• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.327-335
• /
• 2006

A stable and reliable Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection animal model would be necessary for evaluating vaccine efficacy and helpful for understanding the pathological mechanism of the organism. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of ethanol treatment prior to H. pylori inoculation on associated gastric mucosal injury and to establish ethanol-pretreating animal model to study H. pylori infection. Male Mongolian gerbils were used for the study. H. pylori was orally inoculated after 12 h fasting. 3 h prior to H. pylori inoculation, a group of gerbils was orally treated with absolute ethanol, 60% and 40% ethanol respectively. Another group of animals was treated either with H. pylori culture media alone or with different concentrations of ethanol plus culture media. Gerbils were killed 4 or 8 weeks after H. pylori inoculation. The colonization of H. pylori was confirmed by both histological examination and rapid urease test. Mucosal damage was evaluated grossly and histologically according to the criteria. The colonization of H. pylori and pathological changes in gastric mucosa of the animals were also observed. Although no significant change to the gastric mucose was observed in the animals treated either with H. pylori culture media alone or with different concentrations of ethanol plus culture media, persistent H. pylori infection was seen in the mucosa and mucosal leucocyte infiltration and severe epithelial damage was observed in the Helicobacter and ethanol + Helicobacter groups after 4 weeks. The gross and histological scores were higher in the ethanol + Helicobacter than in the Helicobacter alone group. As the results, ethanol-pretreatment with 60% concentration induced severe pathogenic changes by H. pylori infection in 5 weeks-old Mongolian gerbils. These results suggested that ethanol-pretreatment before H. pylori inoculation could increase the severity of gastric mucosal inflammation and enhance the colonization of H. pylori. The established ethanol-pretreating animal model would contribute to screen new drugs against H. pylori and be used as an useful tool for various animal experiments with H. pylori strains.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.273-279
• /
• 2013

Purpose: In patients with splenic trauma, Computed Tomography (CT) scan is helpful in selecting treatment options and evaluating resolution after NOM (Non-Operative Management). The purpose of this study was to suggest a CT based hemoperitoneum (HP) scoring system that can easily be used by clinicians to evaluate the severity of injury and recovery. Methods: A retrospective review of patients with splenic trauma admitted to our hospital between May 2003 and January 2013 was conducted. Patients diagnosed with isolated spleen injury who had a CT scan on admission were included. 1 or 2 points were given according to location and amount of hematoma in the CT image. Using the existing ultrasonography (US) based HP scoring system, the same method was applied to obtain our CT based HP scoring (CBHS) system, which ranges from 0 to 8 points. The CBHS system can be easily used by clinicians for a quick assessment of splenic injury. Results: Of the 39 patients meeting the inclusion criteria, 6 patients were managed operatively and 33 nonoperatively. There was a significant difference in CBHS between the OM (operative management) group and the NOM group.(p=0.03) CBHS showed correlation with Hb (hemoglobin), Hct (hematocrit), spleen injury grade(AAST), and Hounsfield unit of ROI (Region of interest). (p=0.17, p=0.18, p<0.000, p=0.02, respectively) After successful NOM with stabilized Hb level, the amount of hemoperitoneum was scored in the follow-up CT. CBHS demonstrated correlation with decreased spleen injury grade, decreased Hounsfield unit of ROI (Region of interest) (p=0.039, p=0.049, respectively), and also objectively reflected patient recovery. Conclusion: CBHS can be used as an objective and intuitive tool for clinicians in grading the severity of splenic injury by scoring the amount of hemoperitoneum, and in assessing recovery.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.6-9
• /
• 2016

Bronchoarterial (BA) ratio is a commonly used criterion to define airway dilatation despite the lack of normative human and animals. The objective of our study was to compare the range of normal bronchial to accompanying arterial diameter ratio with previous reports on CT scan of the thorax in dogs and assess influence anesthetics on BA ratio in dogs. Dogs undergoing multidetector CT scan of the chest for nonpulmonary conditions at a single center were prospectively identified. High-resolution reconstruction was performed on those included and both airway lumen and vessel diameters were measured in the lobar bronchi of the left cranial (cranial and caudal parts), right cranial, right middle, left caudal, and right caudal lung lobes. Eight dog were included; Mean of the mean BA ratios was $1.43{\pm}0.24$ (95% CI = 1.36 - 1.50) in inhalation anesthetic group. In propofol group, the mean of the mean BA ratios was $1.13{\pm}0.29$ (95% CI = 1.04 - 1.22). In medetomidine group, the mean of the mean BA ratios was $0.89{\pm}0.19$ (95% CI = 0.83 - 0.95). Comparing individual lobes within anesthetic category, there was no signicant difference in mean BA ratio between lung lobes or between dog according to inhalation, propofol, and medetomidine group (P = 0.630, P = 0.878, and P = 0.508, respectively). The BA ratio in these clinically normal dogs was consistent and may be a useful tool in evaluating for bronchiectasis on CT images. However, some different criteria for bronchiectasis were applied by the anesthetic methods.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.64-72
• /
• 2007

Humans are exposed by a range of pollutants in soil via exposure routes such as ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact. Risk assessment is a process of evaluating the adverse health effects of chemicals as a result of exposure to stressors, and it is a very useful tool to establish the cleanup goals in contaminated lands. In the exposure assessment that is one of main process in risk assessment, exposure factor plays a significant role to quantify the intake of soil pollutants. However there is a very limited study about the exposure factor applicable to Korea. In this study, we compared the exposure factors applied by the developed countries including the United States and representative European countries, and suggested the exposure factor that might be suitable in our situation. The exposure factors considered in this study include average lifetime, body weight, (exposed) skin surface area, life time, skin absorption, soil-skin adherence factor, and soil ingestion rate. This information is needed to quantitatively estimate the intake of soil pollutants in contaminated lands.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2020

The APEX model has been developed for assessing agricultural management efforts and their effects on soil and water at the field scale as well as more complex multi-subarea landscapes, whole farms, and watersheds. Recently, a key component of APEX application, named APEX-Paddy, has been modified for simulating water quality by considering paddy rice management practices. In this study, the performance of the APEX-Paddy model was evaluated using field data at Iksan experimental paddy sites in Korea. The discharge and pollutant load data during 2013 and 2014 were used to both manually and automatically calibrate the model. The APEX auto-calibration tool (APEX-CUTE 4.1) was used for model calibration and sensitivity analysis. Results indicate that APEX-Paddy reasonably performs in predicting runoff discharge rate and nitrogen yield. However, sediment and phosphorus yield is not correctly predicted due to the limitation of model schemes. With APEX-Paddy, the performance in reproducing the discharge and nitrogen yield is found to be a satisfactory level after manual calibration. The manually calibrated model performed better than the automatically calibrated model in nearly all comparisons. For runoff, manual calibration reduced PBIAS while R² and NSE values of the automatically calibrated model were the same as the manual calibration. For T-N, NSE and PBIAS were reduced when using manual calibration, whereas R² value was the same as manual calibration. The limitation of the APEX-Paddy model for predicting sediment, as well as the phosphorous yield, was discussed in this study.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.46-54
• /
• 2007

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytology is an effective tool for evaluating diseases involving the central nervous system, but this technique is usually limited by its low cellularity and poor cellular preservation. Here we compared the manual liquid-base $Liqui-PREP^{TM}$ (LP) to the cytospin (CS) with using a mononuclear cell suspension and we applied both methods to the CSFs of pediatric leukemia patients. The cytopresevability, in terms of cell yield and cell size, and the clinical efficacy were evaluated. When 2000 and 4000 mononuclear cells were applied, LP was superior to CS for the cell yield, 16.8% vs 1.7% (P=0.001) and 26.2% vs 3.5% (P=0.002), respectively. The mean size of the smeared cells was 10.60 ${\mu}m$ in the CS, 5.01 ${\mu}m$ in the LP and 6.50 ${\mu}m$ in the direct smear (DS), and the size ratio was 1.7 (CS to DS), 0.8(LP to DS) and 2.1 (CS to LP), respectively. As compared to the cells in the DS, the cells in the CS were significantly enlarged, but those in the LP were slightly shrunken. Upon application to 109 CSF samples, 4 were diagnosed as positive for leukemia (positive), 4 had atypical cells and 101 were negative by CS; 6 were positive, one had atypical cells and 102 were negative by LP. For six cases, in which 4 were positive for leukemia and 2 of 4 had atypical cells by CS, they were positive by LP and they were also confirmed as positive according to the follow-up study. Three cases diagnosed as atypical cells (two by CS and one by LP), were confirmed as negative. In conclusion, these results suggest that LP is superior to CS for the cytopresevability and for rendering a definite diagnosis of cerebrospinal fluid.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.245-258
• /
• 2020

In this study, a data-driven response surface method using the results acquired from the numerical simulation is developed to evaluate the potential storage capacity of groundwater due to the construction of a groundwater dam. The hydraulic conductivities of alluvium and basement rock, depth and slope of the channel are considered as the natural conditions of the location for groundwater dam construction. In particular, the probability models of the hydraulic conductivities and the various types of geometry of the channel are considered to ensure the reliability of the numerical simulation and the generality of the developed estimation model. As the results of multiple simulations, it can be seen that the hydraulic conductivity of basement rock and the depth of the channel greatly influence to the groundwater storage capacity. In contrast, the slope of the channel along the groundwater flow direction shows a relatively lower impact on the storage capacity. Based on the considered natural conditions and the corresponding numerical simulation results, the storage capacity estimation model is developed applying an artificial neural network as the nonlinear regression model for training. The developed estimation model shows a high correlation coefficient (>0.9) between the simulated and the estimated storage amount. This result indicates the superiority of the developed model in evaluating the storage capacity of the potential location for groundwater dam construction without the numerical simulation. Therefore, a more objective and efficient comparison for the storage capacity between the different potential locations can be possibly made based on the developed estimation model. In line with this, the proposed method can be an effective tool to assess the optimal location of groundwater dam construction across Korea.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.1738-1741
• /
• 2010

Caliper measurements of tumor volume have been widely used in the assessment of tumors in animal models. However, experiments based on caliper data have resulted in unreliable estimates of tumor growth, due to necrotic areas of tumor mass. To overcome this systematic bias, we engineered a new luciferase-expressing rat prostate cancer cell line (MLL-Luc) that produces bioluminescence from viable cancer cells. MLL-Luc cells showed a strong correlation between bioluminescence intensity and cell number ($R^2$=0.99) and also accurately quantified tumor growth, with reduced bioluminescence signals caused by necrotic cells in a subcutaneous MLL-Luc xenograft model. The accurate quantification of tumor growth with bioluminescence imaging (BLI) was confirmed by a better antitumor effect of combination chemotherapy, compared to that based on caliper measurements with a correlation between the bioluminescence signal and tumor volume ($R^2$=0.84). These data suggest that bioluminescent MLL xenografts are a powerful and quantitative tool for monitoring tumor growth and are useful in evaluating the efficacy of anticancer drugs, with less systematic bias.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.28 no.11
• /
• pp.79-86
• /
• 2012

Cemented soils have been used for subbase or base materials of roads, backfill materials of retaining walls and cofferdam. Such cemented soils can be degraded due to repeated wetting and drying or various weathering actions. Unlike rocks, a standard method was not defined for evaluating the durability of cemented soils. In this study, a slaking durability test and an ultrasound cleaner were used for developing a new durability test method for cemented soils. For durability tests, cemented sands with different cement ratios (4, 6, 8, and 12%) with cylindrical specimens were prepared and then air cured or under-water cured for three days. Three-day-cured specimens were dried for one day and then submerged for one day before testing. The weight loss after the slake durability test or ultrasonic cleaner operation for 10 or 20 min was measured and used for assessing durability. When a cement ratio was 4%, the weight loss from ultrasonic cleaner test was 7-25% but that from slake durability test was as much as 30-60%. For specimens with cement ratio of more than 8%, the weight loss was less than 10% from both tests. A durability index increased with increasing a cement ratio. The durability index of under-water cured specimen was higher than that of air cured specimen. The ultrasonic cleaner test was found to be an effective tool for durability assessment of cemented sands rather than the slake durability test.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.97-102
• /
• 1995

Adaptive response induced by low dose ${\gamma}-ray$ irradiation in human peripheral lymphocytes was examimed. Human lymphocytes were exposured to low dose of ${\gamma}-ray$ (priming dose, 0.01Gy) followed by high dose (challenging dose, 1.5Gy) after various time intervals (4, 7, 20 hours). Frequencies of micronuclei were enumerated in both primed and unprimed groups. Maximum reduction in frequency of micronuclei was observed when challenging dose irradiation was followed by priming dose after 4hr incubation period. When challenging doses were irradiated 7 or 20hr after priming dose, frequencies of micronuclei were reduced slighty. However, these reduction were not statistically significant. In this study, human peripheral lymphocytes were irradiated at Go phase and they showed adaptive response induced by low dose radiation. Since micronucleus assay is relatively simpler and faster than other methods, it may be a good tool for evaluating radiation-induced adaptive responses.