• Title/Summary/Keyword: I-function

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The Prognostic role of Electrocardiographic Signs of Cor Pulmonale in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (폐성심을 시사하는 심전도 소견 유.무에 따른 만성폐쇄성 폐질환 환자의 예후)

  • Shin, Moo-Chul;Park, Jae-Yong;Bae, Moon-Seob;Bae, Nack-Cheon;Chae, Po-Hee;Kim, Chang-Ho;Jung, Tae-Hoon
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.48 no.6
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    • pp.944-955
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    • 2000
  • Background : In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), several factors have been associated with a poor prognosis. These include old age, low $FEV_1$ low diffusing capacity, high alveolar-arterial oxygen pressure difference, and finally cor pulmonale. This study was done to investigate if the ECG signs suggesting cor pulmonale were independent prognostic factors in patients with COPD. Method : We analyzed ECG, pulmonary function data and arterial blood gas values in 61 patients who were admitted through the emergency department with an acute exacerbation of COPD. The ECG signs reflecting cor pulmonale were right strial overloading(RAO), right bundle branch block, right ventricular hypertrophy and low-voltage QRS. The 61 patients were divided into 2 groups ; group I with no ECG signs(n=36) and group II with one or more ECG signs(n=25) suggesting cor, pulmonale. Results : Poor, prognostic factors by univariate analysis were low $FEV_1$, $FEV_1$ % pred., VC % pred., DLco, DLco % pred., $PaO_2$ and $SaO_2$ high $PaCO_2$ presence of ECG signs reflecting cor pulmonale, presence of mental status change, use of mechanical ventilator, and long term use of glucocorticoid. A multivariate analysis indicated that age(risk ratio=1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.05-1.23), DLco % pred. (risk ratio=0,97. 95% confidence interval 0.94-0.99), $PaO_2$ (risk ratio=0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.90-0.99) and RAO(risk ratio=5.27, 95% confidence interval 1.40-19.85) were independent prognostic factors of survival. There was a significant difference in survival between the patients with and without RAO(p=0.038). The survival rates at 1, 2, and 5 years were 94.5%. 81.4%, and 50.0% in patients without RAO and 82.4%, 70.6%, and 27.5% in patients with RAO, respectively. Conclusion : These results suggest that the presence of ECG signs reflecting cor pulmonale is a predictor of survival and that RAO of these ECG signs is a significant independent predictor of survival in patients with COPD.

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Effects of high dose of dexamethasone on $PLA_2$, GGT activity and lung morphology in NNNMU-induced ARDS rats (NNNMU로 유도된 급성호흡곤란증후군 흰쥐 폐장에서의 dexamethasone에 의한 $PLA_2$, GGT의 활성도 및 형태학적인 변화)

  • Lee, Young Man;Park, Yoon Yub;Koh, Younsuck
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.43 no.6
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    • pp.925-935
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    • 1996
  • Background : In order to elucidate one of the pathogenic mechanisms of ARDS associated with pulmonary surfactant and oxidant injury, acute lung injury was induced by N-nitroso N-methylurethane (NNNMU). In this model, the role of phospholipase $A_2$ ($PLA_2$), surfactant, gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) and morphology were investigated to delineate one of the pathogenic mechanisms of ARDS by inhibition of $PLA_2$ with high dose of dexamethasone. Method: Acute lung injury was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by NNNMU which is known to induce acute lung injury in experimental animals. To know the function of the alveolar type II cells, GGT activity in the lung and bronchoalveolar lavage was measured. Surfactant phospholipid was measured also. $PLA_2$ activity was measured to know the role of $PLA_2$ in ARDS. Morphological study was performed to know the effect of $PLA_2$ inhibition on the ultrastructure of the lung by high dose of dexamethasone. Results : Six days after NNNMU treatment (4 mg/kg), conspicuous pulmonary edema was induced and the secretion of pulmonary surfactant was decreased significantly. In the acutely injured rats' lung massive infiltration of leukocytes was observed. At the same time rats given NNNMU had increased $PLA_2$ and GGT activity tremendously. Morphological study revealed bizarre shaped alveolar type II cells and hypertrophied lamellar bodies in the cytoplasm of the alveolar type II cells. But after dexamethasone treatment (20 mg/kg, for six days) in NNNMU-treated rats, these changes were diminished i.e. there were decrease of pulmonary edema and increase of surfactant secretion from alveolar type D cells. Rats given dexamethasone and NNNMU had decreased $PLA_2$ and GGT activity in comparison to NNNMU induced ARDS rats. Conclusion : Inhibition of $PLA_2$ by high dose of dexamethasone decreased pathological findings caused by infiltration of leukocytes and respiratory burst. Based on these experimental results, it is suggested that an activation of $PLA_2$ is the one of the major factors to evoke the acute lung injury in NNNMU-induced ARDS rats.

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Market Structure Analysis of Automobile Market in U.S.A (미국자동차시장의 구조분석)

  • Choi, In-Hye;Lee, Seo-Goo;Yi, Seong-Keun
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.141-156
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    • 2008
  • Market structure analysis is a very useful tool to analyze the competition boundary of the brand or the company. But most of the studies in market structure analysis, the concern lies in nondurable goods such as candies, soft drink and etc. because of the their availability of the data. In the field of durable goods, the limitation of the data availability and the repurchase time period constrain the study. In the analysis of the automobile market, those of views might be more persuasive. The purpose of this study is to analyze the structure of automobile market based on some idea suggested by prior studies. Usually the buyers of the automobile tend to buy upper tier when they buy in the next time. That kind of behavior make it impossible to analyze the structure of automobile market under the level of automobile model. For that reason I tried to analyze the market structure in the brand or company level. In this study, consideration data was used for market structure analysis. The reasons why we used the consideration data are summarized as following. Firstly, as the repurchase time cycle is too long, brand switching data which is used for the market analysis of nondurable good is not avaliable. Secondly, as we mentioned, the buyers of the automobile tend to buy upper tier when they buy in the next time. We used survey data collected in the U.S.A. market in the year of 2005 through questionaire. The sample size was 8,291. The number of brand analyzed in this study was 9 among 37 which was being sold in U.S.A. market. Their market share was around 50%. The brands considered were BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Mercedes, and Toyota. �� ratio was derived from frequency of the consideration set. Actually the frequency is different from the brand switch concept. In this study to compute the �� ratio, the frequency of the consideration set was used like a frequency of brand switch for convenience. The study can be divided into 2 steps. The first step is to build hypothetical market structures. The second step is to choose the best structure based on the hypothetical market structures, Usually logit analysis is used for the choice best structure. In this study we built 3 hypothetical market structure. They are type-cost, cost-type, and unstructured. We classified the automobile into 5 types, sedan, SUV(Sport Utility Vehicle), Pickup, Mini Van, and Full-size Van. As for purchasing cost, we classified it 2 groups based on the median value. The median value was $28,800. To decide best structure among them, maximum likelihood test was used. Resulting from market structure analysis, we find that the automobile market of USA is hierarchically structured in the form of 'automobile type - purchasing cost'. That is, result showed that automobile buyers considered function or usage first and purchasing cost next. This study has some limitations in the analysis level and variable selection. First, in this study only type of the automobile and purchasing cost were as attributes considered for purchase. Considering other attributes is very needful. Because of the attributes considered, only 3 hypothetical structure could be analyzed. Second, due to the data, brand level analysis was tried. But model level analysis would be better because automobile buyers consider model not brand. To conduct model level study more cases should be obtained. That is for acquiring the better practical meaning, brand level analysis should be conducted when we consider the actual competition which occurred in the real market. Third, the variable selection for building nested logit model was very limited to some avaliable data. In spite of those limitations, the importance of this study lies in the trial of market structure analysis of durable good.

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Determinants of Mobile Application Use: A Study Focused on the Correlation between Application Categories (모바일 앱 사용에 영향을 미치는 요인에 관한 연구: 앱 카테고리 간 상관관계를 중심으로)

  • Park, Sangkyu;Lee, Dongwon
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.22 no.4
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    • pp.157-176
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    • 2016
  • For a long time, mobile phone had a sole function of communication. Recently however, abrupt innovations in technology allowed extension of the sphere in mobile phone activities. Development of technology enabled realization of almost computer-like environment even on a very small device. Such advancement yielded several forms of new high-tech devices such as smartphone and tablet PC, which quickly proliferated. Simultaneously with the diffusion of the mobile devices, mobile applications for those devices also prospered and soon became deeply penetrated in consumers' daily lives. Numerous mobile applications have been released in app stores yielding trillions of cumulative downloads. However, a big majority of the applications are disregarded from consumers. Even after the applications are purchased, they do not survive long in consumers' mobile devices and are soon abandoned. Nevertheless, it is imperative for both app developers and app-store operators to understand consumer behaviors and to develop marketing strategies aiming to make sustainable business by first increasing sales of mobile applications and by also designing surviving strategy for applications. Therefore, this research analyzes consumers' mobile application usage behavior in a frame of substitution/supplementary of application categories and several explanatory variables. Considering that consumers of mobile devices use multiple apps simultaneously, this research adopts multivariate probit models to explain mobile application usage behavior and to derive correlation between categories of applications for observing substitution/supplementary of application use. The research adopts several explanatory variables including sociodemographic data, user experiences of purchased applications that reflect future purchasing behavior of paid applications as well as consumer attitudes toward marketing efforts, variables representing consumer attitudes toward rating of the app and those representing consumer attitudes toward app-store promotion efforts (i.e., top developer badge and editor's choice badge). Results of this study can be explained in hedonic and utilitarian framework. Consumers who use hedonic applications, such as those of game and entertainment-related, are of young age with low education level. However, consumers who are old and have received higher education level prefer utilitarian application category such as life, information etc. There are disputable arguments over whether the users of SNS are hedonic or utilitarian. In our results, consumers who are younger and those with higher education level prefer using SNS category applications, which is in a middle of utilitarian and hedonic results. Also, applications that are directly related to tangible assets, such as banking, stock and mobile shopping, are only negatively related to experience of purchasing of paid app, meaning that consumers who put weights on tangible assets do not prefer buying paid application. Regarding categories, most correlations among categories are significantly positive. This is because someone who spend more time on mobile devices tends to use more applications. Game and entertainment category shows significant and positive correlation; however, there exists significantly negative correlation between game and information, as well as game and e-commerce categories of applications. Meanwhile, categories of game and SNS as well as game and finance have shown no significant correlations. This result clearly shows that mobile application usage behavior is quite clearly distinguishable - that the purpose of using mobile devices are polarized into utilitarian and hedonic purpose. This research proves several arguments that can only be explained by second-hand real data, not by survey data, and offers behavioral explanations of mobile application usage in consumers' perspectives. This research also shows substitution/supplementary patterns of consumer application usage, which then explain consumers' mobile application usage behaviors. However, this research has limitations in some points. Classification of categories itself is disputable, for classification is diverged among several studies. Therefore, there is a possibility of change in results depending on the classification. Lastly, although the data are collected in an individual application level, we reduce its observation into an individual level. Further research will be done to resolve these limitations.

A bilayer diffusion barrier of atomic layer deposited (ALD)-Ru/ALD-TaCN for direct plating of Cu

  • Kim, Soo-Hyun;Yim, Sung-Soo;Lee, Do-Joong;Kim, Ki-Su;Kim, Hyun-Mi;Kim, Ki-Bum;Sohn, Hyun-Chul
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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    • 2008.06a
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    • pp.239-240
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    • 2008
  • As semiconductor devices are scaled down for better performance and more functionality, the Cu-based interconnects suffer from the increase of the resistivity of the Cu wires. The resistivity increase, which is attributed to the electron scattering from grain boundaries and interfaces, needs to be addressed in order to further scale down semiconductor devices [1]. The increase in the resistivity of the interconnect can be alleviated by increasing the grain size of electroplating (EP)-Cu or by modifying the Cu surface [1]. Another possible solution is to maximize the portion of the EP-Cu volume in the vias or damascene structures with the conformal diffusion barrier and seed layer by optimizing their deposition processes during Cu interconnect fabrication, which are currently ionized physical vapor deposition (IPVD)-based Ta/TaN bilayer and IPVD-Cu, respectively. The use of in-situ etching, during IPVD of the barrier or the seed layer, has been effective in enlarging the trench volume where the Cu is filled, resulting in improved reliability and performance of the Cu-based interconnect. However, the application of IPVD technology is expected to be limited eventually because of poor sidewall step coverage and the narrow top part of the damascene structures. Recently, Ru has been suggested as a diffusion barrier that is compatible with the direct plating of Cu [2-3]. A single-layer diffusion barrier for the direct plating of Cu is desirable to optimize the resistance of the Cu interconnects because it eliminates the Cu-seed layer. However, previous studies have shown that the Ru by itself is not a suitable diffusion barrier for Cu metallization [4-6]. Thus, the diffusion barrier performance of the Ru film should be improved in order for it to be successfully incorporated as a seed layer/barrier layer for the direct plating of Cu. The improvement of its barrier performance, by modifying the Ru microstructure from columnar to amorphous (by incorporating the N into Ru during PVD), has been previously reported [7]. Another approach for improving the barrier performance of the Ru film is to use Ru as a just seed layer and combine it with superior materials to function as a diffusion barrier against the Cu. A RulTaN bilayer prepared by PVD has recently been suggested as a seed layer/diffusion barrier for Cu. This bilayer was stable between the Cu and Si after annealing at $700^{\circ}C$ for I min [8]. Although these reports dealt with the possible applications of Ru for Cu metallization, cases where the Ru film was prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) have not been identified. These are important because of ALD's excellent conformality. In this study, a bilayer diffusion barrier of Ru/TaCN prepared by ALD was investigated. As the addition of the third element into the transition metal nitride disrupts the crystal lattice and leads to the formation of a stable ternary amorphous material, as indicated by Nicolet [9], ALD-TaCN is expected to improve the diffusion barrier performance of the ALD-Ru against Cu. Ru was deposited by a sequential supply of bis(ethylcyclopentadienyl)ruthenium [Ru$(EtCp)_2$] and $NH_3$plasma and TaCN by a sequential supply of $(NEt_2)_3Ta=Nbu^t$ (tert-butylimido-trisdiethylamido-tantalum, TBTDET) and $H_2$ plasma. Sheet resistance measurements, X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) analysis showed that the bilayer diffusion barriers of ALD-Ru (12 nm)/ALD-TaCN (2 nm) and ALD-Ru (4nm)/ALD-TaCN (2 nm) prevented the Cu diffusion up to annealing temperatures of 600 and $550^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, respectively. This is found to be due to the excellent diffusion barrier performance of the ALD-TaCN film against the Cu, due to it having an amorphous structure. A 5-nm-thick ALD-TaCN film was even stable up to annealing at $650^{\circ}C$ between Cu and Si. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigation combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis revealed that the ALD-Ru/ALD-TaCN diffusion barrier failed by the Cu diffusion through the bilayer into the Si substrate. This is due to the ALD-TaCN interlayer preventing the interfacial reaction between the Ru and Si.

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Application of Off-axis Correction Method for EPID Based IMRT QA (EPID를 사용한 세기조절방사선치료의 정도관리에 있어 축이탈 보정(Off-axis Correction)의 적용)

  • Cho, Ilsung;Kwark, Jungwon;Park, Sung Ho;Ahn, Seung Do;Jeong, Dong Hyeok;Cho, Byungchul
    • Progress in Medical Physics
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.317-325
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    • 2012
  • The Varian PORTALVISION (Varian Medical Systems, US) shows significant overresponses as the off-center distance increases compared to the predicted dose. In order to correct the dose discrepancy, the off-axis correction is applied to VARIAN iX linear accelerators. The portal dose for $38{\times}28cm^2$ open field is acquired for 6 MV, 15 MV photon beams and also are predicted by PDIP algorithm under the same condition of the portal dose acquisition. The off-axis correction is applied by modifying the $40{\times}40cm^2$ diagonal beam profile data which is used for the beam profile calibration. The ratios between predicted dose and measured dose is modeled as a function of off-axis distance with the $4^{th}$ polynomial and is applied to the $40{\times}40cm^2$ diagonal beam profile data as the weight to correct measured dose by EPID detector. The discrepancy between measured dose and predicted dose is reduced from $4.17{\pm}2.76$ CU to $0.18{\pm}0.8$ CU for 6 MV photon beam and from $3.23{\pm}2.59$ CU to $0.04{\pm}0.85$ CU for 15 MV photon beam. The passing rate of gamma analysis for the pyramid fluence patten with the 4%, 4 mm criteria is improved from 98.7% to 99.1% for 6 MV photon beam, from 99.8% to 99.9% for 15 MV photon beam. IMRT QA is also performed for randomly selected Head and Neck and Prostate IMRT plans after applying the off-axis correction. The gamma passing rare is improved by 3% on average, for Head and Neck cases: $94.7{\pm}3.2%$ to $98.2{\pm}1.4%$, for Prostate cases: $95.5{\pm}2.6%$, $98.4{\pm}1.8%$. The gamma analysis criteria is 3%, 3 mm with 10% threshold. It is considered that the off-axis correction might be an effective and easily adaptable means for correcting the discrepancy between measured dose and predicted dose for IMRT QA using EPID in clinic.

A Clinico-Statistical Analysis of Patient with Hoarseness in E.N.T. field (사성을 주소한 이비인후과 질환에 대한 임상적 관찰)

  • Lee, Sook-Ja;Kang, Young;Yoo, Bang-Hwan
    • Proceedings of the KOR-BRONCHOESO Conference
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    • 1977.06a
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    • pp.6.2-7
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    • 1977
  • Hoarseness, caused by any condition that interfers with normal phonatory function of larynx, is the most important symtom of the laryngeal disease. The air pollution is the serious social problom today due to irritation of the respiratory mucosa and secondary respiratory disease. It is significant to study whether, in resent years, the patients with complant of hoarseness has being increased or decreased, compare to past years. The authors report a statistical analysis on 400 cases with chief complain of horseness at the Department of Otolaryngology, Hanil Hospital during past 7 years from Jan. I, 1970 to Dec. 31, 1976. The results were as follows; 1) Among total out patients of 14, 731 who visited to the department of otolaryngology, the patients with hoarseness numbered to 400(2.7%). 2) Among total of 400 cases, male were 211 and female were 189. The incidence was slightly higher in male than female with ratio 1.1 to 1 in sex distribution. 3) The uderlying diseases causing hoarseness in order of frequency were Acute Laryngitis (158 cases, 39.5%), Chronic Laryngitis (103 cases, 27.3 %), Vccal Nodule (37 cases, 9.3%), Vocal cord paralysis (34 cases, 8.5%), Laryngeal Polyp (32 cases, 8%), Laryngeal Ca. (13 cases, 3.5%), and Laryngeal Tbc. (9 cases, 2.3%). Particulary, Laryngeal Ca., Laryngeal polyp and Laryngeal Papilloma were extremely high in male but the remainings were equally distributed in sex group distribution. 4) The highest incidence occurred in 3rd decade (113 cases, 28.5%), the next 4th and 2nd decade in the age group distribution. Acute and Chronic Laryngitis were widely distributed in age group distribution but the highest incidence was noted between 3rd and 4th decade (145 cases, 55.5%). The highest incidence was 3rd decade in Laryngeal polyp, 3rd and 4th decade in Vocal Nodule, 4th and 5th decade in Laryngeal Tbc. and Vocal cord paralysis and 5th decade in Laryngeal Ca. 5) The underlying disease causing hoarsness were evenly occurred in monthly distribution but relatively high incidence was observed between April and June (35.5%) compared to winter. 6) In durational distribution, the highest incidence was within 10 days (26%) from onset to consultation. 317 cases (80%) were visited to the clinic within 1 year.

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Nelumbinis Semen Reverses a Decrease in $5-HT_{1A}$Receptor Binding Induced by Chronic Mild Stress, a Depression-like Symptom

  • Jang, Choon-Gon;Kang, Moon-Kyu;Cho, Jae-Han;Lee, Sun-Bok;Kim, Hyun-Taek;Park, Soon-Kwon;Lee, Jin-Woo;Park, Seong-Kyu;Hong, Moo-Chang;Shin, Min-Kyu;Shim, In-Sup;Bae , Hyun-Su
    • Archives of Pharmacal Research
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    • v.27 no.10
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    • pp.1065-1072
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    • 2004
  • Depression is associated with a dysfunctional serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) system. More recently, several lines of evidence suggest that an important factor in the development of depression may be a deficit in the function and expression of $5-HT_{1A}$ receptors. The present study assessed if Nelumbinis Semen (N. s.) had an anti-depression effect through reversing a decrease in $5-HT_{1A}$receptor binding in rats with depression-like symptoms induced by chronic mild stress. Using a $5-HT_{1A}$ receptor binding assay, with a specific $5-HT_{1A}$receptor agonist, 8- OH-DPAT (8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino) tetralin), the mechanism of the anti-depression effect of N. s. on rats was investigated, and the effects compared with two well-known antidepressants, Hyperium Perforatum (St. Johns Wort) and fluoxetine (Prozac). Animals were divided into five groups: the normal (N) group without chronic mild stress (CMS), the control (C) group under CMS for 8 weeks, the Nelumbinis Semen (N. s.) treatment group under CMS for 8 weeks, the Hyperium Perforatum (H. p.) treatment group under CMS for 8 weeks and finally, the fluoxetine (F) treatment group under CMS for 8 weeks. Each treatment was administered to rats during the last 4 weeks of the 8-week CMS. A sucrose intake test was performed to test the anti-depression effect of N. s. The N. s. treatment significantly reversed the decreased sucrose intake under CMS (P<0.05 compared to control group under CMS). In the CA2 and CA3 regions of the hippocampus, both N. s. and H. p. reversed the CMS-induced decrease in $5-HT_{1A}$receptor binding. In the I to II regions of the frontal cortex, N. s. and H. p. also reversed the CMS-induced decrease in$5-HT_{1A}$receptor binding, and even showed a significant increase in $5-HT_{1A}$receptor binding compared to the F treatment group (N. s. vs. P, p<0.05, H. p. vs. P, p<0.05). However, in the hypothalamus, all treatments reversed the CMSinduced decrease in $5-HT_{1A}$receptor binding. This reversal effect of N. s. on the decrease in $5-HT_{1A}$receptor binding in the frontal cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus of rat brains was very similar to that of H. p, but different from that of F. It is concluded that N. s. presents an anti-depression effect through enhancing $5-HT_{1A}$receptor binding.

Association of β-Catenin with Fat Accumulation in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes and Human Population (β-catenin 유전자의 3T3-L1 지방세포 및 인체에서의 지방축적 연관성 연구)

  • Bae, Sung-Min;Lee, Hae-Yong;Chae, Soo-Ahn;Oh, Dong-Jin;Park, Suk-Won;Yoon, Yoo-Sik
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.21 no.9
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    • pp.1301-1309
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    • 2011
  • The major function of adipocytes is to store fat in the form of triglycerides. One of the signaling pathways known to affect adipogenesis, i.e. fat formation, is the WNT/${\beta}$-catenin pathway which inhibits the expression and activity of key regulators of adipogenesis. The purpose of this research is to find genes among the WNT/${\beta}$-catenin pathway which regulate adipogenesis by using small interfering (si) RNA and to find the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the gene with serum triglyceride levels in the human population. To elucidate the effects of ${\beta}$-catenin siRNA on adipogenesis key factors, PPAR${\gamma}$ and C/EBP${\alpha}$, we performed real-time PCR and western blotting experiments for the analyses of mRNA and protein levels. It was found that the siRNA-mediated knockdown of ${\beta}$-catenin upregulates adipogenesis key factors. However, upstream regulators of the WNT/${\beta}$-catenin pathway, such as DVL2 and LRP6, had no significant effects compared to ${\beta}$-catenin. These results indicate that ${\beta}$-catenin is a candidate gene for human fat accumulation. In general, serum triglyceride level is a good indicator of fat accumulation in humans. According to statistical analyses of the association between serum triglyceride level and SNPs of ${\beta}$-catenin, -10,288 C>T SNP (rs7630377) in the promoter region was significantly associated with serum triglyceride levels (p<0.05) in 290 Korean subjects. On the other hand, serum cholesterol levels were not significantly associated with SNPs of the ${\beta}$-catenin gene. The results of this study showed that ${\beta}$-catenin is associated with fat accumulation both in vitro and in the human population.

A Review Essay on Legal Mechanisms for Orbital Slot Allocation (정지궤도슬롯의 법적 배분기제에 관한 논고)

  • Jung, Joon-Sik;Hwang, Ho-Won
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.199-236
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    • 2014
  • This paper analyses from the perspective of distributive justice the legal mechanisms for international allocation of orbital slots, which are of co-owned nature and thereby limited natural resources in outer space. The allocative function is delegated to the International Telecommunication Union. The Radio Regulation, amongst such other legal instruments as the Constitution and Convention, by which the ITU and contracting States thereof abides, dictates how the orbital positions are distributed. Thus, the RR is thoroughly reviewed in the essay. The mechanisms are in a broad sense categorized into two systems: 'a posteriori system' where the 'first come, first served' principle prevails; and 'a priori system' designed to foster the utilisation of the slots by those who lack space resources and are, in especial, likely to be marginalised under the former system. The argument proceeds on the premise that a posteriori system places the under-resourced States in unfavourable positions in the securement of the slots. In contrast with this notion, seven factors were instantiated for an assertion that the degradation of the distributive justice derived from the 'first come, first served' rule, which lays the foundation for the system, could be either mitigated or counterbalanced by the alleged exceptions to the rule. However, the author of this essay argues for counterevidences against the factors and thereby demonstrating that the principle still remains as an overwhelming doctrine, posing a threat to the pursuit of fair allocation. The elements he set forth are as in the following: 1) that the 'first come, first served' principle only applies to assignments capable of causing harmful interferences; 2) the interoperability of the principle with the 'rule of conformity' with the all the ITU instruments; 3) the viability of alternative registrations, as an exception of the application of the principle, on the condition of provisional and informational purposes; 4) another reference that matters in deciding the priority: the types of services in the TFA; 5) the Rule of Procedure H40 proclaiming a ban on taking advantage of coming first to the Register; 6) the technical factors and equity-oriented norms under international and municipal laws along with; 7) the changes of 'basic characteristics' of registered assignments. The second half of this essay illustrates by examining the relevant Annexes to the Regulation that the planned allocation, i.e., a priori system, bear the structured flaws that hinder the fulfillment of the original purpose of the system. The Broadcasting and Fixed Satellite Systems are the reviewed Plans in which the 'first come, first served' principle re-emerges in the end as a determining factor to grant the 'right to international recognition' to administrations including those who has not the allotted portions in the Plan.