penalty is then minimized to enhance the difference between the real structure and noise using the steepest gradient descent optimization with adaptive step sizes. The preserving parameter to adjust the separation between the noise-free and noisy areas is determined by calculating the cumulative distribution function of the gradient magnitude of the filtered image obtained by the application of the filtering operation on each projection. With these minimized ATV projections, voxel-driven backprojection is finally performed to generate the reconstructed images. The performance of the proposed algorithm was evaluated with the catphan503 phantom dataset acquired with the use of a low-dose protocol. Qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that the proposed ATV minimization provides enhanced CBCT reconstruction images compared with those generated by the conventional FDK algorithm, with a higher contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), lower root-mean-square-error, and higher correlation. The proposed algorithm not only leads to a potential imaging dose reduction in repeated CBCT scans via lower mA levels, but also elicits high CNR values by removing noisy corrupted areas and by avoiding the heavy penalization of striking features.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2010

A statistical evaluation methodology was developed to determine the compliance of candidate waste stream with clearance criteria based upon distribution of radionuclide in a waste stream at a certain confidence level. For the cases where any information on the radionuclide distribution is not available, the relation between arithmetic mean of radioactivity concentration and its acceptable maximum standard deviation was demonstrated by applying widely-known Markov Inequality and One-side Chebyshev Inequality. The relations between arithmetic mean and its acceptable maximum standard deviation were newly derived for normally or lognormally distributed radionuclide in a waste stream, using probability density function, cumulative density function, and other statistical relations. The evaluation methodology was tested for a representative case at 95% of confidence level and 100 Bq/g of clearance level of radioactivity concentration, and then the acceptable range of standard deviation at a given arithmetic mean was quantitatively shown and compared, by varying the type of radionuclide distribution. Furthermore, it was statistically demonstrated that the allowable range of clearance can be expanded, even at the same confidence level, if information on the radionuclide distribution is available.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.103-117
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• 1994

To extend the work of Gott, Park, and Lee (1989), statistical properties of gravitational lensing in a wide variety of cosmological models involving non-zero cosmological constant is investigated, using the redshifts of both lens and source and observed angular separation of images for gravitational lens systems. We assume singular isothermal sphere as lensing galaxy in homogenous and isotropic Friedmann­Lemaitre-Robertson- Walker universe, Schechter luminosity function, standard angular diameter distance formula and other galaxy parameters used in Fukugita and Turner (1991). To find the most adequate flat cosmological model and put a limit on the value of dimensionless cosmological constant $\lambda_0$, the mean value of the angular separation of images, probability distribution of angular separation and cumulative probability are calculated for given source and lens redshifts and compared with the observed values through several statistical methods. When there is no angular selection effect, models with highest value of $\lambda_0$ is preferred generally. When the angular selection effects are considered, the preferred model depends on the shape of the selection functions and statistical methods; yet, models with large $\lambda_0$ are preferred in general. However, the present data can not rule out any of the flat universe models with enough confidence. This approach can potentially select out best model. But at the moment, we need more data.

• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.299-309
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• 2003

Let ${\pi}_1,...,{\pi}_{k}$k($\geq$2) independent logistic populations such that the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of an observation from the population ${\pi}_{i}$ is $$F_{i}\;=\; {\frac{1}{1+exp{-\pi(x-{\mu}_{i})/(\sigma\sqrt{3})}}},\;$\mid$x$\mid$<\;{\infty}$$ where ${\mu}_{i}(-{\infty}\; < \; {\mu}_{i}\; <\; {\infty}$ is unknown location mean and ${\delta}^2$ is known variance, i ＝ 1,..., $textsc{k}$. Let ${\mu}_{[k]}$ be the largest of all ${\mu}$'s and the population ${\pi}_{i}$ is defined to be 'good' if ${\mu}_{i}\;{\geq}\;{\mu}_{[k]}\;-\;{\delta}_1$, where ${\delta}_1\;>\;0$, i = 1,...,$textsc{k}$. A selection procedure based on sample median is proposed to select a subset of $textsc{k}$ logistic populations which includes all the good populations with probability at least $P^{*}$(a preassigned value). Simultaneous confidence intervals for the differences of location parameters, which can be derived with the help of proposed procedures, are discussed. If a population with location parameter ${\mu}_{i}\;<\;{\mu}_{[k]}\;-\;{\delta}_2({\delta}_2\;>{\delta}_1)$, i ＝ 1,...,$textsc{k}$ is considered 'bad', a selection procedure is proposed so that the probability of either selecting a bad population or omitting a good population is at most 1­ $P^{*}$.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2021

The South Korean Navy has operated Harpoon guided missiles through step-by-step acquisition after adopting them for the first time in 1978. As Harpoon guided missiles have been operated for a long time, it is necessary to make an active follow-up logistics support to guarantee their performance. Inspection of guided missiles is a basic activity to check the status of missiles. This study was conducted to check if the existing inspection interval of Harpoon guided missiles that have been operated for a long time was appropriate. Regarding research methods, based on the Navy's field operation materials, this study analyzed and presented inspection interval by section according to the period of operation, utilizing the Martinez's theory and a non-parametric MCF technique.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.923-933
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• 1995

Background: Pleural abnormality is the the most common respiratory change caused by asbestos dust inhalation and also develop other asbestos related disease after cessation of asbestos exposure. So we conducted epidemiologic study to investigate if the pleural abnormality is associated with pulmonary function change and what factors are influenced on pulmonary function impairment. Methods: Two hundred and twenty two asbestos workers from 9 industries using asbestos in Korea were selected to measure the concentration of sectional asbestos fiber. Ouestionnaire, chest X-ray, PFT were also performed. All the data were analyzed by student t-test and chi-square test using SAS. Regressional analysis was performed to evaluate important factors, for example smoking, exposure concentration, period and the existence of pleural thickening, affecting to the change of pulmonary function. Results: 1) All nine industries except two, airborn asbestos fiber concentration was less than an average permissible concentration. PFT was performed on 222 workers and the percentage of male was 88.3%, their mean age was $41{\pm}9$ years old, and the duration of asbestos exposure was $10.6{\pm}7.8$ yrs. 2) The chest X-ray showed normal(89.19%), pulmonary Tb(inactive)(2.7%), pleral thickening (7.66%), suspected reticulonodular shadow(0.9%). 3) The mean values of height, smoking status, concentration of asbestos fiberwere not different between the subjects with pleural thickening and others, but age, cumulative pack-years, the duration of asbestos exposure were higher in subjects with pleural thickening. 4) All the PFT indices were lower in the subjects with pleural thickening than in the subjects without pleural thickening. 5) Simple regression analysis showed there was a significant correlation between $FEF_{75}$ which is sensitive in small airway obstruction and cumulative smoking pack-years, the duration of asbestos exposure and the concentration of asbestos fiber. 6) Multiple regression analysis showed all the pulmonary function indices were decreased as the increase of cumulative smoking pack-years and especially in the indices those are sensitive in small airway obstruction. Pleural thickening was associated with reduction in FVC, $FEV_1$, PEFR and $FEF_{25}$. Conclusion: The more concentration of asbestos fiber and the more duration of asbestos exposure, the greater reduction in $FEF_{50}$, $FEF_{75}$. Therefore PFT was important in the evaluation of early detection for small airway obstruction. Furthermore pleural thickening without asbesto-related parenchymal lung disease is associated with reduction in pulmonary function.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.90 no.2
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• pp.176-183
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• 2001

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) is the most economically important timber producing species in the southern United States. Much attention has been given to predicting diameter distributions for the solution of multiple-product yield estimates. The three-parameter Weibull diameter distribution yield prediction systems were developed for loblolly pine plantations. A parameter recovery procedure for the Weibull distribution function based on four percentile equations was applied to develop diameter distribution yield prediction models. Four percentiles (0th, 25th, 50th, 95th) of the cumulative diameter distribution were predicted as a function of quadratic mean diameter. Individual tree height prediction equations were developed for the calculation of yields by diameter class. By using individual tree content prediction equations, expected yield by diameter class can be computed. To reduce rounding-off errors, the Weibull cumulative upper bound limit difference procedure applied in this study shows slightly better results compared with upper and lower bound procedure applied in the past studies. To evaluate this system, the predicted diameter distributions were tested against the observed diameter distributions using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov two sample test at the ${\alpha}$=0.05 level to check if any significant differences existed. Statistically, no significant differences were detected based on the data from 516 evaluation data sets. This diameter distribution yield prediction system will be useful in loblolly pine stand structure modeling, in updating forest inventories, and in evaluating investment opportunities.