• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5733-5739
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• 2014

Background: Breast cancer is the most common female malignancy in the world. Beta glucan can be a hematopoietic and an immune modulator agent in cancer patients. The aim of this trial was to determine the effect of beta glucan on white blood cell counts and serum levels of IL-4 and IL-12 in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: This randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted on 30 women with breast carcinoma aged 28-65 years. The eligible participants were randomly assigned to intervention (n=15) or placebo (n=15) groups using a block randomization procedure with matching based on age, course of chemotherapy and menopause status. Patients in the intervention group received two 10-mg capsules of soluble 1-3, 1-6, D-beta glucan daily and the control group receiving placebo during 21 days, the interval between two courses of chemotherapy. White blood cells, neuthrophil, lymphocyte and monocyte counts as well as serum levels of IL-4 and IL-12 were measured at baseline and at the end of the study as primary outcomes of the study. Results: In both groups white blood cell counts decreased after 21 days of the intervention, however in the beta glucan group, WBC was less decreased non significantly than the placebo group. At the end of the study, the change in the serum level of IL-4 in the beta glucan group in comparison with the placebo group was statistically significant (p=0.001). The serum level of IL-12 in the beta glucan group statistically increased (p=0.03) and comparison between two groups at the end of the study was significant after adjusting for baseline values and covariates (p=0.007). Conclusions: The findings suggest that beta glucan can be useful as a complementary or adjuvant therapy and immunomodulary agent in breast cancer patients in combination with cancer therapies, but further studies are needed for confirmation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.327.1-327.1
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• 2014

Nitrides-on-silicon structures are considered to be an excellent candidate for unique design architectures and creating devices for high-power applications. Therefore, a lot of effort has been concentrating on growing high-quality III-nitrides on Si substrates, mostly Si(111) and Si(001) substrates. However, there are several fundamental problems in the growth of nitride compound semiconductors on silicon. First, the large difference in lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients will lead to misfit dislocation and stress in the epitaxial films. Second, the growth of polar compounds on a non-polar substrate can lead to antiphase domains or other defective structures. Even though the lattice mismatches are reached to 16.9 % to GaN and 19 % to AlN and a number of dislocations are originated, Si(111) has been selected as the substrate for the epitaxial growth of nitrides because it is always favored due to its three-fold symmetry at the surface, which gives a good rotational matching for the six-fold symmetry of the wurtzite structure of nitrides. Also, Si(001) has been used for the growth of nitrides due to a possible integration of nitride devices with silicon technology despite a four-fold symmetry and a surface reconstruction. Moreover, Si(110), one of surface orientations used in the silicon technology, begins to attract attention as a substrate for the epitaxial growth of nitrides due to an interesting interface structure. In this system, the close lattice match along the [-1100]AlN/[001]Si direction promotes the faster growth along a particular crystal orientation. However, there are insufficient until now on the studies for the growth of nitride compound semiconductors on Si(110) substrate from a microstructural point of view. In this work, the microstructural properties of nitride thin layers grown on Si(110) have been characterized using various TEM techniques. The main purpose of this study was to understand the atomic structure and the strain behavior of III-nitrides grown on Si(110) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Insight gained at the microscopic level regarding how thin layer grows at the interface is essential for the growth of high quality thin films for various applications.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.152-157
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• 2012

Due to the global warming and energy exhaustion, energy efficiency improvement of construction is recognized the stream of times. To improve the efficiency of the building, in order to energy saving, passive elements should be applied. Then the first step be supposed that applying the new standards about the insulation boundary. The current insulation boundary standards are not reasonable as well as does not divide the purposes. As a result, energy is being wasted and many civil complaints are also occurred. To improve these problems, applying the insulation boundary need to divide the heating and non-heating and subdivide the purpose of construction. In this study, accurate real heating and air conditioning areas are presented that work on the new insulation boundary of purposes and applicable standards. This proposed, by the real heating and air conditioning areas, insulation boundary of purposes, matching the reasonable capacity and load of equipment, by working on standards by optimal maintenance can be energy saving, to present guidelines that environment improvement of actual residents as well as energy saving be expected.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 1994

Although bone scan is a highly sensitive test for detecting bone metastasis, its findings are often limited in specificity and cannot be used for assessing the bone marrow. Bone marrow scintigraphy may provide useful information but previous experience with radiolabelled colloid has been disappointing. Recently, $^{99m}Tc$ labeled anti-granulocyte monoclonal antibody (anti-NCA-95 MAb) has been introduced as a new bone marrow imaging agent. To evaluate the usefulness of $^{99m}Tc$ anti-NCA MAb bone marrow scans for detecting skeletal metastasis, bone marrow scans of 44 malignant tumor patients were evaluated and compared with bone scan findings. Bone scan showed abnormal lesions in 26(59%) cases, and 18 of these patients also had an abnormal bone marrow scan. Seven of the 8 patients who had normal bone marrow scan despite bone scan lesions were confirmed to be free from metastasis. There was one case with a marrow defect despite normal bone scan but the presence of metastasis was not determined due to loss of follow up. Bone scan demonstrated a total of 64 lesions while bone marrow scan showed 38 lesions. Fifty percent (32/64) of the bone scan lesions had matching marrow defects while the remaining 50% did not. Most of these non matched lesions were suggested to be nonspecific lesions such as rib fractures or degenerative change. Meanwhile bone marrow scan was able to detect 6 new lesions not detected by bone scan, bit metastasis in each lesion was not confirmed. Bone marrow scan was also helpful in assessing equivocal bone scan lesions to be of metastatic nature in 10 patients by demonstrating a matched marrow defect. Thus $^{99m}Tc$ anti-NCA MAb bone marrow scan can help exclude metastasis in patients with nonspecific bone scan lesions and may be able to detect metastatic lesions not seen with bone scan. It appears useful as a complementary study to bone scan in evaluating malignant tumor patients.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-36
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• 2005

In this study, we analyzed determinant factors of leverage ratio and debt maturity for Korean firms in the simultaneous equation system using 2SLS (two stage least square) method under assumption that two variables are jointly determined in the capital structure decision. As a result of the analysis, we found that leverage ratio and debt maturity are positively related. Also, as for determinant factors of debt maturity, agency cost hypothesis, asset maturity matching hypothesis, signalling and liquidity risk hypothesis are all generally supported, and further leverage ratio are significantly positively related with firm size, but negatively related with default risk. However, when we divided samples into groups according to bank debt level and Chaebul affiliation, with contrast to existing study which worked on similar issues with OLS, we found no evidence supporting the argument that the information asymmetry problem is less severe in firms with more bank debt, whereas information asymmetry and financial constraint problems are more severe in non-Chaebul affiliated firms.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.135-142
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• 2008

Purpose: Numerous studies have shown that crestal bone resorption around the implant was related to the location of the implant abutment junction(IAJ). Recently it was hypothesized that platform switching termed the inward horizontal repositioning of the IAJ might limit bone resorption around the implants. The purpose of this clinical study was to evaluate the effect of platform switching on crestal bone resorption. Materials and Methods: The crestal bone loss of 65 external hex implants in 26 patients were radiographically measured at crown placement and follow-up examinations. 23 standard implants(non-platform switching group, NP) were connected with the matching abutments and 42 wide implants(platform switching group, PS) were connected with the 1 mm smaller diameter abutments. Results: There was significant difference of crestal bone loss between NP group and PS group. For implants in the NP group, mean crestal bone loss was $1.18{\pm}0.68\;mm$ at crown placement and $1.42{\pm}0.41\;mm$ at follow-up. The meal bone loss in PS group was $0.47{\pm}0.52\;mm$ at crown placement and $0.60{\pm}0.65\;mm$ at follow-up. When the crestal bone changes according to placement depths of implants were compared, subcrestal position of IAJ had a significantly less bone loss in PS group, but it was not in NP group. Conclusion: Within the limits of the present study, it was concluded that platform switching technique might decrease crestal bone loss around the implants. Additionally, when the IAJ of implant was placed 1 mm deeper in the alveolar bone, the effect of platform switching on bone loss was enhanced.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.215-229
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• 2020

In response to the recent 4th industrial revolution, the demand for 3D object models in the latest fields of digital twin, autonomous driving, and VR/AR, as well as the existing fields such as city, construction, transportation, and energy has increased significantly. It is expected that the demand for 3D object models with various precision from LOD1 to LOD4 will increase more and more in various industry fields. However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the local government and the private sector have partially built 3D object models of different precisions for some specific regions because of the huge cost. Therefore, this study proposes a feasible plan that can solve the cost problem in generating 3D object models for the whole territory. For our purpose, we first analyzed usage, demand, generation technology and generation cost for 3D object models. Afterwards, we proposed LOD3 model generation plan for all territory using automatic 3D object model generation technology based on image matching. Additionally, we supplemented the proposed plan by using LOD4 generation plan for landmarks and LOD2 generation plan non-urban area. In the near future, we expect this would be a great help in establishing a feasible and effective 3D object model generation plan for the whole country.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.665-670
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• 2020

Buffer layer in CIGS thin-film solar cells improves energy conversion efficiency through band alignment between the absorption layer and the window layer. ZnS is a non-toxic II-VI compound semiconductor with direct-transition band gaps and n-conductivity as well as with excellent lattice matching for CIGS absorbent layers. In this study, the structural and optical properties of ZnS thin films, deposited by RF magnetron sputtering method and subsequently performed by the rapid thermal annealing treatment, were investigated for the buffer layer. The zincblende cubic structures along (111), (220), and (311) were shown in all specimens. The rapid thermal annealed specimens at the relatively low temperatures were polycrystalline structure with the wurtzite hexagonal structures along (002). Rapid thermal annealing at high temperatures changed the polycrystalline structure to the single crystal of the zincblende cubic structures. Through the chemical analysis, the zincblende cubic structure was obtained in the specimen with the ratio of Zn/S near stoichiometry. ZnS thin film showed the shifted absorption edge towards the lower wavelength as annealing temperature increased, and the mean optical transmittance in the visible light range increased to 80.40% under 500℃ conditions.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.48-54
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• 2015

Purpose: Metabolic liver disease (MLD) often progresses to life-threatening conditions. This study intends to describe the outcomes of liver transplantation (LTx) for MLD at a living donor-dominant transplantation center where potentially heterozygous carrier grafts are employed. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the medical records of 54 patients with MLD who underwent LTx between November 1995 and February 2012 at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Korea. The cumulative graft and patient survival rates were analyzed according to patient age, and living or deceased donor LTx. Recurrence of the original disease was also investigated. Results: The post-transplant cumulative patient survival rates at one, five, and 10 years were 90.7%, 87.5% and 87.5%, and the graft survival rates were 88.8%, 85.5%, and 85.5%, respectively. There were no differences in the patient survival rates according to the recipient age, human leukocyte antigen matching, and living or deceased donor LTx. There were also no differences in the patient survival rates between the MLD and the non-MLD groups for children. Recurrence of the original metabolic disease was not observed in any patient during the follow-up period. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the living donor-dominant transplantation program is well-tolerated in MLD without recurrence of the original MLD using all types of transplantation.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.12-31
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• 2006

The n-gram inverted index has two major advantages: language-neutral and error-tolerant. Due to these advantages, it has been widely used in information retrieval or in similar sequence matching for DNA and Protein databases. Nevertheless, the n-gram inverted index also has drawbacks: the size tends to be very large, and the performance of queries tends to be bad. In this paper, we propose the two-level n-gram inverted index (simply, the n-gram/2L index) that significantly reduces the size and improves the query performance while preserving the advantages of the n-gram inverted index. The proposed index eliminates the redundancy of the position information that exists in the n-gram inverted index. The proposed index is constructed in two steps: 1) extracting subsequences of length m from documents and 2) extracting n-grams from those subsequences. We formally prove that this two-step construction is identical to the relational normalization process that removes the redundancy caused by a non-trivial multivalued dependency. The n-gram/2L index has excellent properties: 1) it significantly reduces the size and improves the Performance compared with the n-gram inverted index with these improvements becoming more marked as the database size gets larger; 2) the query processing time increases only very slightly as the query length gets longer. Experimental results using databases of 1 GBytes show that the size of the n-gram/2L index is reduced by up to 1.9${\~}$2.7 times and, at the same time, the query performance is improved by up to 13.1 times compared with those of the n-gram inverted index.