• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.397-404
• /
• 1994

Background: To decide the optimal antibiotics and application of chest tube, examination of pleural fluid is fundamental in the management of empyema. Some criteria for drainage of pleural fluid have been recommended but some controversies have been suggested. Recently, newer radiologic methods including ultrasound and computed tomography scanning, have been applied to the diagnosis and management of pleural effusions. We undertook a retrospective analysis of 30 patients with pleural effusion who had CT scans of the chest in order to apply the criteria of Light et al retrospectively to patients with loculation and to correlate the radiologic appearance of pleural effusions with pleural fluid chemistry. Method: We analyzed the records of 30 out of 147 patients with pleural effusion undergoing chest CT scans. Results: 1) Six of the pleural fluid cultures yielded gram negative organisms and three anaerobic bacterias and one Staphylococcus aureus and one non-hemolytic Streptococci. No organism was cultured in ninteen cases(63.0%). 2) The reasons for taking chest CT scans were to rule out malignancy or parenchymal lung disease(46.7%), poor response to antibiotics(40.0%), hard to aspirate pleural fluid(10.0%) and to decide the site for chest tube insertion(3.3%). 3) There was no significant correlations between ATS stages and loculation but there was a tendency to loculate in stage III. 4) There was a significant inverse relationship between the level of pH and loculation(p<0.05) but there appeared to be no relationship between pleural fluid, LDH, glucose, protein, loculation and pleural thickening. 5) In 12 out of 30, therapeutic measures were changed according to the chest CT scan findings. Conclusion: We were unable to identify any correlations between the plerual fluid chemistry, ATS stages and loculations except pH, and we suggest that tube thoracotomy should be individualized according to the clinical judgement and serial observation. All patients with empyema do not need a chest CT scan but a CT scan can provide determination of loculation, guiding and assessing therapy which should decrease morbidity and hospital stay.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.64 no.4
• /
• pp.285-292
• /
• 2008

Background: A diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion is clinically important, as the prognosis of lung cancer patients with malignant pleural effusion is poor. The diagnosis will be difficult if a cytological test is negative. This study was performed to investigate whether the detection of hypermethylation of the p16 (CDKN2A) and retinoic acid receptor b2 (RARB2) genes in pleural fluid is useful for a diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion. Methods: Pleural effusion was collected from 43 patients and was investigated for the aberrant promoter methylation of the RARB2 and CDKN2A genes by use of methylation-specific PCR. Results were compared with findings from a pleural biopsy and from pleural fluid cytology. Results: Of 43 cases, 17 cases of pleural effusion were due to benign diseases, and 26 cases were from lung cancer patients with malignant pleural effusion. Hypermethylation of the RARB2 and CDKN2A genes was not detected in the case of benign diseases, independent of whether or not the patients had ever smoked. In 26 cases of malignant pleural effusion, hypermethylation of RARB2, CDKN2A or either of these genes was detected in 14, 5 and 15 cases, respectively. The sensitivities of a pleural biopsy, pleural fluid cytology, hypermethylation of RARB2, hypermethylation of CDKN2A, or hypermethylation of either of the genes were 73.1%, 53.8%, 53.8%, 19.2%, and 57.7%, respectively; negative predictive values were 70.8%, 58.6%, 58.6%, 44.7%, and 60.7%, respectively. If both genes are considered together, the sensitivity and negative predictive value was lower than that for a pleural biopsy, but higher than that for pleural fluid cytology. The sensitivity of hypermethylation of the RARB2 gene for malignant pleural effusion was lower in small cell lung cancers than in non-small cell lung cancers. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that detection of hypermethylation of the RARB2 and CDKN2A genes showed a high specificity, and sensitivity was higher than for pleural fluid cytology. With a better understanding of the pathogenesis of lung cancer according to histological types at the molecular level, and if appropriate genes are selected for hypermethylation testing, more precise results may be obtained.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.267-278
• /
• 2011

Objectives: A great number of hazardous agents can be emitted from various types of art-creation in a fine arts college, but little data on exposure assessment has been published. A variety of processes encompassing toxic or non-toxic materials, tools, and components are involved in a sculptor work at a fine art college. The aim of this study was to assess exposure levels to particulates and noise during sculpture classes in a college of fine arts. Methods: Students in sculpture classes participated in this study. Mass, number, and surface area concentrations of particulates, noise level, temperature and relative humidity were monitored by both personal and area sampling during the tasks of metal, wood, and stone sculpting. Results: The number and surface concentration of particulates was the highest in the task of wood sculpting, followed by metal and stone work. The mass concentration of particulates was the highest in stone sculpting (personal GM 3.0 mg/$m^3$, GSD 3.0), followed by wood (personal GM 1.5 mg/$m^3$, GSD 1.8) and metal work (personal GM 0.95 mg/$m^3$, GSD 1.51) in that order. Occupational exposure limits (OEL) for particulates depends on the type of particulate. For wood dust, 86% (six subjects) of the personal samples and all area samples exceeded the Korean OEL for wood dust (1 mg/$m^3$), while 20% (two subjects) among stone sculpting students were exposed above the Korean OEL (10 mg/$m^3$). In contrast, metal sculpting did not exceed the OEL (5 mg/$m^3$). For noise level, metal sculpting students (Leq 95.1 dB(A) in the morning, 85.3 dB(A) in the afternoon) were exposed the most, followed by stone sculpting (88.3 dB(A)), and wood sculpting (84.8 dB(A)) in that order. Compared with the 90 dB(A) of the Korean OEL and 85 dB(A) of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' threshold limit value (ACGIH-TLV) for noise, 100% of the subjects (five subjects) and area samples during metal sculpting in the morning session exceeded both OELs, but only three subjects (60%) exceeded the ACGIH-TLV in the afternoon session. For stone sculpting, 50% (one subject) and 100% (two subjects) exceeded the Korean OEL and ACGIH-TLV, respectively, but the area sample did not exceed either OEL. During wood sculpting, two subjects (40%) exceeded ACGIH TLV. Conclusions: This work evaluated the sculptors' exposure to particulate matter and noise in fine art college, and revealed a poor working environment for the participating students. Effective measures should be supplemented by the administration of colleges.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.157-178
• /
• 2009

Corporate credit rating is a very important factor in the market for corporate debt. Information concerning corporate operations is often disseminated to market participants through the changes in credit ratings that are published by professional rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor's (S&P) and Moody's Investor Service. Since these agencies generally require a large fee for the service, and the periodically provided ratings sometimes do not reflect the default risk of the company at the time, it may be advantageous for bond-market participants to be able to classify credit ratings before the agencies actually publish them. As a result, it is very important for companies (especially, financial companies) to develop a proper model of credit rating. From a technical perspective, the credit rating constitutes a typical, multiclass, classification problem because rating agencies generally have ten or more categories of ratings. For example, S&P's ratings range from AAA for the highest-quality bonds to D for the lowest-quality bonds. The professional rating agencies emphasize the importance of analysts' subjective judgments in the determination of credit ratings. However, in practice, a mathematical model that uses the financial variables of companies plays an important role in determining credit ratings, since it is convenient to apply and cost efficient. These financial variables include the ratios that represent a company's leverage status, liquidity status, and profitability status. Several statistical and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques have been applied as tools for predicting credit ratings. Among them, artificial neural networks are most prevalent in the area of finance because of their broad applicability to many business problems and their preeminent ability to adapt. However, artificial neural networks also have many defects, including the difficulty in determining the values of the control parameters and the number of processing elements in the layer as well as the risk of over-fitting. Of late, because of their robustness and high accuracy, support vector machines (SVMs) have become popular as a solution for problems with generating accurate prediction. An SVM's solution may be globally optimal because SVMs seek to minimize structural risk. On the other hand, artificial neural network models may tend to find locally optimal solutions because they seek to minimize empirical risk. In addition, no parameters need to be tuned in SVMs, barring the upper bound for non-separable cases in linear SVMs. Since SVMs were originally devised for binary classification, however they are not intrinsically geared for multiclass classifications as in credit ratings. Thus, researchers have tried to extend the original SVM to multiclass classification. Hitherto, a variety of techniques to extend standard SVMs to multiclass SVMs (MSVMs) has been proposed in the literature Only a few types of MSVM are, however, tested using prior studies that apply MSVMs to credit ratings studies. In this study, we examined six different techniques of MSVMs: (1) One-Against-One, (2) One-Against-AIL (3) DAGSVM, (4) ECOC, (5) Method of Weston and Watkins, and (6) Method of Crammer and Singer. In addition, we examined the prediction accuracy of some modified version of conventional MSVM techniques. To find the most appropriate technique of MSVMs for corporate bond rating, we applied all the techniques of MSVMs to a real-world case of credit rating in Korea. The best application is in corporate bond rating, which is the most frequently studied area of credit rating for specific debt issues or other financial obligations. For our study the research data were collected from National Information and Credit Evaluation, Inc., a major bond-rating company in Korea. The data set is comprised of the bond-ratings for the year 2002 and various financial variables for 1,295 companies from the manufacturing industry in Korea. We compared the results of these techniques with one another, and with those of traditional methods for credit ratings, such as multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), multinomial logistic regression (MLOGIT), and artificial neural networks (ANNs). As a result, we found that DAGSVM with an ordered list was the best approach for the prediction of bond rating. In addition, we found that the modified version of ECOC approach can yield higher prediction accuracy for the cases showing clear patterns.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.17-25
• /
• 1970

Juice were extracted from fresh leaves of 70 species of plants growing in Korea by mincing and pressing the resulting pulp through a cotton cloth. Leaf protein concentrates could be prepared from many species of land and water plants that are at present economically unimportant. The choice of plants is of considerable important. Total-N, protein-N and pH determinations were made on the extracts, and total-N remaining in the fibre were calculated. Leaf protein concentrates were precipitated from the extracts at $75{\sim}80^{\circ}C$, and analysed total-N as protein-N of products. The present paper deals with the calculated yields of leaf protein concentrates from various plants, relations between yield of leaf protein concentrates and total-N of leaves, or pH of extracts, and the amino acid compositions of leaf protein concentrates. Results are summarized as follows. 1. Spinach and radish were the best sources of easily extractable, but good results were also obtained with indian mustard, kail, chenopod, red bean, cucumber, squash, houndberry, white flowered gourd, potato, Humulus japonicus, arrowroot and soybean as a good resources for the production of leaf protein concentrates. 2. In general, the greater the protein content of leaves the greater the yield of leaf protein concentrates. However, there are some plants difficult to make a adequate protein extraction by a simple mechanical process. 3. It was to be expected that leaf protein concentrates would be more extractable with the higher pH of extracts. There were a poor yield of the leaf protein concentrate in the pH values lower than 5.50 of the first extracts. 4. Protein content of the leaf protein concentrate shows marked differences, depending on species and season. It ranged between 29 to 80% of protein contents. However, the majority of plants yielded products containing more than 50% of protein. Products containing more than 75% of protein were obtained from two species of radish and indian mustard. Cabbage and Digitaria sanguinalis cilialis (summer) made products containing 29 to 32% of protein. 5. The amino acid composition of leaf protein concentrates was not greatly altered by species of plants. On an amino acid compositional basis, the leaf protein concentrate has a favorable balance of essential and non-essential amino acids, the only exception being methionine, which was usually low in all cases.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.328-333
• /
• 2002

Purpose : To analyze the treatment results of concurrent chemoradiation with oral 5-FU plus Gemcitabine or Paclitaxel for unresectable pancreatic cancer. Materials & Methods : The patients, who were diagnosed by imaging modalities or by explo-laparotomy, were treated with concurrent chemoradiation. Radiotherapy was delivered to primary tumor and regional lymph nodes, and the total dose was 45 Gy. Patients received Gemcitabine $1,000\;mg/m^2$ or Paclitaxel $50\;mg/m^2$ weekly and oral 5-FU daily The total number of cycles of chemotherapy ranged from 1 to 39 (median, 11 cycles). The follow-up period ranged from 6 to 36 months, Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results : Fifty-four patients between Jan. 1999 to Nov. 2001 were included in this study. Forty-two patients who completed the planned treatment were included in this analysis. The patients' age ranged from 37 to 73 years (median, 50 years) and the male to female ratio was 30:12. Treatment was interrupted for 12 patients due to: disease progression for 6 $(50\%)$, poor performance status for 4 $(33.3\%)$, intercurrent disease for 1 $(8.3\%)$, and refusal for 1 $(8.3\%)$. Response evaluation was possible for 40 patients. One patient gained complete remission and 24 patients gained partial remission, hence the response rate was $59\%$. The survival rates were $46.7\%\;and\;17.0\%$ at 1 year and 2 years, respectively with a median survival time of 12 months. Patients treated with Paclitaxel showed superior outcomes compared to those patients treated with Gemcitabine, in terms of both response rate and survival rate although this difference was not statistically significant. Grade III or IV hematologic toxicity was shown in 8 patients $(19\%)$, while grade III or IV non-hematologic toxicity was shown in 5 patients $(12\%)$. Conclusion : Concurrent chemoradiation with oral 5-FU and Gemcitabine or Paclitaxel improves both the response rate and survival rate in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer. A prospective study should be investigated in order to improve both the patient selection and the treatment outcome as well as to reduce the toxicity.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.387-395
• /
• 1993

To identify pretreatment prognostic factors in carcinoma of the uterine cervix, a retrospective analysis was undertaken of 510 patients treated with curative radiation therapy in Seoul National University Hospital during the 7 year period, from March 1979 through December 1986. According to FIGO classification,35 patients were stage I B,89 were stage IIA, 232 were stage IIB,8 were stage IIIA, 134 were IIIB, and 12 were stage IVA. Five year locoregional control (LRC) rates in stage I B, II A, II B, IIIA, IIIB, and IVA were $79\%,78\%,70\%,58\%,51\%\;and\;27\%,$ respectively. Five year disease free survival (DFS) rates were $76\%,67\%,60\$,57\%,40\%,\;and\;25\%,$ respectively. Overall survival (OS) rates at five years were $82\%,72\%,67\%,67\%,51\%,\;and\;33\%,$ respectively. In univariate analyses, stage, age, initial hemoglobin level, type of histology, tumor size, and several CT findings including pelvic lymph node (LN) status, paraaortic lymph node (PAN) status, extent of parametrial invasion, bladder invasion, and rectal invasion were significant factors in terms of LRC. All these factors and elevation of BUN or creatinine were associated with DFS. In terms of overall survival, stage, initial hemoglobin level, type of histology, tumor size, elevation of BUN or creatinine, and five CT findings associated with LRC were prognostically significant. In multivariate analysis excluding CT findings, stage IV disease, non-squamous histology, and tumor size $\ge$4 cm were associated with poor LRC and DFS. Stage IV disease and tumor size significantly affected OS. in multivariate analysis including CT findings, histology, tumor size, and pelvic LN status on CT were uniformly significant in terms of LRC, DFS, and 05, PAN status on CT affected overall survival only.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.138-146
• /
• 2006

To understand the status of water quality and work out a suitable countermeasures in Seonakdong watershed which has poor agro- environmental condition because of severe point and non-point source pollution by popularized city and near sea, we investigated the pollution sources and water quality from '03 and '05 and the result were mapped with GIS and RS for end-users's convenient comprehense and conjunction of water quality and geological data. The most degraded tributary was Hogeo stream which was affected directly by highly popularized Gimhae city, the main pollution source of the watershed. The pollution of tributaries in watershed increased the T-N of main body that reached over 4 mg/L during dry season. Pyeonggang stream and the lower part of main water way were suffered from high salt contents induced near sea and the EC value of those area were increased to 2.25 dS/m. The delivered loads of T-N and T-P were largest in Joman river as 56% and 61% of total delivered loads 1mm tributaries because of lots of stream flow. When Management mandate for irrigation water in Seonakdong river watershed was mapped for estimating integrated water quality as the basis of classification of EC and T-N contents in water, Hogeo and Shineo catchments were showed the requiring countermeasures none against nutrients hazard and Pyeonggang catchment was the vulnerable zone against nutrients and salts hazard. As the result, Seonakdong watershed had very various status of water quality by characteristics of catchments and countermeasures for improving water quality and crop productivity safely should changed depend on that.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.156-162
• /
• 1995

This study was carried out to select the useful mutants among 20 lines treated with mutagen, gamma ray. These materials were treated with 15, 20, 25 and 30Krads, respectively and sowed at experimental field of College of Agriculture on 27th May, 1995. Items surveyed were germination rate and loss of chlorophyll at seedling stages, abnormal reproductive organs, discordance of flowering times and stem and ear height at ripening stages. The germination rate of lines treated with 15 Krad was different. The germination rate of the IK1, IK2 and Sinki lines were high, while the IK3, A632 and FR140 lines were very low. At same dose level, the germination rate of both IK1/H26 and Puyo synthetic variety were different; the germination rate of the IK1/H26 was high as above 70% at all treatments, while that of the Puyo synthetic variety was very poor at above 20 Krad. Generally stem adn ear height of the IK1/H26 were gradually decreased as the dose of mutagen increased, but there was no difference in stem and ear height of the IK1/H26 when this line was treated with 20Krad. The stem and ear height of lines treated with 15 Krad were shown to be decreased than those of check with non-treatment. The number of tiller of tillering lines were not greatly affected by ${\gamma}$-ray treatment.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.383-402
• /
• 1997

The author analyzed 155 cases of Facial Palsy, excluding lesions caused by cerebrovascular attacks, who were treated in the Kwang-ju Oriental Medical Hospital of Wonkwang University from March 1996 to September 1996. I've examined the 155 cases in the view of the etiologic distributions, the age, the relationship of the sex and paralytic side, attended symptoms and analyzed 95 cases who were treated over ten times in the view of the ratio of recovery according to the age, anatomic focus, the relations of sex and paralytic side. The following results are obtained. 1. The ratio of punghan(風寒) was $20.64\%$(32 cases), overwork was $18.70\%$(29 cases), stress was $6.44\%$(10 cases), excessive drinking was $3.23\%$(5 cases), teeth pain was $1.93\%$(3 cases), and idiopathy was $38.05\%$(59) and etc. 2. The ratio of stylomastoid pain was $15.48\%$(24 cases), auricular pain was $10.32\%$(16 cases), headache was $4.51\%$(7 cases), eyedried was $4.51\%$(7 cases), taste paralysis was $2.57\%$(4 cases), tinnitus was $2.57\%$(4 cases) and non-significant symptoms was $50.97\%$(79) and etc. 3. The ratio of 2th and 5th decade were $20.00\%$(31 cases), 4th decade was $18.71\%$(29 cases), 3th decade was $16.71\%$(26 cases), 6th decade was $11.61\%$(18 cases), teenagers in $5.81\%$(9 cases), over seventy and under teenagers were $3.23\%$(5 cases), and infant was $0.65\%$(1 case). 4. The ratio of the male-right was $28.39\%$(44 cases), female-right was $25.82\%$(40 cases), male-left was $23.23\%$(36 cases), female-left was $20.65\%$(32 cases) and male-both side was $1.94\%$(3 cases) in order. 5. Topographically, The ratio of the infrachordal lesion was $72.90\%$(113 cases), transgeniculate lesion was $16.13\%$(25 cases), suprageniculate lesion was $5.81\%$(9 cases), infrastapedial lesion was $3.87\%$(6 cases) and suprastapedial lesion was $1.29\%$(2 cases) in order. 6. When we examined the degree of recovery about the 95 patients who were treated over ten times after on attack, normal improvement was seen in $46.32\%$(44 cases), excellent in $7.37\%$(7 cases), good in $12.63\%$(12 cases), fair in $13.68\%$(13 cases), poor in $20.00\%$(19 cases). The total remedial value of the 95 patients who were treated over ten times was revealed $61.58\%$. 7. When we examined the 95 patients who were treated over ten times, the remedial value of the infant was $50.00\%$, under teenagers $43.75\%$, teenagers $37.50\%$, 2th decade $56.82\%$, 3th decade $64.06\%$, 4th decade $55.00\%$, 5th decade $73.53\%$, 6th decade $77.50\%$, over seventieth $68.75\%$. The remedial value of 3th decade, 5th decade, 6th decade, 7th decade and over seventieth were higher than the total remedial value($61.58\%$) 8. In the point of topographical lesion, when we examined the 95 patients who were treated over ten times, the remedial value of infrachordal lesion was $66.78\%$, infrastapedial lesion $58.33\%$, suprastapedial lesion $50.00\%$, transgeniculate lesion $48.44\%$, suprageniculate lesion $31.25\%$, in order. Only the remedial value of Infrachordal($66.78\%$) was higher than the total remedial value($61.58\%$). 9. In the point of the relationship of the sex and the paralytic side, when we examined the 95 patients who were treated over ten times, the remedial value of male-left was $57.29\%$, male-right $61.54\%$, male-both side $58.33\$%, female-left $57.81\%$ and female-right $68.27\%$. Only the remedial value of female-right($68.27\%$) was higher than the total remedial value($61.58\%$). These results demonstrated that in the point of prognostic view there was more concerned with the topographical lesion, body condition than the traditional rule of sex-paralytic relationship that man is awed left paralysis and woman right paralysis.