• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.147-157
• /
• 2013

With the advent of the digital environment that can be accessed anytime, anywhere with the introduction of high-speed network, the free distribution and use of digital content were made possible. Ironically this environment is raising a variety of copyright infringement, and product images used in the online shopping mall are pirated frequently. There are many controversial issues whether shopping mall images are creative works or not. According to Supreme Court's decision in 2001, to ad pictures taken with ham products is simply a clone of the appearance of objects to deliver nothing but the decision was not only creative expression. But for the photographer's losses recognized in the advertising photo shoot takes the typical cost was estimated damages. According to Seoul District Court precedents in 2003, if there are the photographer's personality and creativity in the selection of the subject, the composition of the set, the direction and amount of light control, set the angle of the camera, shutter speed, shutter chance, other shooting methods for capturing, developing and printing process, the works should be protected by copyright law by the Court's sentence. In order to receive copyright protection of the shopping mall images by the law, it is simply not to convey the status of the product, the photographer's personality and creativity can be recognized that it requires effort. Accordingly, the cost of making the mall image increases, and the necessity for copyright protection becomes higher. The product images of the online shopping mall have a very unique configuration unlike the general pictures such as portraits and landscape photos and, therefore, the general image watermarking technique can not satisfy the requirements of the image watermarking. Because background of product images commonly used in shopping malls is white or black, or gray scale (gradient) color, it is difficult to utilize the space to embed a watermark and the area is very sensitive even a slight change. In this paper, the characteristics of images used in shopping malls are analyzed and a watermarking technology which is suitable to the shopping mall images is proposed. The proposed image watermarking technology divide a product image into smaller blocks, and the corresponding blocks are transformed by DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform), and then the watermark information was inserted into images using quantization of DCT coefficients. Because uniform treatment of the DCT coefficients for quantization cause visual blocking artifacts, the proposed algorithm used weighted mask which quantizes finely the coefficients located block boundaries and coarsely the coefficients located center area of the block. This mask improves subjective visual quality as well as the objective quality of the images. In addition, in order to improve the safety of the algorithm, the blocks which is embedded the watermark are randomly selected and the turbo code is used to reduce the BER when extracting the watermark. The PSNR(Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) of the shopping mall image watermarked by the proposed algorithm is 40.7~48.5[dB] and BER(Bit Error Rate) after JPEG with QF = 70 is 0. This means the watermarked image is high quality and the algorithm is robust to JPEG compression that is used generally at the online shopping malls. Also, for 40% change in size and 40 degrees of rotation, the BER is 0. In general, the shopping malls are used compressed images with QF which is higher than 90. Because the pirated image is used to replicate from original image, the proposed algorithm can identify the copyright infringement in the most cases. As shown the experimental results, the proposed algorithm is suitable to the shopping mall images with simple background. However, the future study should be carried out to enhance the robustness of the proposed algorithm because the robustness loss is occurred after mask process.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.113-125
• /
• 2013

Every company wants to know customer's requirement and makes an effort to meet them. Cause that, communication between customer and company became core competition of business and that important is increasing continuously. There are several strategies to find customer's needs, but VOC (Voice of customer) is one of most powerful communication tools and VOC gathering by several channels as telephone, post, e-mail, website and so on is so meaningful. So, almost company is gathering VOC and operating VOC system. VOC is important not only to business organization but also public organization such as government, education institute, and medical center that should drive up public service quality and customer satisfaction. Accordingly, they make a VOC gathering and analyzing System and then use for making a new product and service, and upgrade. In recent years, innovations in internet and ICT have made diverse channels such as SNS, mobile, website and call-center to collect VOC data. Although a lot of VOC data is collected through diverse channel, the proper utilization is still difficult. It is because the VOC data is made of very emotional contents by voice or text of informal style and the volume of the VOC data are so big. These unstructured big data make a difficult to store and analyze for use by human. So that, the organization need to automatic collecting, storing, classifying and analyzing system for unstructured big VOC data. This study propose an intelligent VOC analyzing system based on opinion mining to classify the unstructured VOC data automatically and determine the polarity as well as the type of VOC. And then, the basis of the VOC opinion analyzing system, called domain-oriented sentiment dictionary is created and corresponding stages are presented in detail. The experiment is conducted with 4,300 VOC data collected from a medical website to measure the effectiveness of the proposed system and utilized them to develop the sensitive data dictionary by determining the special sentiment vocabulary and their polarity value in a medical domain. Through the experiment, it comes out that positive terms such as "칭찬, 친절함, 감사, 무사히, 잘해, 감동, 미소" have high positive opinion value, and negative terms such as "퉁명, 뭡니까, 말하더군요, 무시하는" have strong negative opinion. These terms are in general use and the experiment result seems to be a high probability of opinion polarity. Furthermore, the accuracy of proposed VOC classification model has been compared and the highest classification accuracy of 77.8% is conformed at threshold with -0.50 of opinion classification of VOC. Through the proposed intelligent VOC analyzing system, the real time opinion classification and response priority of VOC can be predicted. Ultimately the positive effectiveness is expected to catch the customer complains at early stage and deal with it quickly with the lower number of staff to operate the VOC system. It can be made available human resource and time of customer service part. Above all, this study is new try to automatic analyzing the unstructured VOC data using opinion mining, and shows that the system could be used as variable to classify the positive or negative polarity of VOC opinion. It is expected to suggest practical framework of the VOC analysis to diverse use and the model can be used as real VOC analyzing system if it is implemented as system. Despite experiment results and expectation, this study has several limits. First of all, the sample data is only collected from a hospital web-site. It means that the sentimental dictionary made by sample data can be lean too much towards on that hospital and web-site. Therefore, next research has to take several channels such as call-center and SNS, and other domain like government, financial company, and education institute.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.163-176
• /
• 2014

Social media is becoming the platform for users to communicate their activities, status, emotions, and experiences to other people. In recent years, microblogs, such as Twitter, have gained in popularity because of its ease of use, speed, and reach. Compared to a conventional web blog, a microblog lowers users' efforts and investment for content generation by recommending shorter posts. There has been a lot research into capturing the social phenomena and analyzing the chatter of microblogs. However, measuring television ratings has been given little attention so far. Currently, the most common method to measure TV ratings uses an electronic metering device installed in a small number of sampled households. Microblogs allow users to post short messages, share daily updates, and conveniently keep in touch. In a similar way, microblog users are interacting with each other while watching television or movies, or visiting a new place. In order to measure TV ratings, some features are significant during certain hours of the day, or days of the week, whereas these same features are meaningless during other time periods. Thus, the importance of features can change during the day, and a model capturing the time sensitive relevance is required to estimate TV ratings. Therefore, modeling time-related characteristics of features should be a key when measuring the TV ratings through microblogs. We show that capturing time-dependency of features in measuring TV ratings is vitally necessary for improving their accuracy. To explore the relationship between the content of microblogs and TV ratings, we collected Twitter data using the Get Search component of the Twitter REST API from January 2013 to October 2013. There are about 300 thousand posts in our data set for the experiment. After excluding data such as adverting or promoted tweets, we selected 149 thousand tweets for analysis. The number of tweets reaches its maximum level on the broadcasting day and increases rapidly around the broadcasting time. This result is stems from the characteristics of the public channel, which broadcasts the program at the predetermined time. From our analysis, we find that count-based features such as the number of tweets or retweets have a low correlation with TV ratings. This result implies that a simple tweet rate does not reflect the satisfaction or response to the TV programs. Content-based features extracted from the content of tweets have a relatively high correlation with TV ratings. Further, some emoticons or newly coined words that are not tagged in the morpheme extraction process have a strong relationship with TV ratings. We find that there is a time-dependency in the correlation of features between the before and after broadcasting time. Since the TV program is broadcast at the predetermined time regularly, users post tweets expressing their expectation for the program or disappointment over not being able to watch the program. The highly correlated features before the broadcast are different from the features after broadcasting. This result explains that the relevance of words with TV programs can change according to the time of the tweets. Among the 336 words that fulfill the minimum requirements for candidate features, 145 words have the highest correlation before the broadcasting time, whereas 68 words reach the highest correlation after broadcasting. Interestingly, some words that express the impossibility of watching the program show a high relevance, despite containing a negative meaning. Understanding the time-dependency of features can be helpful in improving the accuracy of TV ratings measurement. This research contributes a basis to estimate the response to or satisfaction with the broadcasted programs using the time dependency of words in Twitter chatter. More research is needed to refine the methodology for predicting or measuring TV ratings.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.1-31
• /
• 1981

Experiments were conducted to investigate rice varietal response to low water and air temperatures at different growth stages from 1975 to 1980 in a phytotron in Suweon and in a cold water nursery in Chooncheon. Germination ability, seedling growth, sterility of laspikelets, panicle exertion, discoloration of leaves, and delay of heading of recently developed indica/japonica cross(I/J), japonica, and indica varieties at low air temperature or cold water were compared to those at normal temperature or natural conditions. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Practically acceptable germination rate of 70% was obtained in 10 days after initiation of germination test at 15\circ_C for japonica varieties, but 15 days for IxJ varieties. Varietal differences in germination ability at suboptimal temperature was greatest at 16\circ_C for 6 days. 2. Cold injury of rice seedlings was most severe at the 3.0-and 3.5-leaf stage and it was reduced as growth stage advanced. A significant positive correlation was observed between cold injury at 3-leaf stage and 6-leaf stage. 3. At day/night temperatures of 15/10\circ_C seedlings of both japonica and I/J varieties were dead in 42 days. At 20/15\circ_C japonica varieties produced tillers actively, but tillering of I/J varieties was retarded a little. At 25/15\circ_C, both japonica and I/J varieties produced tillers most actively. Increase in plant height was proportional to the increase in all varieties. 4. In I/J varieties the number of differentiated panicle rachis branches and spikelets was reduced at a day-night temperature of 20-15\circ_C compared to 25-20 or 30-25\circ_C, but not in japonica varieties although panicle exertion was retarded at 20-15\circ_C. The number of spikelets was not correlated with the number of primary rachis branches, but positively correlated with that of secondary rachis branches. 5. Heading of rice varieties treated with 15\circ_C air temperature at meiotic stage was delayed compared to that at tillering stage by 1-3 days and heading was delayed as duration of low temperature treatment increased. 6. At cold water treatment of 17\circ_C from tillering to heading stage, heading of japonica, I/J, and cold tolerant indica varieties was delayed 2-6, 3-9, and 4-5 days, respectively, Growth stage sensitive to delay of heading delay at water treatment were tillering stage, meiotic stage, and booting tage in that order, delay of heading was greater in indica corssed japonica(Suweon 264), japonica(Suweon 235), and cold tolerant indica(Lengkwang) varieties in that order. Delay of heading due to cold water treatment was positively correlated with culm length reduction and spikelet sterility. 7. Elongation of culms and exertion of panicles of rice varieties treated with low air temperature 17\circ_C. Culm length reduction rate of tall varieties was lower than that of short statured varieties at low temperature. Panicle exertion was most severaly retarded with low temperature treatment at heading stage. Generally, retardation of panicle exertion of 1/1 varieties was more severe than that of japonica varieties at low temperature. There was a positive correlation between panicle exertion and culm length at low temperature. 8. The number of panicles was increased with cold water treatment at tillering stage, but reduced at meiotic stage. As time of cold water treatment was conducted at earlier growth stage, culm length was shorter and panicle exertion poorer. 9. Sterility of all rice varieties was negligible at 17\circ_C for three days but 30.3-85.2% of strility was observed for nine-day treatment at 17\circ_C. Among the tested varieties, sterility of Suweon 264 and Milyang 42 was highest and that of Suweon 290 and Suweon 287 was lowest. The most sensitive growth stage to low temperature induced sterility was from 15 to 5 days before heading. There was positive correlation between sterility of rice plants treated with low temperature at meiotic and heading stage. 10. Percentage of spikelet sterility was greatest at cold water treatment at meiotic stage (auricle distance -15～-10cm) and it was higher in 1/1 (Suweon 264, Joseng tongil), japonica (Nongbaek, Towada), and cold tolerance indica(Lengkwang) varieties in the order. Level of cold water and position of young-ear affected on the sterility of varieties at meiotic stage; percentage of spikelet sterility of variety, Lengkwang, of which young-ear was located above the cold water level was high, but that of short statured variety, Suweon 264, of which young-ear was located in the cold water was lower. 11. Percentage of ripened grains was not reducted at 15\circ_C air temperature for three days at full heading stage in all varieties. However, at six-day low temperature treatment Suweon 287, Suweon 264 showed percentage of ripended grains lower than 60%, but at nine-day low temperature treatment all varieties showed percentage of ripened grains lower than 60%. Low temperature treatment of 17\circ_C from 10 days after heading for 20 days did not affect on the ripening of all varieties. 12. Uptake of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, and magnesium in whole plants was higher at average air temperature of 25\circ_C, but concentration of the elements was lower compared to those at 19\circ_C. However, both total uptake and concentration of manganese were higher at 19\circ_C compared to 25\circ_C. 13. Higher application of nitrogen, phosphorus, silicate, and compost increased yield of rice due to increased number of panicles and spike let fertility in cold water irrigated paddy.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to categorize the gap between coffee shop 'importance' (as perceived by customers before patronizing the coffee shop) and 'satisfaction' (perception of customers after patronizing the coffee shop) as positive or negative and to analyze the effect of these gaps on purchasing behavior. To do this, I used the gap between importance and satisfaction regarding the choice of a coffee shop as the explanatory variable and performed an empirical analysis of the direction and size of the effect of the gap on purchasing behavior (overall satisfaction, willingness-to-revisit) by applying the Ordered Probit Model (OPM). A previous study that used IPA to evaluate the effects of gaps estimated the direction and size of a quadrant but failed to analyze the effect of gaps on customers. In this study, I evaluated the effects of positive and negative gaps on customer satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. Using OPM, I quantified the effect of positive and negative gaps on overall customer satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. Per-head expenditure, frequency of visits, and coffee-purchasing place had the most positive effects on overall customer satisfaction. Frequency of visits, followed by per-head expenditure and then coffee-purchasing place, had the most positive impact on willingness-to-visit. Thus per-head expenditure and frequency of visits had the greatest positive effects on overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. This finding implies that the higher the actual satisfaction (gap) of customers who spend KRW5,000 or more once or more per week at coffee shops is, the higher their overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit are. Despite the fact that economical efficiency had a significant effect on overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit, college and university students still use coffee shops and are willing to spend KRW5,000 because they do not only purchase coffee as a product itself, but use the coffee shop for other activities, such as working, meeting friends, or relaxing. College and university students also access the Internet in coffee shops via personal laptops, watch movies, and study; thus, coffee shops should provide their customers with the appropriate facilities and services. The fact that a positive gap for coffee shop brand had a positive effect on willingness-to-revisit implies that the higher the level of customer satisfaction, the greater the willingness-to-revisit. A negative gap for this factor, on the other hand, implies that the lower the level of customer satisfaction, the lower the willingness-to-revisit. Thus, the brand factor has a comparatively greater effect on satisfaction than the other factors evaluated in this study. Given that the domestic coffee culture is becoming more upscale and college/university students are sensitive to this trend, students are attentive to brands. In most upscale coffee shops in Korea, the outer wall is built out of glass that can be opened, the interiors are exotic with an open kitchen. These upscale coffee shops function as landmarks and match the taste of college/university students. Coffee shops in Korea have become a cultural brand. To make customers feel that coffee shops are upscale, good quality establishments and measures to provide better services in terms of brand factor should be instituted. The intensified competition among coffee shop brands in Korea as a result of the booming industry indicates that provision of additional services is needed to differentiate competitors. These customers can also use a scanner free of charge. Another strategy that can be used to boost brands could be to provide and operate a seminar room for seminars and group study. If coffee shops adopt these types of strategies, college/university students would be more likely to consider the expenses they incur worthwhile and, subsequently, they would be more likely to be satisfied with the brands of these coffee shops, with an associated increase in their willingness-to-revisit. Gender and study year had the most negative effects on overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. Female students were more likely to be satisfied and be willing to return than male students, and third and fourth-year students were more likely to be satisfied and willing-to-return than first or second-year students. Students who drink coffee, read books, and use laptops alone at coffee shops are easily noticeable. High-grade students tend to visit coffee shops alone in order to use their time efficiently for self-development and to find jobs. The economical efficiency factor had the greatest effect on overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit in terms of a positive gap. The higher the actual satisfaction (gap) of students with the price of the coffee, the greater their overall satisfaction and willingness-to-revisit. Economical efficiency with a negative gap had a negative effect on willingness-to-revisit, which implies that a less negative gap will result in a greater willingness-to-revisit. Amid worsening market conditions, coffee shops located around colleges/universities are using strategies, such as a point or membership card, strategic alliances with credit-card companies, development of a set menu or seasonal menu, and free coffee-shot services to increase their competitive edge. Product power also had a negative effect in terms of a negative gap, which indicates that a higher negative gap will result in a lower willingness-to-revisit. Because there are many more customers that enjoy coffee in this decade, as compared to previous decades, the new generation of customers, namely college/university students, want various menu items in addition to coffee, and coffee shops should, therefore, add side menu items, such as waffles, rice cakes, cakes, sandwiches, and salads. For example, Starbucks Korea is making efforts to enhance product power by selling rice cakes flavored in strawberry, wormwood, and pumpkin, and providing coffee or cream free of charge. In summary, coffee shops should focus on increasing their economical efficiency, brand, and product power to enhance the satisfaction of college/university students. Because shops adjacent to colleges or universities enjoy a locational advantage, providing differentiated services in terms of economical efficiency, brand, and product power, is likely to increase customer satisfaction and return visits. Coffee shop brands should, therefore, be innovative and embrace change to meet their customers' desires. Because this study only targeted college/university students in Seoul, comparative studies targeting diverse regions and age groups are required to generalize the findings and recommendations of this study.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.75-99
• /
• 1983

The herbicidal properties of perfluidone [1,1,1-trifluoro-N-2-methyl-4-(phenylsulponyl) phenyl methanesulfonamide] were investigated in pots and paddy fields. At the rate of 2.0kg prod./10a, perfluidone did not cause any injury to the 4 leaf stage (LS) rice seedlings. Although the crop injury increased with increasing the application rate, the injury caused by 16kg prod. perfluidone/10a gave rise to only 30% yield reduction. The crop injury was greatest when perfluidone was applied 2 days before transplanting and decreased as the application time delayed. Perfluidone showed greater crop injury to the 3 LS seedlings, at more than 7cm water depth, and at high temperature than to the 4 LS seedlings, at 3-5cm water depth, and at low temperature. Indica and indica ${\times}$ japonica rice varieties were generally more sensitive to perfluidone than japonica rice variety. Perfluidone effectively controlled most of annual weeds and such perennial weeds as Sagittaria pygmaea MIQ., Potamogeton distinctus A. BENN, Cyperus serotinus ROTTB, Scirpus maritimus L., Eleocharis kuroguwai OHWL, and Scirpus hotarui OHWL, whereas Sagittaria trifolia L. and Polygonum hydropiper SPACH. were tolerent to perfluidone. The weeding effect decreased with increasing the leaching amount of water and the overflowing of irrigated water within 24 hours after the herbicide application. When the application time was done later than 8 days after transplanting, the perennial weeds were shown at deeper soil layers, and the standing water was deeper than 7cm, the effect tended to decrease. However, there was no difference in the weeding effect between soil types. Downward movement of perfluidone in flooded soil ranged from 2 to 8cm deep. The movement increased with increasing the leaching amount of water and the application rate and at a sandy loam soil which possessed less adsorptive capacity. Residual effect of perfluidone was found at 35 to 80 days after application, which varied such factors as Soil types. Increase in the leaching amount of water resulted in decrease in the period of the residual effect. The period was shorter at non-sterilized soil than at sterilized soil. The 0.75kg ai perfluidone + 1.5kg ai SL-49 (1,3-dimethyl-6-(2,4-dichlor-benzoyl)-5-phenacyloxy-pyrazole)/ha and 1.5kg ai perfluidone + 1.05kg ai bifenox (2,4-dichlorophenyl-3-methoxy carbonyl-4-nitro phenyl ether)/ha showed less crop injury than 1.5kg ai/ha perfluidone alone. However, the weeding effect of the former was similar to that of the later.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2009

To assess the effect of butachlor on freshwater aquatic organisms, acute toxicity studies for algae, invertebrate and fishes were conducted. The algae grow inhibition studies were carried out to determine the growth inhibition effects of butachlor (Tech. 93.4%) in Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (formerly knows as Selenastrum capriconutum), Desmodesmus subspicatus (formerly known as Scendusmus subspicatus), and Chlorella vulgaris during the exposure period of 72 hours. The toxicological responses of P. subcapitata, D. subspicatus, and C. vulgaris to butachlor, expressed in individual $ErC_{50}$ values were 0.002, 0.019, and $10.4mgL^{-1}$, respectively and NOEC values were 0.0008, 0.0016, and $5.34mg\;L^{-1}$, respectively. P. subcapitata was more sensitive than any other algae species. Butachlor has very high toxicity to the algae, such as P. subcapitata and D. subspicatu. In the acute immobilisation test for Daphnia magna, the 24 and $48h-EC_{50}$ values were 2.55 and $1.50mg\;L^{-1}$, respectively. As the results of the acute toxicity test on Cyprinus carpio, Oryzias latipes and Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, the $96h-LC_{50}s$ were 0.62, 0.41 and $0.24mg\;L^{-1}$, respectively. The following ecological risk assessment of butachlor was performed on the basis of the toxicological data of algae, invertebrate and fish and exposure concentrations in rice paddy, drain and river. When a butachlor formulation is applied in rice paddy field according to label recommendation, the measured concentration of butachlor in paddy water was $0.41mg\;L^{-1}$ and the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) of butachlor in drain water was $0.03 mg\;L^{-1}$. Residues of butachlor detected in major rivers between 1997 and 1998 were ranged from $0.0004mg\;L^{-1}$ to $0.0029mg\;L^{-1}$. Toxicity exposure ratios (TERs) of algae in rice paddy, drain and river were 0.004, 0.05 and 0.36, respectively and indicated that butachlor has a risk to algae in rice paddy, drain and river. On the other hand, TERs of invertebrate in rice paddy, drain and river were 3.6, 50 and 357, respectively, well above 2, indicating no risk to invertebrate. TERs of fish in rice paddy, drain and river were 0.58, 8 and 57, respectively. The TERs for fish indicated that butachlor poses a risk to fish in rice paddy but has no risk to fish in agricultural drain and river. In conclusion, butachlor has a minimal risk to algae in agricultural drain and river exposed from rice drainage but has no risk to invertebrate and fish.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.236-249
• /
• 1993

Background: Among the injurious agents to which the lung airspaces are constantly exposed are reactive species of oxygen. It has been widely believed that reactive oxygen species may be implicated in the etiology of lung injuries. In order to elucidated how this oxidant causes lung cell injury, we investigated the effects of exogenous $H_2O_2$ on alveolar epithelial barrier characteristics. Methods: Rat type II alveolar epithelial cells were plated onto tissue culture-treated polycarbonate membrane filters. The resulting confluent monolayers on days 3 and 4 were mounted in a modified Ussing chamber and bathed on both sides with HEPES-buffered Ringer solution. The changes in short-circuit current (Isc) and monolayer resistance (R) in response to the exogenous hydroperoxide were measured. To determine the degree of cellular catalase participation in protection against $H_2O_2$ injury to the barrier, experiments were repeated in the presence of 20 mM aminotriazole (ATAZ, an inhibitor of catalase) in the same bathing fluid as the hydroperoxide. Results: These monolayers have a high transepithelial resistance (>2000 ohm-$cm^2$) and actively transport $Na^+$ from apical fluid. $H_2O_2$(0-100 mM) was then delivered to either apical or basolateral fluid. Resulting indicated that $H_2O_2$ decreased Isc and R gradually in dose-dependent manner. The effective concentration of apical $H_2O_2$ at which Isc (or R) was decreased by 50% at one hour ($ED_{50}$) was about 4 mM. However, basolateral $H_2O_2$ exposure led to $ED_{50}$ for Isc (and R) of about 0.04 mM. Inhibition of cellular catalase yielded $ED_{50}$ for Isc (and R) of about 0.4 mM when $H_2O_2$ was given apically, while $ED_{50}$ for basolateral exposure to $H_2O_2$ did not change in the presence of ATAZ. The rate of $H_2O_2$ consumption in apical and basolateral bathing fluids was the same, while cellualr catalase activity rose gradually with time in culture. Conclusion: Our data suggest that basolateral $H_2O_2$ may affect directly membrane component (e.g., $Na^+,\;K^+$-ATPase) located on the basolateral cell surface. Apical $H_2O_2$, on the other hand, may be largely degraded by catalase as it passes through the cells before reaching these membrane components. We conclude that alveolar epithelial barrier integrity as measured by Isc and R are compromised by $H_2O_2$ being relatively sensitive to basolateral (and insensitive to apical) $H_2O_2$.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.47 no.5
• /
• pp.642-649
• /
• 1999

Background: It is very important to determine an accurate staging of the non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) for an assessment of operability and it's prognosis. However, it is difficult to evaluate tumor involvement of mediastinal lymph nodes accurately utilizing noninvasive imaging modalities. PET is one of the sensitive and specific imaging modality. Unfortunately PET is limited use because of prohibitive cost involved with it's operation. Recently hybrid SPECT/PET(single photon emission computed tomography/positron emission tomography) camera based PET imaging was introduced with relatively low cost. We evaluated the usefulness of coincidence detection(CoDe) PET in the detection of metastasis to the mediastinal lymph nodes in patients with NSCLC. Methods: Twenty one patients with NSCLC were evaluated by CT or MRI and they were considered operable. CoDe PET was performed in all 21 patients prior to surgery. Tomographic slices of axial, coronal and sagittal planes were visually analysed. At surgery, mediastinal lymph nodes were removed and histological diagnosis was performed. CoDe PET findings were correlated with histological findings. Results: Twenty of 21 primary tumor masses were detected by the CoDe PET. Thirteen of 21 patients was correctly diagnosed mediastinal lymph node metastasis by the CoDe PET. Pathological N0 was 14 cases and the specificity of N0 of CoDe PET was 64.3%. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of N1 node was 83.3%, 73.3%, 55.6%, 91.7%, and 76.2% respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of N2 node was 60.0%, 87.5%, 60.0%,87.5%, and 90.0% respectively. There were 3 false negative cases but the size of the 3 nodes were less than 1cm. The size of true positive nodes were 1.1cm, 1.0cm, 0.5cm respectively. There were 1 false positive among the 12 lymph nodes which were larger than 1cm. False positive cases consisted of 1 tuberculosis case, 1 pneumoconiosis case and 1 anthracosis case. Conclusion: CoDe PET has relatively high negative predictive value in the enlarged lymph node in staging of mediastinal nodes in patients with NSCLC. Therefore CoDe PET is useful in ruling out metastasis of enlarged N3 nodes. However, further study is needed including more number of patients in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.151-162
• /
• 1984

The mechanism of the contractile response of longitudial muscle of rabbit ileum to substance P (SP) has been investigated. The contractions in rabbit ileum under various conditions were recorded isometrically The following results were obtained. 1) The contractions by SP increased according to concentrations. SP·induced contraction was not sustained but faded rapidly at $10^{-7}M$. The response to the commutative addition of SP was decreased in comparison to the response to separate administration of each concentration . 2) The response to $10^{-8}M$ SP after 5 min application cf $10^{-7}M$ SP was increased with increasing the time interval between the administration of $10^{-7}$ and $10^{-8}M$ SP. 3) The treatment of rabbit ileum by $10^{-7}M$ SP for 5 min didn't decrease the response to $10^{-6}M$ acetylcholine. 4) $10^{-6}M$ atropine had no effect of the contractile response to $10^{-7}M$ SP. The response to $10^{-7}M$ SP was normal or subnormal in the presence of 3 mM tetraethylammonium(TEA). 5) 100k solution, $10^{-4}M$ ouabain, and Na-free solution inhibited the response to $10^{-8}M$ SP and 3 mM TEA completely, and to $10^{-7}M$ SP incompletely. 3 mM TEA induced a considerable contraction in K-free solution, but $10^{-8}M$ SP didn't induce the contraction. $10^{-6}M$ norepinephrine decreased the contractile responses to SP and TEA. 6) The contractile response to $10^{-7}M$ SP was dependent on the extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentrations to 1.8 mM. 7) The contractile response to $10^{-7}M$ SP remained 15% of the maximal response after bathing the ileum in a Ca-free solution for 2.5 min. 8) The responsiveness to SP was completely lost within 10 min of bathing in Ca-free solution, but was restored by the exposure to $Ca^{2+}$. The restorative effect of $Ca^{2+}$ depended on the concentration of $Ca^{2+}$, and on time for which the tissue exposed to this $Ca^{2+}$ concentration. These results suggest that there are two mechanisms of the action by which the low concentrations of substance P causes the contraction of intestinal smooth muscle: the reduction of K conductance and a mechanism dependent on the extracellular $Ca^{2+}$, and that high concentration of SP may elicit a contraction by releasing $Ca^{2+}$ from an intracellular store, which is not as sensitive to removal of extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ or as easily accessible to EGTA as the extracellular space of the muscle. The location of this store is not known; it may be associated with the internal side of the cell membrane.