• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.261-268
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• 2004

Background : The resurgence of tuberculosis and outbreaks of multidrug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis have increased the emphasis for the development of new susceptibility testing of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis for the effective treatment and control of the disease. Conventional drug susceptibility testings, such as those using egg-based or agar-based media have some limits, such as the time required and difficulties in determining critical inhibitory concentrations, but these are still being used in many diagnostic laboratories because of no better lternatives, considering cost and accuracy. To overcome these limits, a rapid and simple method for new susceptibility testing, using live and dead assays, was applied for a bacterial cell viability assay to distinguish dead from live bacterial cells based on two-color fluorescence. Materials and Methods Strains : Forty strains were used in this study, 20 susceptible to all antituberculosis drugs and the other 20 resistant to the four first line antituberculosis drugs isoniazid, rifampicin, streptomycin and ethambutol. Antibiotics : The four antibiotics were dissolved in 7H9 broth to make the following solutions: $0.1{\mu}g\;isoniazid(INH)/m{\ell}$, $0.4{\mu}g\;rifampicin(RMP)/m{\ell}$, $4.0{\mu}g\;streptomycin(SM)/m{\ell}$ and $4.0{\mu}g\;ethambutol(EMB)/m{\ell}$. Results : Live and dead Mycobacterium tuberculosis cells fluoresced green and red with the acridin (Syto 9) and propidium treatments, respectively. These results are very well accorded with conventional drug susceptibility testing by proportional method on Lowensen-Jensen media (L-J) containing 4 drugs (INH, RMP, EMB and SM), showing a 93.7 % accordance rate in susceptible strains and 95% in resistant strains. Conclusion : The results of the drug susceptibility testing using the live and dead bacterial cell assay showed high accordance rates compared with the conventional proportion method on L-J. This finding suggests that the live and dead bacterial cell assay can be used as an alternative to conventional drug susceptibility testing for M. tuberculosis strains.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.546-552
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• 2007

Purpose: In the breast cancer patient, lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy are the most important procedure for axillary lymph node staging. We aimed to compare the three radiocolloids [$^{99m}Tc$-antimony trisulfide colloid (ASC), $^{99m}Tc$-tin colloid (TC), and $^{99m}Tc$-human serum albumin (HSA)] for sentinel lymph node mapping. Subjects and Methods: Totally, 397 patients with clinically N0 stage were enrolled. $^{99m}Tc$-ASC was injected in 202 out of 397 patients, $^{99m}Tc$-TC was injected in 120 patients, and $^{99m}Tc$-HSA was injected in the remaining 75 patients. The sentinel lymph nodes were localized by lymphoscintigraphy and selected using intraoperative gamma probe. All sentinel lymph nodes were investigated by intraoperative pathologic consultation. The axillary lymph nodes which were harvested by the lymph node dissection were also investigated. Results: The patients of each group showed similar clinical characteristics. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in the identification rate of sentinel lymph nodes (IR), false negative rate (FNR), and negative predictive value (NPV). The axillary lymphadenectomy revealed axillary lymph node metastases in those three groups (ASC-33.2%, TC-31.7%, HSA-22.7%). The IR, FNR, and NPV were not significantly different among those groups. Conclusion: Those three $^{99m}Tc$-labeled radiocolloids showed equivalent results in sentinel lymph node mapping of breast cancer.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.235-261
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• 2018

The Medical law stipulates regulations about the physician's duty to inform to contribute to patient's self-determination. This law was most recently revised on December 20, 2016, and came into effect on June 21, 2017. There has been much controversy about this, and it has been questioned whether or not it will be effective for physicians to comply with the duty to inform. Therefore, this study investigated perceptions of physicians of whether they observed the duty to inform and their legal judgment about that duty, and analyzed how the revision of the medical law may have affected the legal cognition of physician's duty to inform. This study was conducted through an online questionnaire survey involving 109 physicians over 2 weeks from March 29 to April 12, 2018, and 108 of the collected data were used for analysis. The questionnaire was developed by revising and supplementing the previous research (Lee, 2004). It consisted of 41 items, including 26 items related to the experience of and legal judgment about the duty to inform, 6 items related to awareness of revised medical law, and 9 items on general characteristics. The data were analyzed using SAS 9.4 program and descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and Binary logistic regression were performed. The results are as follows. • Out of eight situations, the median number of situations that did not fulfill the duty to inform was 5 (IQR, 4-6). In addition, 12 respondents (11%) answered that they did not fulfill the duty to inform in all eight cases, while only one (1%) responded that he/she performed explanation obligations in all cases. • The median number of the legal judgment score on the duty to inform was 8 out of 13 (IQR, 7-9), and the scores ranged from a minimum of 4 (4 respondents) to a maximum of 11 (3 respondents). • More than half of the respondents (n=26, 52%) were unaware of the revision of the medical law, 27 (25%) were aware of the fact that the medical law had been revised, 20(18%) had a rough knowledge of the contents of the law, and only 5(5%) said they knew the contents of the law in detail. The level of awareness of the revised medical law was statistically significant difference according to respondents' sex (p<.49), age (p<.0001), career (p<.0001), working type (p<.024), and department (p<.049). • There was no statistically significant relationship between the level of awareness of the revised medical law and the level of legal judgment on the duty to inform. These results suggest that efforts to improve the implementation and cognition of physician's duty to inform are needed, and it is difficult to expect a direct positive effect from the legal regulations per se. Considering the distinct characteristics of medical institutions and hierarchical organizational culture of physicians, it is necessary to develop a credible guideline on the duty to inform within the medical system, and to strengthen the education of physicians about their duty to inform and its purpose.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.135-152
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• 1983

Emergency medical service is an important part of the health care delivery system, and the optimal allocation of resources and their efficient utilization are essentially demanded. Since these conditions are the prerequisite to prompt treatment which, in turn, will be crucial for life saving and in reducing the undesirable sequelae of the event. This study, taking the hyperbaric chamber for carbon monoxide poisoning as an example, is to develop a stochastic approach for solving the problems of optimal allocation of such emergency medical facility in Korea. The hyperbaric chamber, in Korea, is used almost exclusively for the treatment of acute carbon monoxide poisoning, most of which occur at home, since the coal briquette is used as domestic fuel by 69.6 per cent of the Korean population. The annual incidence rate of the comatous and fatal carbon monoxide poisoning is estimated at 45.5 per 10,000 of coal briquette-using population. It offers a serious public health problem and occupies a large portion of the emergency outpatients, especially in the winter season. The requirement of hyperbaric chambers can be calculated by setting the level of the annual queueing rate, which is here defined as the proportion of the annual number of the queued patients among the annual number of the total patients. The rate is determined by the size of the coal briquette-using population which generate a certain number of carbon monoxide poisoning patients in terms of the annual incidence rate, and the number of hyperbaric chambers per hospital to which the patients are sent, assuming that there is no referral of the patients among hospitals. The queueing occurs due to the conflicting events of the 'arrival' of the patients and the 'service' of the hyperbaric chambers. Here, we can assume that the length of the service time of hyperbaric chambers is fixed at sixty minutes, and the service discipline is based on 'first come, first served'. The arrival pattern of the carbon monoxide poisoning is relatively unique, because it usually occurs while the people are in bed. Diurnal variation of the carbon monoxide poisoning can hardly be formulated mathematically, so empirical cumulative distribution of the probability of the hourly arrival of the patients was used for Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the probability of queueing by the number of the patients per day, for the cases of one, two or three hyperbaric chambers assumed to be available per hospital. Incidence of the carbon monoxide poisoning also has strong seasonal variation, because of the four distinctive seasons in Korea. So the number of the patients per day could not be assumed to be distributed according to the Poisson distribution. Testing the fitness of various distributions of rare event, it turned out to be that the daily distribution of the carbon monoxide poisoning fits well to the Polya-Eggenberger distribution. With this model, we could forecast the number of the poisonings per day by the size of the coal-briquette using population. By combining the probability of queueing by the number of patients per day, and the probability of the number of patients per day in a year, we can estimate the number of the queued patients and the number of the patients in a year by the number of hyperbaric chamber per hospital and by the size of coal briquette-using population. Setting 5 per cent as the annual queueing rate, the required number of hyperbaric chambers was calculated for each province and for the whole country, in the cases of 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent of the treatment rate which stand for the rate of the patients treated by hyperbaric chamber among the patients who are to be treated. Findings of the study were as follows. 1. Probability of the number of patients per day follows Polya-Eggenberger distribution. $$P(X=\gamma)=\frac{\Pi\limits_{k=1}^\gamma[m+(K-1)\times10.86]}{\gamma!}\times11.86^{-{(\frac{m}{10.86}+\gamma)}}$$ when$${\gamma}=1,2,...,n$$$$P(X=0)=11.86^{-(m/10.86)}$$ when $${\gamma}=0$$ Hourly arrival pattern of the patients turned out to be bimodal, the large peak was observed in $7 : 00{\sim}8 : 00$ a.m., and the small peak in $11 : 00{\sim}12 : 00$ p.m. 2. In the cases of only one or two hyperbaric chambers installed per hospital, the annual queueing rate will be at the level of more than 5 per cent. Only in case of three chambers, however, the rate will reach 5 per cent when the average number of the patients per day is 0.481. 3. According to the results above, a hospital equipped with three hyperbaric chambers will be able to serve 166,485, 83,242, 55,495 and 41,620 of population, when the treatmet rate are 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent. 4. The required number of hyperbaric chambers are estimated at 483, 963, 1,441 and 1,923 when the treatment rate are taken as 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent. Therefore, the shortage are respectively turned out to be 312, 791. 1,270 and 1,752. The author believes that the methodology developed in this study will also be applicable to the problems of resource allocation for the other kinds of the emergency medical facilities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.935-942
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• 2000

This study was designed to investigate the effect of flower of Pueraria lobata on liped peroxidation and activities of alcohol metabolic enzymes in alcohol-treated rats. Male Spra gue-Dawley rats were given 25% ethanol (Alcohol), 25% ethanol and 5 mg tectorigenin/kg B.W.(Alc.-Tec), 25% ethanol and 5mg kaikasaponin III/kg B.W. (Alc-Kai). The contents of serum total lipid, triglyceride and phospholipid were increased by ethanol treatment and were lower in the Alc.-Tec and Alc.-Kai group than in the Alcohol group. Decreased serum HDL-cholesterol by alcohol treatment was recovered by tectorigenin and kaikasaponin III. Microsomal cytochrome P-450, aniline hydroxylase and aminopyrine N-demethylase activities were increased by ethanol and were lower in the Alc. Tec and Alc.-Kai group than in the Alcohol group. Activity of hepatic alcohol dehydrogenase was increased by ethanol and was higher in the Alc.-Tec and Alc.-Kai group than in the Alcohol group. Microsomal ethanol oxidizing system activity was higher in Alc.-Tec group than in the other group. No significant difference was found in catalase activity among treatment groups. These data indicate that tectorigenin and kaikasaponin III were effected alcohol metabolic enzyme system and the liver damage associated with chronic ethanol consumption.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.675-681
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• 2012

Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare started to implement oral health hub center to provide oral health preventive program and dental treatment to public, especially dental vulnerable class in 2006. But, there is no applicant area to implement it regardless of national budget arrangement in 2012. This study is aimed to investigate the reason not to be implemented and requirements of implementation. 293 among 1,000 public dental hygienists in the area where have not implemented oral health hub center were surveyed in Korea from April to July in 2012 through convenience sampling. The questionnaire consisted of the reason why oral health hub center have not been implemented, the requirement of implementation, duty area and duty position et al. After removal of insufficient responses, 217 questionnaires were analyzed by t-test and ANOVA using SPSS 20.0. The reason why oral health hub center have not been implemented were deficiency of the priority list as compared with other health program (72.4%), space insufficiency (71.4%), regional budget insufficiency (70.5%), will insufficiency of oral health promotion (70.5%) and manpower insufficiency (62.7%). The first requirement of implementation were space expansion and regional budget expansion, followed by reduction of record-originated and administrative tasks, understanding on oral health program of higher ranking public officials in health center, manpower expansion, reduction of other tasks than oral health program and volunteer source expansion. Budget insufficiency and manpower insufficiency in Metropolis were ranked higher than other area (p<0.05). The group not to discuss oral health hub center graded each reason not to be implemented significantly higher than the other group (p<0.05). We suggested that to promote the importance of public oral health program be needed to public and higher ranking public officials to implement oral health hub center. In addition, we insisted that more dental manpower and budget be needed for reduction of oral health inequity in metropolis.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.331-344
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• 2018

Lotic organisms in streams are affected by natural and anthropogenic disturbances such as increase of heavy rainfall event caused by climate change and flow regime change caused by weir constructions. Based on domestic and foreign literature, 157 Korean benthic macroinvertebrate taxa were selected species as potential lotic candidates. Three shoreline sites (total 54 samples) were surveyed consecutively before ('08~'09), during ('10~'12) and after ('13~'16) the construction of the weirs (Gangcheon, Yeoju and Ipo weir) in the Namhan-River for tracing changes of lotic communities. As a result, water flow of the Ipo-wier and water quality variables such as T-N, T-P, BOD5, etc. of the weir section revealed no significant changes. Physical habitat conditions such as the flow velocity and streambed substrate evidently changed. Particulary, flow velocity measured at sampling points along with each microhabitat drastically decreased and particle size of streambed substrate steadily decreased after weir constructions. Lotic organisms also decreased after construction, especially Hydropsychidae (insecta: Trichoptera) acutely decreased from $3,526ind.\;m^{-2}$ to $2ind.\;m^{-2}$ As a result of CCA, lotic species such as Hydropsyche valvata, Hydropsyche kozhantschikovi, Cheumatopsyche brevilineata, Cheumatopsyche KUa, Macrostemum radiatum, etc. correlated with the flow velocity, streambed substrate. Therefore, the decrease of the flow velocity and substrate size after weir construction seemed to be closely related to the decrease of the individual abundances of the lotic organisms independently of water quality. In order to evaluate the influence of the ecosystem on the flow regime change more accurately, it is necessary to study the indicator species based on the resistance or preference of the flow.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.87-95
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• 2019

This study was carried out to select the rice variety for high quality rice according to reducing N application level (7 kg/10 a) in medium altitude and plain of southern Korea. It was cultivated to seven varieties and ten varieties in medium altitude and plain region respectively in this study. In medium altitude region, the yield of head rice was higher in most varieties except for Borami (526 kg/10 a) than the control variety, Chucheongbyeo (533 kg/10 a). On the other hand, Borami, Gopumbyeo, and onnuri were lower in head rice rate than the other varieties. In addition, Borami and Chucheongbyeo shown a lodging risk but the other varieties were safe against lodging. The milled rice protein content of Chucheongbyeo was 6.1% and the other varieties protein content was similar or lower than that of control except for Borami(6.3%). In plain region, the head rice yield of Nampyeongbyeo (527 kg/10 a) was higher than that of control variety, Ilmibyeo (503 kg/10 a). Head rice rate was lower in Hopumbyoe, Sindongjin, and Chilbobyeo than the other varieties. The varieties contained lower protein content compared Ilmibyeo (6.1%) were Hopumbyeo (5.9%), Jinsumi (6.0%), Sindongjin (5.9%), Chilbobyeo (6.0%), Hwangeumnodeul (5.8%), Hopyeongbyeo (6.0%). Amylose content, whiteness, and palatability (Toyo value) were no significant difference among varieties in two different regions. In conclusion, considering head rice rate, yield of head rice, protein content, lodging resistance, ripening rate and palatability, Pungmi1ho, Saenuri, Chilbobyeo in medium altitude region and Jinsumi, Hwanggumnodul in plain region were selected as proper rice varieties for high quality rice production in southern Korea.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.172-180
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• 2023

This study was carried out to determine the sprouting period of early and mid-season varieties, which includes 'Atlantic', 'Chubaek', and 'Superior', during the summer storage period in a semi-underground warehouse without cooling system. And also it was investigated the effect of chlorpropham [Propan-2-yl N-(3-chlorophenyl)carbamate, CIPC] treatment on the sprouting inhibition for the varieties. This study was conducted to figure out a sprout inhibitory effect when CIPC was applied to 1kg of the potato tubers at concentrations of 10 mg and 20 mg which are lower than the treatment concentrations of ca 30 mg prescribed by the positive list system (PLS). The internal temperature of the warehouse used in this experiment was lowered by 5℃ or more than the outside temperature. The difference between the lowest and highest temperature during the experiment throughout the day was 5℃. It showed the effect of reducing to 1/2 of the difference in outdoor temperature. As for the sprouting of potatoes, the extremely early variety 'Chubaek' sprouts appeared at the 6th week of storage of control and it was the fastest sprouting potato among the control groups of the varieties. Sprouting began to appear in the Superior at the 6th week of storage, while the 'Atlantic' sprouted at the 8th week of storage. The appearance of sprouts was suppressed in all treatment groups of 'Atlantic' and 'Superior' varieties in CIPC treatments. Sprouts were observed in all treatment groups of 'Chubaek' after the 7th week, but the elongations of the sprouts in tubers were completely inhibited until the 8th week of storage. 'Atlantic' and 'Superior' seemed to have a sprouting inhibitory effect even with a low CIPC concentration of 10 mg·kg^-1, with the exception of extremely early variety 'Chubaek' that breaks out of the dormancy quickly. Although weight loss occurred continuously during storage, it was minor loss of 0.7-1.6%. There was no consistent trend for changes of the loss in the varieties and CIPC treatments. Most common pathological disorder was the dry rot during the experiment, but only few were affected. The use of the tubers treated at 18℃ and 90% RH for 10 days and the rack of refrigeration system which lead to lack of convection seemed to have suppressed the spread of pathogens.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.20-27
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• 1983

A series of laboratory experiment was conducted to find out the chemical composition, characterization of humic substances by physical and chemical methods and reaction of Na-pyrophosphate, $Ca(OH)_2$ and rice straw with albumin on the degradation of soil organic matter in the volcanic ask soils of the Jeju Island. Results obtained were summarized as follows: 1. The contents of organic matter, available silicon, active iron and aluminum concentration in volcanic ash the soils were remarkably higher but available phosphorous was comparatively lower than the mineral soils. In volcanic ash soil, the contents of potassium, calcium and magnessium were higher in upland soil than that of forest soil. The ratios of active $Al^{{+}{+}{+}}/Fe^{{+}{+}}$, C/P and $K/Ca^+$ Mg were apparently high in volcanic ash soils while that of $SiO_2$/O.M. was high in mineral soil. 2. The carbon/nitrogen ratio in humin, humic acid content in organic matter, and carbon contents of humin in total carbon of soil organic matter were apparently higher in the volcanic ash soils than in the mineral soils, The total nitrogen and fractions of acid or alkali soluble nitrogen were remarkably high in volcanic ash soils while mineralizable nitrogen ($NH_4$-N and $NO_3$) contents were high in mineral soils. 3. The values of K600, RF and log K were also higher in volcanic ash soils than those in mineral soils, and the absorbance in the visible range were high and color was dark in the soil of which humification was progressed Extracted humic acid from volcanic ash soil was less reactive to the oxidizing chemical reagent and was persistance to the acid or alkali hydrolysises. 4. The major oxygen-containing functional groups in humic substances of volcanic ash soils were phenolic-OH alcoholic-OH and carboxyl groups while those in mineral soil were methoxyl and carbonyl groups. 5. Absorption spectra of alkaline solution of humic acid ranged from 200 nm to maxima 500 nm. Visible spectra peaks of from humic substances in the visible region were recognized at 350, 420, 450 and 480 nm. Only one single absorbance peak was observed in the visible region at 362 nm for Heugag series and two absorbance Peak were also at 360 nm and 390 nm for Yeungrag series. 6. Evolution of carbon as $Co_2$ was increased with addition of Na-pyrophosphate in Namweon and Heugag series, and "priming effects" took place on the soil organic matter decomposition by addition of rice straw with albumin in Ido series.