• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.44 no.5
• /
• pp.327-333
• /
• 2008

Objective: The purpose of this study is to verify the usefulness of the rabbit model for disc degeneration study. Materials: The L1-L2, L2-L3, L3-L4. or L4-L5 lumbar intervertebral disc (IVD) of 9 mature male New Zealand White rabbits were injured by inserting a 16-gauge needle to a depth of 5 mm in the left anterolateral annulus fibrosus while leaving L5-L6 IVD uninjured. Three other rabbits also received intradiscal injections of rabbit disc cells transfected with adenovirus and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (ad-BMP-2) at L4-L5 in addition to injury by 16-gauge needle at the L1-L2 level. Using digitized radiographs, measurements of IVD height were made and analyzed by using the disc height index (DHI). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the injured discs, injected discs, and uninjured L5-L6 discs were performed at 15 weeks post surgery and compared with preoperative MRI scans. Results: All twelve rabbits showed consistent results of disc degeneration within 15 weeks following annular puncture. DHIs of injured discs were significantly lower than that of the uninjured L5-L6 discs (p<0.05). The mean value of disc degeneration grade of injured discs was significantly higher than that of uninjured discs (p<0.05). The injection of disc cell transfected with ad-BMP-2 did not induce disc regeneration at 15 weeks after injection. Conclusion: This study showed that the injured disc had a significant change in DHI on simple lateral radiograph and disc degeneration grade on MRI scans within 15 weeks in all rabbits. Rabbit annular puncture model can be useful as a disc degeneration model in vivo.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.24-31
• /
• 2009

Objective : To investigate the effectiveness of radiographic parameters on segmental instability in the lumbar spine using Kinetic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods : Segmental motion, defined as excessive (more than 3 mm) translational motion from flexion to extension, was investigated in 309 subjects (927 segments) using Kinetic MRI. Radiographic parameters which can help indicate segmental instability include disc degeneration (DD), facet joint osteoarthritis (FJO), and ligament flavum hypertrophy (LFH). These three radiographic parameters were simultaneously evaluated, and the combinations corresponding to significant segmental instability at each level were determined. Results : The overall incidence of segmental instability was 10.5% at L3-L4, 16.5% at L4-L5, and 7.3% at L5-S1. DD and LFH at L3-L4 and FJO and LFH at L4-L5 were individually associated with segmental instability (p<0.05). At L4-L5, the following combinations had a higher incidence of segmental instability (p<0.05) when compared to other segments : (1) Grade IV DD with grade 3 FJO, (2) Grade 2 or 3 FJO with the presence of LFH, and (3) Grade IV DD with the presence of LFH. At L5-S1, the group with Grade III disc and Grade 3 FJO had a higher incidence of segmental instability than the group with Grade I or II DD and Grade 1 FJO. Conclusion : This study showed that the presences of either Grade IV DD or grade 3 FJO with LFH at L4-L5 were good indicators for segmental instability. Therefore, using these parameters simultaneously in patients with segmental instability would be useful for determining candidacy for surgical treatment.

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.30
• /
• pp.175-201
• /
• 2005

This study investigates the diversity of news topic and source of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times in the second half of the twentieth century. In probing the conventional traits of the contemporary press, the researcher traced the changing patterns and trends of news values in terms of news-gathering routine in order to evaluate the journalistic role conception in terms of social responsibility theory. Findings indicated that the American press as a neutral transmitter has been consistently violated by source and topic bias without any significant changes during the last five decades. The data, however, revealed the evident shift of the contemporary press from the heavy reliance of official source to the business/economic source. In addition, news topics such as business, health, and education have replaced the conventional popular topics such as crime and accidents. By contrast, it was revealed that the unconventional topics such as poverty, labor and minority still fail to receive the large attention from the target papers.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.44-56
• /
• 2010

Objective : To characterize Five Woons of Asian women who live at Los Angeles area in U.S.A Methods : A set of physical tests and diagnostic questions were given to 242 Asian female subjects who were treated for their symptoms at a clinic of Asian medicine near Los Angeles in USA. The participants were given their constitutions, one of the Five Woons based on their birthdays. The physical tests included a body composition via Inbody 4.0 and an autonomic bioelectric response record via ABR2000. The oneway analysis of variance was applied to compare the means of the Five Woons and the physical test results. The Cross tabulation analysis was also applied to look for the effectiveness of Five Woons on the symptoms. Results : 1. In the body composition items, the LSD(least significant difference) showed that there were significant differences between the Soil Woon and the other Four Woons which are Water, Metal, Fire and Wood Woons in weight, fat, body fat %, BMI (p<0.2). 2. Based on the LSD, significant differences were observed among the Five Woons in R5, R6 and R7(p<0.2). 3. The cross tabulation analysis showed the significant effectiveness of the Five Woons on the five symptoms including dizziness, hot and cold, lower body edema, fatigue and to take a medication for high blood pressure out of 24 diagnostic questions (p<0.2). Conclusions : Further clinical research is necessary to develop a more delicate questionnaire and look for ways of characterizing the Five Woons. The diagnosis and corresponding treatment based on the Five Woons should be further studied in view of the Oriental medicine.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.110-120
• /
• 2010

Objective: To relate with significant relationship between symptoms and Five Zhang(五臟)symptoms in Five Woon Constitutions and to characterize Five Woons of Asian women who live at Los Angeles area in U.S.A. Methods: 19 diagnostic questions were given to 286 Asian females subjects who were treated for their symptoms at an Asian medical clinic near Los Angeles in USA. The participants were given their constitutions, one of the Five Woons based on their birthdays. The Cross tabulation analysis was also applied to look for the effectiveness of Five Woons on the symptoms. Results: 1. The cross tabulation analysis showed the significant effectiveness of the Five Woons on the five symptoms including dizziness, hot and cold, lower body edema and face fever(p<0.1). 2. The dizziness and the hot and cold were related with Liver diseases, the lower body edema was related with Kidney diseases and the face fever was related to Heart diseases. Conclusions: This study can explain the relationship between the significant symptoms of Five Woons and Five Zhang(五臟)symptoms with reference which is the book by Yoon, ChoChang who lived 1700 years. Further clinical research is necessary to develop more delicate questionnaires and look for ways of characterizing the Five Woons. The diagnosis and corresponding treatment based on the Five Woons should be further studied in view of the Asian medicine.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.203-210
• /
• 2004

The fragility curves of seismic retrofitted bridges by steel jacketing at bridge columns and restrainers at expansion joints after the 1994 Northridge earthquake are developed. Fragility curves are represented by lognormal distribution functions with two parameters (median and log-standard deviation) and developed as a function of peak ground acceleration(PGA). Two parameters in the lognormal distribution are estimated by the maximum likelihood method. The sixty ground acceleration time histories for Los Angeles area developed for FEMA SAC project are used for the dynamic analysis of bridges. The comparison of fragility curves of the bridges before and after column retrofit demonstrates that the improvement of the bridges with steel jacketing on the seismic performance is excellent for the damage states defined in this study. The comparison of fragility curves of the bridges before and after the installation of restrainers at expansion joints also shows the improvement in the seismic performance of restrained bridges for the severe damage state.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.28 no.12
• /
• pp.2079-2094
• /
• 2018

Sunflower trypsin inhibitor (SFTI) is a 14-amino-acid bicyclic peptide that contains a single internal disulfide bond. We initially constructed chimeras of SFTI with N-terminal secretion signals from the Escherichia coli OmpA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ToxA, but only detected small amounts of protease inhibition resulting from these constructs. A substantially higher degree of protease inhibition was detected from a C-terminal SFTI fusion with E. coli YebF, which radiated more than a centimeter from an individual colony of E. coli using a culture-based inhibitor assay. Inhibitory activity was further improved in YebF-SFTI fusions by the addition of a trypsin cleavage signal immediately upstream of SFTI, and resulted in production of a 14-amino-acid, disulfide-bonded SFTI free in the culture supernatant. To assess the potential of the secreted SFTI to protect the ability of a cytotoxic protein to kill tumor cells, we utilized a tumor-selective form of the Pseudomonas ToxA (OTG-PE38K) alone and expressed as a polycistronic construct with YebF-SFTI in the tumor-targeted Salmonella VNP20009. When we assessed the ability of toxin-containing culture supernatants to kill MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells, the untreated OTG-PE38K was able to eliminate all detectable tumor cells, while pretreatment with trypsin resulted in the complete loss of anticancer cytotoxicity. However, when OTG-PE38K was co-expressed with YebF-SFTI, cytotoxicity was completely retained in the presence of trypsin. These data demonstrate SFTI chimeras are secreted in a functional form and that co-expression of protease inhibitors with therapeutic proteins by tumor-targeted bacteria has the potential to enhance the activity of therapeutic proteins by suppressing their degradation within a proteolytic environment.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.755-767
• /
• 2014

In this study, detailed air flow characteristics in an urban areas were analyzed using GIS data and a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. For this, a building construction algorithm optimized for Geographic Information System (GIS) data with a vector format (Los Angeles region imagery acquisition consortium 2 geographic information system, LARIAC2 GIS) was used. In the LARIAC2 GIS data, building vertices were expressed as latitude and longitude. Using the model buildings constructed by the algorithm as the surface boundary data in the CFD model, we performed numerical simulations for two building-congested areas in Los Angeles using inflow information provided by California Air Resources Board. Comparing with the inflow, there was a marked difference in wind speed and direction within the target areas, which was mainly caused by the secondarily induced local circulations such as street-canyon vortices, horse-shoe vortices, and recirculation zones. In street canyons parallel to the inflow direction, wind speed increased due to a channeling effect and, in street canyons perpendicular to the inflow direction, vertically well developed vortices were induced. In front of a building, a horse-shoe vortex was developed near the surface and, behind a building, a recirculation zone was developed. Near the surface in the areas where the secondarily induced local circulations, wind speed remarkably increased. Overall, wind direction little (largely) changed at the areas where wind speed largely increased (decreased).

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2004.08a
• /
• pp.1126-1130
• /
• 2004

This paper describes the design, development, and performance testing of an autonomous ground vehicle that was developed to participate in the DARPA Grand Challenge that was held in March 2004. The authors of this paper are members of Team CIMAR which was one of twenty five teams selected by DARPA to participate in a competition to develop an autonomous vehicle that can navigate from near Los Angeles to near Las Vegas at speeds averaging twenty miles per hour. Most of the event was held on open terrain and trails in a rocky desert environment. This paper describes the overall system design and the performance of the system at the event.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.19-34
• /
• 2013

Previous research assessed media reporting on nuclear accidents and risks, whilst studies about the Fukushima accident focused on the impact of the Internet on coverage of the incident. However, little research has addressed news framing or comparisons of the perceptions of journalists in relation to reporting nuclear accidents. The aim of this study is to apply framing analysis to news content in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today about the Fukushima accident. It explores the question of how journalists view reporting on complex events. Content analysis of these three newspapers shows that conflict, responsibility, and economic consequences were the most frequently used frames. According to the journalists interviewed, the biggest problem was the inability to assess information due to contrary positions held by experts. It is argued that the Fukushima accident was framed as a conflict of experts and officials' opinions, utility and government officials' responsibility, and economic consequences for the United States. Adherence to professional norms of objectivity and impartiality was signified as the best approaches to risk reporting.