• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.586-591
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• 2010

Chemokine and Growth Factor are major mediumtors of immuno-inflammatory pathway. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether productions of Chemokine and Growth Factor in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 cells are modulated by Gallic acid (GA), which is easily founded in tannin-containing natural materials such as red wine, green tea, grape juice, and Corni Fructus. Productions of Chemokine and Growth Factor were analyzed by High-throughput Multiplex Bead based Assay with Bio-plex Suspension Array System based on $xMAP^{(R)}$ (multi-analyte profiling beads) technology. At first, cell culture supernatant was obtained after treatment with LPS and GA for 24 hour. Then, the antibody-conjugated beads were added and incubated for 30 minutes. After incubation, detection antibody was added and incubated for 30 minutes. And Strepavidin-conjugated Phycoerythrin (SAPE) was added. After incubation for 30 minutes, the level of SAPE fluorescence was analyzed on Bio-plex Suspension Array System. Based on fluorescence intensity, concentrations of Chemokine and Growth Factor were determined. The results of the experiment are as follows. GA significantly inhibited the production of interferon-inducible protein (IP)-10, keratinocyte-derived chemokine(KC), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells at the concentration of 25, 50, 100, 200 uM (p<0.05). GA significantly inhibited the production of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1) and macrophage-colony stimulating factor(M-CSF) in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells at the concentration of 50, 100, 200 uM (p<0.05). GA diminished the production of granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. But GA did not show the inhibitory effect on the production of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIP) and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-2 in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. These results suggest that GA has the immuno-modulating activity related with its inhibitory effects on the production of IP-10, KC, MCP-1, VEGF, and M-CSF in LPS-induced macrophages.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.189-198
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• 2024

Lipreading is one of the important parts of speech recognition, and several studies have been conducted to improve the performance of lipreading in lipreading systems for speech recognition. Recent studies have used method to modify the model architecture of lipreading system to improve recognition performance. Unlike previous research that improve recognition performance by modifying model architecture, we aim to improve recognition performance without any change in model architecture. In order to improve the recognition performance without modifying the model architecture, we refer to the cues used in human lipreading and set other regions such as chin and cheeks as regions of interest along with the lip region, which is the existing region of interest of lipreading systems, and compare the recognition rate of each region of interest to propose the highest performing region of interest In addition, assuming that the difference in normalization results caused by the difference in interpolation method during the process of normalizing the size of the region of interest affects the recognition performance, we interpolate the same region of interest using nearest neighbor interpolation, bilinear interpolation, and bicubic interpolation, and compare the recognition rate of each interpolation method to propose the best performing interpolation method. Each region of interest was detected by training an object detection neural network, and dynamic time warping templates were generated by normalizing each region of interest, extracting and combining features, and mapping the dimensionality reduction of the combined features into a low-dimensional space. The recognition rate was evaluated by comparing the distance between the generated dynamic time warping templates and the data mapped to the low-dimensional space. In the comparison of regions of interest, the result of the region of interest containing only the lip region showed an average recognition rate of 97.36%, which is 3.44% higher than the average recognition rate of 93.92% in the previous study, and in the comparison of interpolation methods, the bilinear interpolation method performed 97.36%, which is 14.65% higher than the nearest neighbor interpolation method and 5.55% higher than the bicubic interpolation method. The code used in this study can be found a https://github.com/haraisi2/Lipreading-Systems.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.235-244
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• 2013

Detection of halogens using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in open air is very difficult since their strong atomic emission lines are located in VUV region. In NIR region, there are other emission lines of halogens through electronic transitions between excited states. However, these lines undergo Stark broadening severely. We report the observation of the emission lines of halogens in laser-induced plasma (LIP) spectra in NIR region using a helium gas flow. Particularly, the emission lines of iodine at 804.374 and 905.833 nm from LIPs have been observed for the first time. In the helium ambient gas, Stark broadening of the emission lines and background continuum emission could be suppressed significantly. Variations of the line intensity, plasma temperature, and electron density with the helium flow rate was investigated. Detection of chlorine and bromine in flame retardant of rubbers was demonstrated using this method. Finally, we suggest a pulsed helium gas jet as a practical and ecomonical helium gas source for the LIBS analysis of halogens in open air.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.241-249
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• 2009

Recently, a number of researches related to video annotation and representation have been proposed to analyze video for searching and abstraction. In this paper, we have presented a method to provide the picture elements of conversational participants in video and the enhanced representation of the characters using those elements, collectively called Character-net. Because conversational participants are decided as characters detected in a script holding time, the previous Character-net suffers serious limitation that some listeners could not be detected as the participants. The participants who complete the story in video are very important factor to understand the context of the conversation. The picture elements for detecting the conversational participants consist of six elements as follows: subtitle, scene, the order of appearance, characters' eyes, patterns, and lip motion. In this paper, we present how to use those elements for detecting conversational participants and how to improve the representation of the Character-net. We can detect the conversational participants accurately when the proposed elements combine together and satisfy the special conditions. The experimental evaluation shows that the proposed method brings significant advantages in terms of both improving the detection of the conversational participants and enhancing the representation of Character-net.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.558-570
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• 1996

Background : The detection of Collapsible airways has important therapeutic implications in chronic airway disease and bronchial asthma. The distinction of a purely collapsible airways disease from that of asthma is important because the treatment of the dormer may include the use of pursed lip breathing or nasal positive pressure ventilation whereas in the latter, pharmacologic approaches are used. One form of irreversible airflow limitation is collapsible airways, which has been shown to be a Component of asthma or to emphysema, it can be assessed by the volume difference between what exits the lung as determined by a spirometer and the volume compressed as measured by the plethysmography. Method : To investigate whether volume difference between slow and forced vital Capacity(SVC-FVC) by spirometry may be used as a surrogate index of airway collapse, we examined pulmonary function parameters before and after bronchodilator agent inhalation by spirometry and body plethysmography in 20 cases of patients with evidence of airflow limitation(chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 12 cases, stable bronchial asthma 7 cases, combined chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with asthma 1 case) and 20 cases of normal subjects without evidence of airflow limitation referred to the Pusan National University Hospital pulmonary function laboratory from January 1995 to July 1995 prospectively. Results : 1) Average and standard deviation of age, height, weight of patients with airflow limitation was $58.3{\pm}7.24$(yr), $166{\pm}8.0$(cm), $59.0{\pm}9.9$(kg) and those of normal subjects was $56.3{\pm}12.47$(yr), $165.9{\pm}6.9$(cm), $64.4{\pm}10.4$(kg), respectively. The differences of physical characteristics of both group were not significant statistically and male to female ratio was 14:6 in both groups. 2) The difference between slow vital capacity and forced vital capacity was $395{\pm}317ml$ in patients group and $154{\pm}176ml$ in normal group and there was statistically significance between two groups(p<0.05). Sensitivity and specificity were most higher when the cut-off value was 208ml. 3) After bronchodilator inhalation, reversible airway obstructions were shown in 16 cases of patients group, 7 cases of control group(p<0.05) by spirometry or body plethysmography d the differences of slow vital capacity and forced vital capacity in bronchodilator response group and nonresponse group were $300.4{\pm}306ml$, $144.7{\pm}180ml$ and this difference was statistically significant. 4) The difference between slow vital capacity and forced vital capacity before bronchodilator inhalation was correlated with airway resistance before bronchodilator(r=0.307 p=0.05), and the difference between slow vital capacity and forced vital capacity after bronchodilator was correlated with difference between slow vital capacity and forced vital capacity(r=0.559 p=0.0002), thoracic gas volume(r=0.488 p=0.002) before bronchodilator and airway resistance(r=0.583 p=0.0001), thoracic gas volume(r=0.375 p=0.0170) after bronchodilator, respectively. 5) The difference between slow vital capacity and forced vital capacity in smokers and nonsmokers was $257.5{\pm}303ml$, $277.5{\pm}276ml$, respectively and this difference did not reach statistical significance(p>0.05). Conclusion : The difference between slow vital capacity and forced vital capacity by spirometry may be useful for the detection of collapsible airway and may help decision making of therapeutic plans.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2001

Background : The incidence of malignant melanoma is currently increasing at a rate greater than any other cancer occuring in human. At this time, early diagnosis and surgical excision were the mainstay of treatment for patients with malignant melanoma. We reviewed the results of average 4 years of follow-up after surgical excision of total 16 cases of malignant melanoma since 1985. Materials and Methods : There were 16 patients (mean age 58.5 years, 5 men, 11 women). The site of the primary lesion was foot and toe (6), back (3), hand (2), thigh (2), shoulder (1), lower abdomen (1) and lip (1). The lymph node was involved at 9 patients. The histologic diagnosis was made with H-E, S-100 stain, and HMB-45 stain as a special stain. Results : Histologically, there were Clark's stage I for 3 patients, II in 4, III in 2, IV in 3, and stage V in 4 patients. The wide excision only greater than 2cm margin was performed for 4 patients. The wide excision and lymph node dissection were performed for 4 patients. The amputation was only performed for 3 patients, and the amputation and lymph node dissection were performed for 5 patients. After surgical excision, chemotherapy was done with Taxol for each 2 patients of stage IV and V. After long term follow-up for mean 4 years, 4 patients died related with melanoma, 1 patient was recurred, and 11 patients were cured. Conclusion : The incidence of malignant melanoma was rare in Korea, but early involvement of lymph node at initial diagnosis was found in many cases (9/16, 56%). And then, early detection and appropriated excision as well as careful dissection of adjacent lymph nodes will offer the patient the best chance for cure.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.241-249
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• 2004

As a part of epidemiologic investigation of tsutsugamushi disease, the wild rodents which were captured in Gyeongnam area were diagnosed with indirect immunofluorescent antibody assay (IFA) and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to find if they have an antibody against Orientia tsutsugamushi. The conclusion was drawn as followings. (1) The captured 58 wild rodents showed that the subspecies distribution of Apodemus agrarius was 86.2%, Microtus fortis was 8.6% and Crocidura lasiura was 5.2%. (2) The antibody positive rate of O. tsutsugamushi Gilliam, Karp, Karto and Boryong by IFA method was 32.0% in Apodemus agrarius among 50 wild rodents and 40.0% in Microtus fortis among 5 wild rodents, respectively. It was negative in the case of all the 3 Crocidura lasiura. (3) The antibody titers on Apodemus agrarius, Microtus fortis and Crocidura lasiura against Gilliam, Karp, Karto and Boryong were measured between 1:20 and 1:640. The antibody titer against each antigen was in the order Boryong>Gilliam>Karp. (4) O. tsutsugamushi was detected from the blood, spleen and kidney from the artificially infected mice by IFA and PCR. IFA showed the positive response between 3 and 18 days after inoculation. On the other hand, positive response was found from all the samples by PCR. (5) From PCR of the genomic DNA extracted from the blood, spleen and kidney samples of the captured wild rodents, Boryong-specific amplification product with size of 210 bp, which is particular in Boryong, was detected from spleen and kidney samples, but not detected in the blood. (6) Boryong-specific amplification product was detected from spleen and kidney samples which were obtained at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 days after the infection with Boryong. But, it wasn't detected from the uninfected samples. (7) From PCR of spleen and kidney samples of the captured wild rodents, it was found that positive rate of O. tsutsugamushi in Apodemus agrarius and Microtus fortis were 25.0% (4/16) and 20.0% (1/5), respectively. From the above results, it can be concluded that Apodemus agrarius resided in Gyeongnam area carried O. tsutsugamushi and PCR method might be a simple, precise, rapid and useful diagnostic tool than IFA for the diagnosis of O. tsutsugamushi.