• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.313-318
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• 1986

Primary aldosteronism is a disease that the stimulus for the excessive aldosterone production resides within the adrenal gland. It was first described by conn in 1955. And many cases were reported by physicians at present in the world. But it is relatively rare in Korea, probably due to lack of attension and medical facilities. Only about 13 cases have been reported at present. The clinical, biochemical features in 1 case of primary aldosteranism caused by adrenal hyperplasia that was diagnosed at Yeungnam University Hospital was observed and the following result were obtained. 1. Clinical feature: The present case was 27-year-old woman who was admitted due to general weakness and easy fatigability. The above mensioned chief complaints occurred 8 months prior to admission when she delivered of second baby by cesarian section. Symptoms such as above chief complaints, intermittent muscle paralysis and cramping were noticed. Trousseau's sign was also present. The average blood pressure ranged from 170/90 to 200/120. 2. Biochemical abnormalities: Severe hypokalemia lower than 2.5 mEq/L was presented and 24 hours urine potassium showed markedly increased urinary loss.(228 mEq/day). Plasma renin activity was decreased under normal range with furosemide administration.(Basal renin; 0.01ng/ml/hr, stimulated renin 0.12ng/ml/hr). Saline suppression test revealed markedly elevated levels of aldosterone higher than normal range. (Basal aldosterone; 320.68pg/ml stimulated aldosterone; 451.86pg/ml). And posture test showed decreased plasma renin activity and increased plasma aldosterone level. - PRA(ng/ml/hr)=Bsal: 0.05(0.15~2.33), Stimulated: 0.22(1.31~3.95) - Aldosterone(pg/ml)=Bsal: 242.77(10~160), Stimulated: 432.09(40~310) 3. Adrenal CT scan revealed no abnormal findings. 4. Treatment and course: Spironolactone was given at OPD with regular follow-up. Her blood pressure ranged from 150/90 to 160/100 and symptoms were improved. The effect of treatment was satisfactory and further follow up would be performed.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.590-599
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• 2005

Object : Cigarette smoking is a major cause of mucus hypersecretion, which is a pathophysiological feature of many inflammatory airway diseases. Mucins, which are an important part of the airway mucus, are synthesized from the Muc gene in airway epithelial cells. However, the signaling pathways for cigarette smoke-induced mucin synthesis are unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the signal pathway for smoking induced Muc5ac gene expression. Methods : A549 cells were cultured and transiently transfected with the Muc5ac promoter fragment. These cells were stimulated with 5% cigarette smoke extract (CSE) alone or with CSE after a pretreatment with various signal transduction pathway inhibitors (AG1478, PD98059 and SB203580). The Muc5ac promoter activity was examined using the luciferase reporter system, and the level of phosphorylated EGFR, ERK1/2, p38 MAPK and JNK were all examined using Western blot analysis. Muc5ac mRNA expression was also examined using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR). Results : 1. The peak level of luciferase activity of the Muc5ac promoter was observed at 5% concentration and after 3 hours of incubation with the CSE. The level of EGFR phosphorylation and the luciferase activity of the transfected cells caused by the CSE were significantly suppressed by AG1478 or PD98059 (P<0.01). 2. CSE phosphorylated ERK1/2 or p38 MAPK but not JNK. The Muc5ac mRNA expression level was increased by the CSE but that was suppressed by PD98059 or AG1478. 3. The CSE-induced phosphorylation of ERK1/2 was blocked by PD98059 and that of p38 MAPK was blocked by either PD98059 or SB203580. Either PD98059 or SB203580 suppressed the luciferase activity of the transfected cells (P<0.0001). Conclusion : The Muc5ac mRNA expression level was increased by the CSE. The increased CSE-induced transcriptional activity was mediated via EGF receptor activation, which led to ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK phosphorylation.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.319-327
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• 1994

Background: The pathogenetic mechanism of adult respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS) is not clearly defined yet, but it is well known that increased pulmonary capillary permeabilty is characteristic feature of ARDS. The increased alveolar-capillary permeability is usually preceded by damage of pulmonary artery endothelial cells. The released enzymes and oxygen free radicals from the activated neutrophils seem to play a predominant role in endothelial cell cytotoxicity. The activated neutrophils, however, probably are not the sole contributing factor in this type of damage because many cases of ARDS have been reported in severe neutropenia. Bacterial endotoxin perse and/or oxygen free radicals released from endothelial cells are suggested to be possible factors that contribute to the development of ARDS. The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct cytotoxicity of endotoxin and the role of oxygen free radicals released from the endothelial cells in endotoxin-induced endothelial cell cytotoxicity. Methods: First, to investigate whether endotoxin is cytotoxic to HUVE by itself, various doses of endotoxin were added to culture medium and cytotoxicity was measured. Second, to evaluate the possible role of oxygen free radical in endotoxin-induced HUVE cytotoxicity, various antioxidants were added on the endotoxin-induced HUVE cytotoxicity and cytotoxicity was measured. Third, to verify the release of oxygen free radicals from HUVE, the concentrations of hydrogen peroxide in the endotoxin-treated culture supernatant were measured. Finally, to observe the cytotoxic effect of hydrogen peroxide, HUVE cytotoxicity in the presence of various doses of hydrogen peroxide was measured. The fourth generations of subcultured HUVE from primary culture were used. The cell cytotoxicity was quantified by the chromium-51 release assay. Results: 1) Endotoxin alone showed HUVE cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent fashion. 2) Endotoxin-induced HUVE cytotoxicity was significantly attenuated by the pretreatment of catalase and DMTU. 3) Hydrogen peroxide was released from HUVE after endotoxin treatment in a dose-dependent fashion. 4) Exogenous hydrogen peroxide also showed HUVE cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent fashion. Conclusion: These results suggest that endotoxin alone can directly injure HUVE, and, oxygen-free radicals released from HUVE in response to endotoxin may also participate in the endotoxin-induced HUVE cytotoxicity.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.187-195
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• 2013

Most of former studies for car license plate detection restrict the image acquisition environment. The aim of this research is to diminish the restrictions by proposing a new method of using SIFT and neural network. SIFT can be used in diverse situations with less restriction because it provides size- and rotation-invariance and large discriminating power. SIFT extracted from the license plate image is divided into the internal(inside class) and the external(outside class) ones and the classifier is trained using them. In the proposed method, by just putting the various types of license plates, the trained neural network classifier can process all of the types. Although the classification performance is not high, the inside class appears densely over the plate region and sparsely over the non-plate regions. These characteristics create a local feature map, from which we can identify the location with the global maximum value as a candidate of license plate region. We collected image database with much less restriction than the conventional researches. The experiment and evaluation were done using this database. In terms of classification accuracy of SIFT keypoints, the correct recognition rate was 97.1%. The precision rate was 62.0% and recall rate was 50.2%. In terms of license plate detection rate, the correct recognition rate was 98.6%.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartC
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• v.12C no.6 s.102
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• pp.781-792
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• 2005

This study proposes an Architecture for user level End-to-end Quality of Service(QoS) using overlay In Next Generation Network(NGN). Inexisting NGNs, the IMS of a control plane provides user QoS through direct traffic control and resource-reservation over the IP packet transport network of a user plane. Further, a set of torrent studies are ongoing not only to maximize the QoS for users, but also to minimize the quality deterioration for supporting the user End-to-end QoS. Along with that, an extended QoS in user level must be considered, for Instance, differentiating service quality to support users' expectation, providing optimized contents by users' equipments, and so forth. Accordingly, the Overlay Service Network Architecture proposed by this study provides protocol adaptation for maximum throughput on transport layer by using the most efficient transport layer protocol to various network circumstances. Also, the Overlay Service Network Architecture on application layer distributes processing delay from the data transformation process of the user equipment to the network, and it is capable of intermediate processing depending on user service level. application service feature, and equipment circumstance as well. Thus, this study mainly proposes the Overlay Service Network Architecture for user level end-to-end QoS in NGN with the quality control features both on the transport layer and the application layer, an internal component feature, and a service scenario providing the QoS linking with 3GPP.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.535-551
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• 2007

Objectives: This study was conducted to know dental service and fear after research on reliability on dentists and satisfaction on dental hygienists. Methods: This study was conducted by the 325 persons who had the experience of visiting dental medical institution. Statistical analysis was conducted using the SPSS 12.0 with T-test, ANOVA and correlation. The obtained results were as follows: Results: 1. Internal consistency of Dental Beliefs Survey(DBS) and dental hygienists satisfaction questionnaire factors were 0.758~0.908(Cronbach' alpha). And the Cronbach' alpha's coefficients of the all subscales were more than 0.6. So high reliability and validity were identified. 2. As result of analysing fear from general feature, the men feel more fear than women and more fear was felt in the case of having worse teeth status. Fear was higher in case of visiting to dental clinic than in case of visiting dental clinic for precaution. And that was statistically related. 3. Dental fear was higher in the case of having the past pain experience, insufficient anesthesia experience, experience of seeing other persons pain and this was statistically related(P<0.01)(P<0.05). 4. Average of reliability on dentists was 37.9, person who has high reliability was 81.8%, person who has low reliability was 18.2%, average of satisfaction on dental hygienists was 31.5%(Satisfaction on dental hygienists was 51.1% and dissatisfaction on dental hygienists was 48.9%). 5. Higher dentists reliability and satisfaction on dental hygienists has lower fear considering general feature and dental clinic use behavior but person who has the dental clinic to go regularly has higher dentists reliability and satisfaction on dental hygienists where, however, fear was not low. 6. As result of analyzing correlation between dental service and dental clinic use behavior, satisfaction on dental hygienists was negatively related to reliability on dentists and fear. And, reliability on dentists was positively related to fear, pain experience in dental clinic, incomplete anesthesia experience, near person pain experience(experience on seeing person in pain), which were statistically related(p<0.01). Conclusions: In relation to general features and reliability on dentists and satisfaction on dental hygienists caused by dental clinic use behavior, dental fear was decreased when reliability and satisfaction are higher. Group with low dental fear had higher reliability on dentists and satisfaction on dental hygienists than group with high dental fear but only reliability on dentists was statistically related(p<0.05).

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.24-36
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• 2002

Background: Bronchial reactivity is known to be a component of airway hyperresponsiveness, a cardinal feature of asthma, with bronchial sensitivity, and is increments in response to induced doses of bronchoconstrictors as manifested by the steepest slope of the dose-response curve. However, there is some controversy regarding methods of measuring bronchial reactivity and clinical impact of such measurements. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical significance and assess the clinical use by analyzing the relationship of the bronchial sensitivity, the clinical severity and the changes in pulmonary function with bronchial reactivity. Method: A total of 116 subjects underwent a methacholine bronchial provocation test. They were divided into 3 groups : mild intermittent, mild persistent, moderate and cough asthma. Severe patients were excluded. Methacholine PC20 was determined from the log dose-response curve and PC40 was determined by one more dose inhalation after PC20. The steepest slope of log dose-response curve, connecting PC20 with PC40, was used to calculate the bronchial reactivity. Body plethysmography and a single breath for the DLCO were done in 43 subjects before and after methacholine test. Results: The average bronchial reactivity was 38.0 in the mild intermittent group, 49.8 in the mild persistent group, 61.0 in the moderate group, and 41.1 in the cough asthma group. There was a weak negative correlation between PC20 and bronchial reactivity. A heightened bronchial reactivity tends to produce an increased clinical severity in patients with a similar bronchial sensitivity and basal spirometric pulmonary function. There were significant correlations between the bronchial reactivity and the initial pulmonary function before the methacholine test in the order of sGaw, Raw, $FEV_1$/FVC, MMFR. There were no correlations between the bronchial sensitivity and the % change in the pulmonary function parameters after the methacholine test. However, there were significant correlations between the bronchial reactivity and the PEF, $FEV_1$, DLCO. Conclusion: There was weak significant negative correlation between the bronchial reactivity and the bronchial sensitivity, and the bronchial reactivity closely reflected the severity of the asthma. Accordingly, measuring both the bronchial sensitivity and the bronchial reactivity can be of assistance in assessing of the ongoing disease severity and in monitoring the effect of therapy.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.57-75
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• 2010

This study is done in Shanghai area by sample survey of female college students in their lower 20s. Through direct contact survey, this study collected and analyzed information on figure to understand feature of breasts and measurements of body to provide base information to improve product of brassiere for adult female in China. Data was analyzed by using SPSSWIN 13.0 Program and SAS 9.0. 1. From a result of factor analysis on 40 items of measures to derive the components of the shape of the breast, 6 factors were derived such as the factors to show the obesity of the bust, to show the ratio of the upper and lower area of the lower bust, droop and volume, to show the internal shape and broadness of the bust, to show the location and vertical size of the bust, to show the protrusion of the bust and the eternal shape of the bust. 2. From a result of classification on the shape of the breast of the Chinese women in their early 20s, 4 types were selected. Type 1 is the protrusion type that a woman has a broad drooped breast due to the development in the upper and lower parts of the chest as well as the highest height, a high degree of obesity in the bust part, big volume and much protrusion. Type 2 is the hemisphere type that the degree of obesity in the breast is second to Type 1 and a breast is located at a region higher than Type 1 as the degree of obesity in the breast is secondly highest, the lower part of the bust is bigger than the Type 1 and the degree of being broad and drooped is second to Type 1. Type 3 is the cone type with a breast of being drooped and broad a little bit and a certain degree of a volume. Type 4 is the flat type with the smallest value in the item that shows the obesity of the bust area and with the smallest value in the R$\ddot{o}$hrer index to have the small and slender body type for the bust area, which is somewhat flat due to a low slope at the internal side of the bust.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.27
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• pp.199-219
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• 2012

An innovative narrative film-making always came out of conflict and negotiation between reality and film form. A lesson we learn from their film-making is a certain reality is no more possible to be dealt with by conventional narrative. A dialectic between a real life and a representation drives a certain film-makers to make films. Kore-eda Hirokazu is internationally known as developing his own method of meshing of so-called real life and the artifice of film. As He began his career as a documentary film-maker, made several documentaries for TV and then turned to his feature film-making, documentary film-making defines the basic stance in all of his film-making. He in particular emphasized that he considered the fundamental ethical standpoint of documentary to be filming from the standpoint that one does not - or cannot - know the person one is filming. And therefore even in his fiction films he avoids subjective cinematic structures that offer easy access to the internal states of his characters. He makes his audience observe the internal states of his characters from the outside with his narrative strategy. This article will analyse two documentary films of Koreeda Hirokazu in such a way that his documentaries meshes a real life and the artifice of film and then explores such a fiction film like that changes its documentary methods into narrative strategy for the same effect on the audience.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.321-326
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• 2014

Background: Mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are predictive of response to EGFR-targeted therapy in advanced stages of disease. This study aimed to determine the frequency of EGFR mutations in NSCLCs and to correlate their presence with clinical characteristics in multiethnic Malaysian patients. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study, EGFR mutations in exons 18, 19, 20 and 21 in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens of consecutive NSCLC patients were asessed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: EGFR mutations were detected in NSCLCs from 55 (36.4%) of a total of 151 patients, being significantly more common in females (62.5%) than in males (17.2%) [odds ratio (OR), 8.00; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.77-16.98; p<0.001] and in never smokers (62.5%) than in ever smokers (12.7%) (OR, 11.50; 95%CI, 5.08-26.03; p<0.001). Mutations were more common in adenocarcinoma (39.4%) compared to non-adenocarcinoma NSCLCs (15.8%) (p=0.072). The mutation rates in patients of different ethnicities were not significantly different (p=0.08). Never smoking status was the only clinical feature that independently predicted the presence of EGFR mutations (adjusted OR, 5.94; 95%CI, 1.94-18.17; p=0.002). Conclusions: In Malaysian patients with NSCLC, the EGFR mutation rate was similar to that in other Asian populations. EGFR mutations were significantly more common in female patients and in never smokers. Never smoking status was the only independent predictor for the presence of EGFR mutations.