• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.81.1-81.1
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• 2019

Linear sausage oscillations of a cylinder embedded in a plasma with an azimuthal magnetic field, created by a current on the surface of the cylinder, are studied. Such a plasma configuration could be applied to modelling demonstrate that the lowest radial harmonic of the sausage mode is in the trapped regime for all values of the parallel wave number. In the long-wavelength limit, phase and group speeds of this mode are equal to the Alfven speed in the external medium. It makes the oscillation period to be determined by the ratio of the parallel wavelength, e.g., double the length of an oscillating loop, to the external Alfven speed, allowing for its seismological estimations. The application of the results obtained to the interpretation of long-period (longer than 20-30 s) oscillations of emission intensity detected in solar coronal structure, gives reasonable estimations of the external Alfven speed. Cutoff values of the parallel wavenumber for higher radial harmonics are determined analytically. Implications of this finding to the observational signatures of fast magnetoacoustic wave trains guided by the plasma non-uniformity are discussed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.203-207
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• 2005

Objectives: Recently, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) redefined the criteria of prediabetes, which has lowered the diagnostic level of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) from 110 to 125 mg/dl, down to levels between 100 to 125mg/dl. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive cutoff level of FPG as a risk for the development of diabetes mellitus in Korean men. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 11,423 (64.5%) out of 17,696 males $\leq$30 years of age, and who met the FPG of $\leq$125 mg/dl and hemoglobin A1c of $\leq$ 6.4% criteria, without a history of diabetes, and who were enrolled at the screening center of a certain university hospital between January and December 1999. The subjects were followed from January 1999 to December 2002 (mean follow-up duration; 2.3(${\pm}0.7$) years). They were classified as normal (FPG <100mg/dl), high glucose (FPG $\geq$100mg/dl and <110mg/dl) and impaired fasting glucose (FPG $\geq$110mg/dl and $\leq$125mg/dl) on the basis of their fasting plasma glucose level measured in 1999. We compared the incidence of diabetes between the 3 groups by performing Cox proportional hazards model and used receiver operating characteristic analyses of the FPG level, in order to estimate the optimal cut-off values as predictors of incident diabetes. Results: At the baseline, most of the study subjects were in age in their 30s to 40s (mean age, 41.8(${\pm}7.1$) year). The incidence of diabetes mellitus in this study was 1.19 per 1,000 person-years (95% CI=0.68-1.79), which was much lower than the results of a community-based study that was 5.01 per 1,000 person-years. The relative risks of incident diabetes in the high glucose and impaired fasting glucose groups, compared with the normal glucose group, were 10.3 (95% CI=2.58-41.2) and 95.2 (95% CI= 29.3-309.1), respectively. After adjustment for age, body mass index, and log triglyceride, a FPG greater than 100mg/dl remained significant predictors of incident diabetes. Using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the optimal cutoff level of FPG as a predictor of incident diabetes was 97.5 mg/dl, with a sensitivity and a specificity of 81.0% and 86.0%, respectively. Conclusion: These results suggest that lowering the criteria of impaired fasting glucose is needed in Korean male adults. Future studies on community-based populations, including women, will be required to determine the optimal cutoff level of FPG as a predictor of incident diabetes.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.62 no.12
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• pp.450-455
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• 2019

Background: Lipid accumulation product (LAP) is associated with the presence and severity of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adults. Purpose: Here we evaluated the ability of LAP to predict NAFLD in obese children. Methods: Eighty obese children (38 girls; age 6-18 years) were included. Anthropometric measurements and biochemical values were obtained from the patients' medical records. LAP was calculated as [waist circumference (WC) (cm) - 58]×triglycerides (mmol/L) in girls; [WC (cm) - 65]×triglycerides (mmol/L) in boys. The minLAP and adjLAP were described (3% and 50% of WC values, respectively) and the total/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol index (TC/HDL-C) was calculated. NAFLD was observed on ultrasound, and patients were divided into 3 groups by steatosis grade (normal, grade 0; mild, grade 1; moderate-severe, grade 2-3). The area under the curve (AUC) and appropriate index cutoff points were calculated by receiver operator characteristic analysis. Results: LAP was positively correlated with puberty stage (rho=0.409; P<0.001), fasting insulin (rho= 0.507; P<0.001), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (rho=0.470; P<0.001), uric acid (rho=0.522; P<0.001), and TC/HDL-C (rho=0.494; P<0.001) and negatively correlated with HDL-C (rho=-3.833; P<0.001). LAP values could be used to diagnose hepatosteatosis (AUC=0.698; P=0.002). The LAP, adjLAP, and minLAP cutoff values were 42.7 (P=0.002), 40.05 (P=0.003), and 53.47 (P= 0.08), respectively. For LAP, the differences between the normal and mild groups (P=0.035) and the normal and moderate-severe groups were statistically significant (P=0.037), whereas the difference between the mild and moderate-severe groups was not (P>0.005). There was a statistically significant difference between the normal and mild groups for adjLAP (P=0.043) but not between the other groups (P>0.005). There was no significant intergroup difference in minLAP (P>0.005). Conclusion: LAP is a powerful and easy tool to predict NAFLD in childhood. If LAP is ≥42.7, NAFLD should be suspected. This is the first study to assess LAP diagnostic accuracy for childhood obesity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.497-501
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• 2016

Aim: To evaluate the relationship between pre-operative CA-125 levels and myometrial invasion in patients with early-stage endometrioid-type endometrial cancer. Materials and Methods: Two-hundred and sixty patients were diagnosed with endometrial cancer between January 2007 and December 2012. Of these, 136 patients with stage 1 endometrioid histologic-type and documented pre-operative serum CA-125 levels were included in the study. Age, preoperative CA-125 level, histologic grade, surgical grade, and presence of deep myometrial invasion were recorded. Additionally, 16, 20, and 35 IU/ml cutoff values were used and compared to evaluate the relationship between pre-operative CA-125 levels and myometrial invasion. Results: The average serum CA-125 level was $35.4{\pm}36.7$ in patients with deep myometrial invasion, and $21.5{\pm}35.8$ in cases without deep myometrial invasion. The relationship between the presence of deep myometrial invasion and CA-125 cut-off values (16, 20, 35 IU/ml) was statistically significant, although the correlation was weak (p<0.05). When the relationship between 16, 20 and 35 IU/ml CA-125 cut-off values and the presence of deep myometrial invasion was studied, specifity and sensitivity values were identified as: 0.60-0.68 for 16 IU/ml; 0.73-0.48 for 20 IU/ml; and 0.89-0.33 for 35 IU/ml. The sensitivity of 16 IU/ml cut-off value was higher when compared to other values. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that preoperative serum CA-125 values maybe used as a predictive test in patients with early stage endometrioid-type endometrium cancer, and as a prognostic factor alone. Further studies should be conducted to identify different CA-125 cut-off values in patients with low risk endometrial cancer.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 1995

Tc-99m-MIBI(Sestamibi) myocardial SPECT along with T1-201 tomographic imaging has demonstrated wide application and high image qualify sufficient for the diagnosis of myocardial perfusion defect, which consequently reflects regional myocardial blood flow, The qualitative values of myocardial SPECT with Tc-99m-MIBI as well as the quantitative cases depend in some degree on the reconstruction techniques of multiple projections. Filtered backprojection(FBP) is the common standard for reconstruction rather than the complicated and time-consuming arithmetic methods. In FBP it Is known that the distribution of radioactivity in reconstructed transverse slices varies with the selected filter parameters such as cutoff frequencies and order(Butterworth case). The cutoff frequencies basically remove and decrease the true radioactive distribution and alter the pixel counts, which lead to underestimation of true counts in specific myocardial regions. In this study, we have investigated the effect of cutoff frequencies of reconstruction filter on the artifactually induced perfusion defects, which are often demonstrated near inferior and/or inferoseptal cardiac walls due to the intense hepatic uptake of Tc-99m-MIBI. A computerized method for identifying the relative degree of artifactual perfusion defect and for comparing those degrees along with the relative amount of hepatic uptake to myocardium was developed and patient images were studied to observe the quantitative degree of underestimation of myocardial perfusion, and to propose some reasonable thresh-old of cutoff frequency in the diagnosis of perfusion defect quantitatively. We concluded that from the quantitative viewpoint cutoff frequencies may be used as high as possible with the sacrifice of homogeneity of image quality, and those frequencies lower than the common 0.3 Nyquist frequency would reveal severe degradation of radio-active distribution near inferior and/or Inferoseptal myocardium when applying Butterworth or low pass filter.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2002

Purpose : We investigated the predictive values of relative CBV measured with perfusion MR imaging, and relative CBF measured with SPECT for tissue outcome in acute ischemic stroke. Material and Methods : Thirteen patients, who had acute unilateral middle cerebral artery occlusion, underwent perfusion MR imaging, and $^{99m}Tc-HMPAO$ SPECT within 6 hours after the onset of symptoms. Lesion-to-contralateral ratios of perfusion parameters were measured, and best cut-off values of both parameter ratios with their accuracy to discriminate between regions with and without evolving infarction were calculated. Results : Mean relative CBV ratios in regions with evolving infarction and without evolving infarction were $0.58{\pm}0.27$ and $0.9{\pm}0.17$ (p < 0.001), and mean relative CBF ratios in those regions were $0.41{\pm}0.22$ and $0.71{\pm}0.14$ (p < 0.001). The best cutoff values to discriminate between regions with and without evolving infarction were estimated to be 0.80 for relative CBV ratio and 0.56 for relative CBF ratio. The sensitivity, specificity and efficiency of each cutoff value were 80.6, 87.5, 82.7% for relative CBV ratio, and 72.2, 75.0, 73.0% for relative CBF ratio (p > 0.05 between two parameters). Conclusion Measurement of relative CBV and relative CBE may be useful in predicting tissue outcome in acute ischemic stroke.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.137-143
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• 2009

The convergence behavior of the all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (FLAPW) method with the explicit orthogonalization (XO) scheme is tested on ferromagnetic bulk body-centered-cubic Fe. Applying a commonly used criterion relating the plane-wave and angular momentum cutoffs, $l_{max}\;=\;R_{MT}K_{max}$, where $R_{MT}$ is the muffin-tin (MT) sphere radius and $K_{max}$ is the plane-wave cutoff for the basis - the total energy is converged and stable for $K_{max}R_{MT}$ = 10. The total energy convergence dependence on the star-function cutoff, $G_{max}$, is minimal and so a $G_{max}$ of 3$K_{max}$ or a large enough $G_{max}$ is a reasonable choice. We demonstrate that the convergence with respect to $l_{max}$ or a fixed large enough $G_{max}\;and\;K_{max}$ are independent, and that $K_{max}$ provides a better measure of the convergence than $R_{MT}K_{max}$. The dependence of the total energy on $R_{MT}$ is shown to be small if the core states are treated equivalently, and that the XO scheme is able to treat systems with significantly smaller $R_{MT}$ than the standard LAPW method. For converged systems, the calculated lattice parameter, bulk modulus, and magnetic moments are in excellent agreement with the experimental values.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.478-484
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• 2016

Objective : To assess the clinical and radiological factors as predictors for successful outcomes in lumbar disc herniation (LDH) treatment. Methods : Two groups of patients with single level LDH (L4-5) requiring treatment were retrospectively studied. The surgery group (SG) included 34 patients, and 30 patients who initially refused the surgery were included in the nerve blocks group (NG). A visual analogue scale (VAS) for leg and back pain and motor deficit were initially evaluated before procedures, and repeated at 1, 6, and 12 months. Radiological factors including the disc herniation length, disc herniation area, canal length-occupying ratio, and canal area-occupying ratio were measured and compared. Predicting factors of successful outcomes were determined with multivariate logistic regression analysis after the optimal cut off values were established with a receiver operating characteristic curve. Results : There was no significant demographic difference between two groups. A multivariate logistic regression analysis with radiological and clinical (12 months follow-up) data revealed that the high disc herniation length with cutoff value 6.31 mm [odds ratio (OR) 2.35; confidence interval (CI) 1.21-3.98] was a predictor of successful outcomes of leg pain relief in the SG. The low disc herniation length with cutoff value 6.23 mm (OR 0.05; CI 0.003-0.89) and high baseline VAS leg (OR 12.63; CI 1.64-97.45) were identified as predictors of successful outcomes of leg pain relief in the NG. Conclusion : The patients with the disc herniation length larger than 6.31 mm showed successful outcomes with surgery whereas the patients with the disc herniation length less than 6.23 mm showed successful outcomes with nerve block. These results could be considered as a radiological criteria in choosing optimal treatment options for LDH.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.111-117
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• 2013

Purpose: To determine whether the maximum standardized uptake value (SUV) of [$^{18}F$] fluorodeoxyglucose uptake by positron emission tomography (FDG PET) ratio of lymph node to primary tumor (mSUVR) could be a prognostic factor for node positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with definitive radiotherapy (RT). Materials and Methods: A total of 68 NSCLC T1-4, N1-3, M0 patients underwent FDG PET before RT. Optimal cutoff values of mSUVR were chosen based on overall survival (OS). Independent prognosticators were identified by Cox regression analysis. Results: The most significant cutoff value for mSUVR was 0.9 with respect to OS. Two-year OS was 17% for patients with mSUVR > 0.9 and 49% for those with mSUVR ${\leq}0.9$ (p = 0.01). In a multivariate analysis, including age, performance status, stage, use of chemotherapy, and mSUVR, only performance status (p = 0.05) and mSUVR > 0.9 (p = 0.05) were significant predictors of OS. Two-year OS for patients with both good performance (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group [ECOG] ${\leq}1$) and mSUVR ${\leq}0.9$ was significantly better than that for patients with either poor performance (ECOG > 1) or mSUVR > 0.9, 23% (71% vs. 23%, p = 0.04). Conclusion: Our results suggested that the mSUVR was a strong prognostic factor among patients with lymph node positive NSCLC following RT. Addition of mSUVR to performance status identifies a subgroup at highest risk for death after RT.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.139-146
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• 1995

The bright part of the halo luminosity function is derived from a sample of the 233 NLTT propermotion stars, which are selected by the 220 km/ see of cutoff velocity in transverse to rid the contamination by the disk stars and corrected for the stars omitted in the sample by the selection criterion. It is limited to the absolute magnitude range of $M_v=4-8$, but is based on the largest sample of halo stars up to now. This luminosity function provides a number density of $2.3{\cdot}10^{-5}pc^{-3}$ and a mass density of $2.3{\cdot}10^{-5}M_{o}pc^{-3}$ for 4 < $M_v$ < 8 in the solar neighborhood. These are not sufficient for disk stability. The kinematics of the sample stars are < U > = - 7 km/sec, < V > = - 228 km/sec, and < W > = -8 km/sec with (${\sigma_u},{\sigma_v},{\sigma_w}$) = (192, 84, 94) km/sec. The average metallicity of them is [Fe/H] = $- 1.7{\pm}0.8$. These are typical values for halo stars which are selected by the high cutoff velocity. We reanalyze the luminosity function for a sample of 57 LHS proper-motion stars. The newly derived luminosity function is consistent with the one derived from the NLTT halo stars, but gives a somewhat smaller number density for the absolute magnitude range covered by the LF from NLTT stars. The luminosity function based on the LHS stars seems to have a dip in the magnitude range corresponding to the Wielen Dip, but it also seems to have some fluctuations due to a small number of sample stars.