• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.295-302
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• 2007

Statement of problem. Fracture of the tooth-colored superstructure material is one of the main prosthetic complications in implant-supported prostheses. Purpose. The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the fracture strength between the cement-retained implant-supported metal-ceramic crowns and the indirect composite resinveneered metal crowns under the vertical compressive load. Material and methods. Standard implants of external type (AVANA IFR 415 Pre-mount; Osstem Co., Busan, Korea) were embedded in stainless steel blocks perpendicular to their long axis. Customized abutments were fabricated using plastic UCLA abutments (Esthetic plastic cylinder; Osstem Co., Busan, Korea). Thirty standardized copings were cast with non-precious metal (Rexillium III, Pentron, Walling ford, Conn., USA). Copings were divided into two groups of 15 specimens each (n = 15). For Group I specimens, metal-ceramic crowns were fabricated. For Group II specimens, composite resin-veneered (Sinfony, 3M-ESPE, St. Paul, MN, USA) metal crowns (Sinfony-veneered crowns) were fabricated according to manufacturer's instructions. All crowns were temporary cemented and vertically loaded with an Instron universal testing machine (Instron 3366, Instron Corp., Norwood, MA, USA). The maximum load value (N) at the moment of complete failure was recorded and all data were statistically analyzed by independent sample t-test at the significance level of 0.05. The modes of failure were also investigated with visual analysis. Results. The fracture strength of Sinfony-veneered crowns ($2292.7{\pm}576.0N$) was significantly greater than that of metal-ceramic crowns ($1150.6{\pm}268.2N$) (P < 0.05). With regard to the failure mode, Sinfony-veneered crowns exhibited adhesive failure, while metal-ceramic crowns tended to fracture in a manner that resulted in combined failure. Conclusion. Sinfony-veneered crowns demonstrated a significantly higher fracture strength than that of metal-ceramic crowns in cement-retained implant-supported prostheses.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.177-184
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• 2022

Caval syndrome is a severe complication of canine heartworm disease in which affected dogs present with various clinical signs that are often life-threatening. In cases of severe infection, adulticidal treatment has numerous complications as a result of a marked immune response against dead worms. Therefore, several surgical and non-surgical methods, including interventional extraction, have been applied in veterinary medicine. Despite the usefulness and efficiency of conventional retrieval devices, a few associated limitations must be addressed to reduce their risks and increase their applicability. Herein, we introduced a case of treating three dogs with caval syndrome by applying a newly developed heartworm basket device. The dogs were diagnosed with heartworm disease by heartworm antigen testing and direct smear. Imaging findings revealed remarkable remodeling of the right heart and pulmonary vessels and the presence of heartworms in the right heart. Additionally, heartworms were confirmed in the distal part of the abdominal aorta and femoral arteries in one dog, indicating aberrant systemic migration of the worms. Under general anesthesia, the heartworm basket device was introduced into the right heart via femoral venotomy and arteriotomy in one dog and jugular venotomy in the other two dogs. Although the number of cases in this study was small, the basket device was successful in gradual and cautious extraction of the heartworms in all three dogs. They exhibited good prognosis of clinical symptoms as indicated by imaging analyses.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.193-202
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• 2023

Porcine epidemic diarrhea is an infectious intestinal disease caused by the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). Especially, when suckling piglets are infected, the mortality rate is close to 100%. PEDV is classified into G1 and G2 types based on genetic differences. The G2 type PEDV outbreak in the United States in 2013 was highly pathogenic and contagious, and it has spread worldwide and caused continuous economic losses. Most commercial vaccines used are G1 type vaccines, and existing vaccines do not fully protect piglets due to genetic differences. In this study, we evaluated the safety of the newly developed G2 type attenuated HSGP vaccine strain by inoculating it into piglets and testing whether the vaccine virus spreads to the non-vaccinated, negative pigs and whether the vaccine reverts to its virulence during serial passage experiments. Each experiment lasted for 7 days for each passage, and fecal viral titers, clinical symptoms, and weight gain were measured daily. After the experiment, necropsy was performed to measure intestinal virus titer and pathological evaluation. As a result of the first passage, no transmission of the vaccine virus to negative pigs co-housed with vaccinated pigs was observed. In addition, after four consecutive passage experiments, the clinical symptoms and small intestine lesions were gradually alleviated, and no virus was detected in the feces in the fourth passage experiment. Therefore, it was concluded that the vaccine was safe without virulence reversion in accordance with the guidelines of the current licensing authority. However, further studies are needed on the genetic changes and biological characteristics of the mutant virus that occur during successive passages of the attenuated vaccine since the replication and clinical symptoms of the virus increased until the third passage during successive passages of the vaccine virus. Based on this study, it was concluded that virulence reversion and safety evaluation of attenuated vaccines through serial passage in target animals can be useful to evaluate the safety of attenuated viruses.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.421-439
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• 2022

Phase I dose-finding trials are essential in drug development. By finding the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of a new drug or treatment, a Phase I trial establishes the recommended doses for later-phase testing. The primary toxicity endpoint of interest is often a binary variable, which describes an event of a patient who experiences dose-limiting toxicity. However, there is a growing interest in dose-finding studies regarding non-binary outcomes, defined by either the weighted sum of rates of various toxicity grades or a continuous outcome. Although several novel methods have been proposed in the literature, accessible software is still lacking to implement these methods. This study introduces a newly developed R package, UnifiedDoseFinding, which implements three phase I dose-finding methods with non-binary outcomes (Quasi- and Robust Quasi-CRM designs by Yuan et al. (2007) and Pan et al. (2014), gBOIN design by Mu et al. (2019), and by a method by Ivanova and Kim (2009)). For each of the methods, UnifiedDoseFinding provides corresponding functions that begin with next that determines the dose for the next cohort of patients, select, which selects the MTD defined by the non-binary toxicity endpoint when the trial is completed, and get oc, which obtains the operating characteristics. Three real examples are provided to help practitioners use these methods. The R package UnifiedDoseFinding, which is accessible in R CRAN, provides a user-friendly tool to facilitate the implementation of innovative dose-finding studies with nonbinary outcomes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.377-385
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• 2002

Ultrasonic tests employing non-ionizing radiation are preferred in nondestructive examinations since they are safe and simple in use. The same principles of the techniques have been taken as valuable tools in medical area for the diagnoses of diseases, in other words, defects of the human body. The paper overviews the principles of the medical diagnosis based on nondestructive ultrasonic tests, and then evaluates experimentally the clinical potential of C scan images not popular in medicine, for detecting the micro fractures of the cortical bone. In the experiment the micro bone fractures were created on the femurs of porks by loading three point bending forces (2-4kN) with the speed of 1 mm/min. As the extent of the fracture was altered, not only X ray images but also ultrasonic C scan images using a focused ultrasonic probe resonated at 25 MHz were obtained. The results showed that ultrasonic C scan images were capable of detecting the micro bone fractures which were not possible to identify by conventional X ray images.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.526-539
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• 2017

Purpose: This study was undertaken to develop and test a mastery learning program of nursing skills for undergraduate nursing students. Methods: In this methodological study, first, the preliminary draft of a mastery learning program to provide training for nursing skills was developed based on Bloom's framework for mastery learning. Second, to test the developed program, a single-blinded, nonequivalent control group nonsynchronized study was conducted on 50 senior nursing students in a University selected by convenient sampling. Thirteen students were assigned to a control group; 13, 12, and 13 of them were assigned to intravenous therapy, transfusion, and patient transfer groups, respectively. The achievement levels and performance scores of the selected nursing skills were measured before and after the completion of the program in all the groups. Lastly, the final program was confirmed based on the results of the program testing. Results: Intravenous therapy, transfusion, and patient transfer were selected as essential nursing skills for the program based on the priorities rated by clinical instructors and staff nurses. The achievement levels of selected nursing skills were determined by Angoff scores. After participating in the program, the proportion of passers and performance scores of the nursing skills in the experimental groups were significantly higher than those in the control group. The final program was confirmed which included a diagnostic test, enrichment activities for the passers and three repetitions of corrective activities and formative assessments for non-passers. Conclusion: The results suggest that a mastery learning program for undergraduate students can lead to better improvement and performance of essential nursing skills.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7885-7889
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• 2014

Background: Activating mutations of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) could predict response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the detection of EGFR mutation is frequently challenging in clinical practice for the lack of tumor tissue. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of performing EGFR mutation testing on various types of liquid-based cytology (LBC) samples. Materials and Methods: A total of 434 liquid-based cytology samples were collected from March 2010 and November 2013. Among them, 101 with diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma had paired surgically resected specimens. The ADx Amplification Refractory Mutation System (ADx-ARMS) was used to determine EGFR mutation status both in LBC and resected samples. Results: All liquid-based cytology samples were adequate for EGFR mutation analysis. The mutation rate was 50.5% in the 434 NSCLC patients with LBC samples and the incidence rates of EGFR mutation were consistent among different specimens. We also detected EGFR positives in 52.5% (53/101) patients with paired histologic specimens. The concordance rate of EGFR mutation between LBC samples and paired histologic specimens was 92.1%. Conclusions: Our results suggest that liquid-based cytology samples are highly reliable for EGFR mutation testing in patients with NSCLC.

• Annals of Laboratory Medicine
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.569-577
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• 2018

Background: The increasing prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) infection represents a global public health emergency. We evaluated the usefulness of a newly developed multiplexed, bead-based bioassay (Quantamatrix Multiplexed Assay Platform [QMAP], QuantaMatrix, Seoul, Korea) to rapidly identify the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and detect rifampicin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) resistance-associated mutations. Methods: A total of 200 clinical isolates from respiratory samples were used. Phenotypic anti-TB drug susceptibility testing (DST) results were compared with those of the QMAP system, reverse blot hybridization (REBA) MTB-MDR assay, and gene sequencing analysis. Results: Compared with the phenotypic DST results, the sensitivity and specificity of the QMAP system were 96.4% (106/110; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.9072-0.9888) and 80.0% (72/90; 95% CI 0.7052-0.8705), respectively, for RIF resistance and 75.0% (108/144; 95% CI 0.6731-0.8139) and 96.4% (54/56; 95% CI 0.8718-0.9972), respectively, for INH resistance. The agreement rates between the QMAP system and REBA MTB-MDR assay for RIF and INH resistance detection were 97.6% (121/124; 95% CI 0.9282-0.9949) and 99.1% (109/110; 95% CI 0.9453-1.0000), respectively. Comparison between the QMAP system and gene sequencing analysis showed an overall agreement of 100% for RIF resistance (110/110; 95% CI 0.9711-1.0000) and INH resistance (124/124; 95% CI 0.9743-1.0000). Conclusions: The QMAP system may serve as a useful screening method for identifying and accurately discriminating MTBC from non-tuberculous mycobacteria, as well as determining RIF- and INH-resistant MTB strains.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.221-228
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• 2020

Ochrobactrum anthropi is a non-fermentative oxidative gram-negative bacillus that produces oxidase. Distinguishing a mixed culture with non-fermenting bacteria having a similar appearance and oxidase-positive is difficult, and there is a limit to accurate identification with a biochemical identification system. This paper proposes that the Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Platform (MALDI-TOF) method is useful for classifying bacteria that are difficult to identify using biochemical testing methods. As a result of analyzing five cases of O. anthropi examined using MicroScan, it took 6.5 days to the final report, which was 3.5 days more than the 3.0 days of E. coli. The pus sample in patient 5 was a mixed infection with Achromobacter xylosoxidans, and it took 11.3 days because of multiple subculture and retests. Four patients were over 60 years old with an underlying disease, and the possibility of opportunistic and nosocomial infections could not be excluded. Among them, samples collected after 92 days of hospitalization were resistant to imipenem and meropenem. Therefore, an examination using the MALDI-TOF method will be useful for the rapid and adequate treatment of patients with difficult identification, such as O. anthropi.

• The Journal of the Korean life insurance medical association
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2010

The measurement of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in screening for prostate cancer is recently performed as a routine check-up in clinical medicine and insurance medicine. Several factors may affect serum PSA levels. As prostate size increases with increasing age, the PSA concentration also rises. Increasing body mass index (BMI) is associated with a lower mean PSA concentration. Inhibitors of 5-alpha-reductase such as finasteride and dutasteride produce a 50 percent or greater decrease in serum PSA during the first three months of therapy, which persists as long as the drug is continued. Men who are regularly taking non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or acetaminophen have lower PSA levels. Emerging concepts regarding PSA testing that may help refine the interpretation of an elevated concentration include: PSA density, PSA velocity, and Free versus complexed or bound PSA. With many insurance companies, PSA level has become part of a standard battery of blood tests, along with HIV, cholesterol, liver enzymes, and other predictors of premature death. But, there is no clear proof of benefit, so we have to monitor the value of PSA test as a prostate cancer screening test in insurance medicine.