• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.161-170
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• 2018

The epidemic of disorders associated with synthetic stimulants, such as methamphetamine (MA) and amphetamine (AP), is a health, social, legal, and financial problem. Owing to the high potential of their abuse and addiction, reliable analytical methods are required to detect and identify MA, AP, and their metabolites in biological samples. Thus, a dilute-and-shoot liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrophotometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed for simultaneous determination of MA, 4-hydroxymethamphetamine (4HMA), AP, and 4-hydroxyamphetamine (4HA) in urine. Urine sample ($100{\mu}L$) was mixed with $50{\mu}L$ of mobile phase consisting of 0.4 % formic acid and methanol and $50{\mu}L$ of working internal-standard solution. Aliquots of $8{\mu}L$ diluted urine was injected into the LC-MS/MS system. For all analytes, chromatographic separation was performed using a C18 reversed-phase column with gradient elution and a total run time of 5 min. The identification and quantification were performed by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). Linear least-squares regression was conducted to generate a calibration curve, with $1/x^2$ as the weighting factor. The linear ranges were 2.0-200, 1.0-800, and 10-2500 ng/mL for 4HA and 4HMA, AP, and MA, respectively. The inter- and intraday precisions were within 6.6 %, whereas the inter- and intraday accuracies ranged from -14.9 to 11.3 %. The low limits of quantification were 2.0 ng/mL (4HA and 4HMA), 1.0 ng/mL (AP), and 10 ng/mL (MA). The proposed method exhibited satisfactory selectivity, dilution integrity, matrix effect, and stability, which are required for validation. Moreover, the purification efficiency of high-speed centrifugation was clearly higher than 6-15 % for QC samples (n=5), which was higher than that of the membrane-filtration method. The applicability of the proposed method was tested by forensic analysis of urine samples from drug abusers.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.34-63
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• 2003

Occupational and environmental exposure to manganese continue to represent a realistic public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Increased utility of MMT as a replacement for lead in gasoline creates a new source of environmental exposure to manganese. It is, therefore, imperative that further attention be directed at molecular neurotoxicology of manganese. A Need for a more complete understanding of manganese functions both in health and disease, and for a better defined role of manganese in iron metabolism is well substantiated. The in-depth studies in this area should provide novel information on the potential public health risk associated with manganese exposure. It will also explore novel mechanism(s) of manganese-induced neurotoxicity from the angle of Mn-Fe interaction at both systemic and cellular levels. More importantly, the result of these studies will offer clues to the etiology of IPD and its associated abnormal iron and energy metabolism. To achieve these goals, however, a number of outstanding questions remain to be resolved. First, one must understand what species of manganese in the biological matrices plays critical role in the induction of neurotoxicity, Mn(II) or Mn(III)? In our own studies with aconitase, Cpx-I, and Cpx-II, manganese was added to the buffers as the divalent salt, i.e., $MnCl_2$. While it is quite reasonable to suggest that the effect on aconitase and/or Cpx-I activites was associated with the divalent species of manganese, the experimental design does not preclude the possibility that a manganese species of higher oxidation state, such as Mn(III), is required for the induction of these effects. The ionic radius of Mn(III) is 65 ppm, which is similar to the ionic size to Fe(III) (65 ppm at the high spin state) in aconitase (Nieboer and Fletcher, 1996; Sneed et al., 1953). Thus it is plausible that the higher oxidation state of manganese optimally fits into the geometric space of aconitase, serving as the active species in this enzymatic reaction. In the current literature, most of the studies on manganese toxicity have used Mn(II) as $MnCl_2$ rather than Mn(III). The obvious advantage of Mn(II) is its good water solubility, which allows effortless preparation in either in vivo or in vitro investigation, whereas almost all of the Mn(III) salt products on the comparison between two valent manganese species nearly infeasible. Thus a more intimate collaboration with physiochemists to develop a better way to study Mn(III) species in biological matrices is pressingly needed. Second, In spite of the special affinity of manganese for mitochondria and its similar chemical properties to iron, there is a sound reason to postulate that manganese may act as an iron surrogate in certain iron-requiring enzymes. It is, therefore, imperative to design the physiochemical studies to determine whether manganese can indeed exchange with iron in proteins, and to understand how manganese interacts with tertiary structure of proteins. The studies on binding properties (such as affinity constant, dissociation parameter, etc.) of manganese and iron to key enzymes associated with iron and energy regulation would add additional information to our knowledge of Mn-Fe neurotoxicity. Third, manganese exposure, either in vivo or in vitro, promotes cellular overload of iron. It is still unclear, however, how exactly manganese interacts with cellular iron regulatory processes and what is the mechanism underlying this cellular iron overload. As discussed above, the binding of IRP-I to TfR mRNA leads to the expression of TfR, thereby increasing cellular iron uptake. The sequence encoding TfR mRNA, in particular IRE fragments, has been well-documented in literature. It is therefore possible to use molecular technique to elaborate whether manganese cytotoxicity influences the mRNA expression of iron regulatory proteins and how manganese exposure alters the binding activity of IPRs to TfR mRNA. Finally, the current manganese investigation has largely focused on the issues ranging from disposition/toxicity study to the characterization of clinical symptoms. Much less has been done regarding the risk assessment of environmenta/occupational exposure. One of the unsolved, pressing puzzles is the lack of reliable biomarker(s) for manganese-induced neurologic lesions in long-term, low-level exposure situation. Lack of such a diagnostic means renders it impossible to assess the human health risk and long-term social impact associated with potentially elevated manganese in environment. The biochemical interaction between manganese and iron, particularly the ensuing subtle changes of certain relevant proteins, provides the opportunity to identify and develop such a specific biomarker for manganese-induced neuronal damage. By learning the molecular mechanism of cytotoxicity, one will be able to find a better way for prediction and treatment of manganese-initiated neurodegenerative diseases.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.248-256
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• 2011

Purpose: Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is the term used to designate a fetus that has not reached its growth potential. However it is difficult to make a distinction between infants who are constitutionally small and growth restricted small. In the present study, we focused on the clinical characteristics and the hematologic value in small for gestational age (SGA) infants and discussed how to distinguish intrauterine growth restricted infants from constitutionally small infants. Methods: SGA infants that did not have any other risk factors for IUGR in the medical record except maternal hypertension (HTN) and diabetes mellitus (DM) and born at the Seoul St Mary's Hospital and Yeouido St Mary`s Hospital from January 2007 to July 2010 were included. The frequency of IUGR is higher in the pregnancy with medical problem, and in preterm infants. Therefore, the data was categorized by maternal disease and gestational age. We assessed the clinical data and the hematologic value. Results: The leukocyte count and the platelet count were lower in the SGA with maternal HTN group and the preterm SGA group. There was no difference in the clinical data and the prognosis resulted from maternal HTN and maternal DM. However, the hematologic difference was not found in the categorization of the preterm SGA group as maternal diasease. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that it is possible the low leukocyte count and the low platelet count are the characteristic hematologic features in growth restricted small for gestational age infants.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.5_1
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• pp.571-585
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• 2017

The number of spaceborne optical sensors including red-edge band has been increasing since red-edge band is known to be effective to enhance the information content on biophysical characteristics of vegetation. Considering that the Agriculture and Forestry Satellite is planning to carry an imaging sensor having red-edge band, we tried to analyze the current status and potential of red-edge band. As a case study, we analyzed the effect of using red-edge band and tried to find the optimum band width and wavelength region of the red-edge band to estimate leaf area index (LAI) of very dense tree canopy. Field spectral measurements were conducted from April to October over two tree species (white oak and pitch pine) having high LAI. Using the spectral measurement data, total 355 red-edge bands reflectance were simulated by varying five band width (10 nm, 20 nm, 30 nm, 40 nm, 50 nm) and 71 central wavelength. Two red-edge based spectral indices(NDRE, CIRE) were derived using the simulated red-edge band and compared with the LAI of two tree species. Both NDRE and CIRE showed higher correlation coefficients with the LAI than NDVI. This would be an alternative to overcome the limitation of the NDVI saturation problem that NDVI has not been effective to estimate LAI over very dense canopy situation. There was no significant difference among five band widths of red-edge band in relation to LAI. The highest correlation coefficients were obtained at the red-edge band of center wavelength near the 720 nm for the white oak and 710 nm for the pitch pine. To select the optimum band width and wavelength region of the red-edge band, further studies are necessary to examine the relationship with other biophysical variables, such as chlorophyll, nitrogen, water content, and biomass.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.628-636
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• 1999

Background: Recent advances in understanding the anatomy of the complete atrioventricular septal defect(including right-dominant unbalanced atrioventricular septal defect) have led to alternative methods of repairing these defects. Material and Method: From May 1997 to July 1998, 8 consecutive infants(age range, 2 to 28 months, mean body weight 6.0$\pm$2.2 kg) received a single-stage intracardiac repair of the complete atrioventricular septal defect with modified surgical methods. Depending on the specific anatomic structure, the procedure was simplified in 3 patients by a direct closure of the ventricular element of the defect(Group I). Two patients judged unsuitable for direct closure due to a potential left ventricular outflow tract obstruction had received a standard two-patch repair(Group II). The remaining 3 patients with right-dominant unbalanced complete atrioventricular septal defect underwent biventricular repair; to enlarge the orifice of the left atrioventricular valve, the ventricular septal patch was placed slightly more to the right of the ventricular crest, a left sided bridging leaflet was augmented with an autologous pericardial patch, and the leaflet was repaired with a double- orifice(Group III . Result: In all 8 patients, the postoperative echocardiography demonstrated good hemodynamics. Seven patients were weaned from the ventilators after a mean 3$\pm$1 days, and 1 patient was weaned after 24 days due to a reoperation and emphysematous lung problem. A reoperation was performed in 1 patient for progressive left atrioventricular valve regurgitation due to leaflet tearing. There were no early and late mortalities. At the time of the latest review, judging from the echocardiographic criteria, left atrioventricular valve stenosis was mild in 1 patient(mean pressure gradient 6.5 mmHg, 13.5%), left atrioventricular valve regurgitation was absent or grade I in 7 patients(87.5%). The right atrioventricular valve regurgitation was absent or grade I in all 8 patients(100%). Conclusion: Infants with complete atrioventricular septal defect were treated with either a simplified approach with direct closure of the ventricular element of the defect or a modified surgical technique for a right-dominant unbalanced atrioventricular septal defect, depending on the anatomic structure. The results were no operative mortalities and low morbidity.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.147-157
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• 2010

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to propose appropriate strategic directions and road maps for successful achievement of programs preventing winter disease in the summer. Methods : Details on programs preventing winter disease in the summer such as clear concept, theoretical basis, current status, intervention or available prescriptions and indication/contraindication/caution were prepared through the related journal review, upon which an observational study was devised and done for simulation to find out even a trivial problem and to guarantee the safety beforehand. The experimental group was divided into 5 groups by the size of pill and the way ginger is treated; 1cm pill with ginger group, 3cm pill group without ginger, 3cm pill group dipped into ginger, 3cm pill group applying ginger to acupoints and 3cm pill group with ginger Results 1. program preventing winter disease in the summer was defined as representative winter diseases such as common cold, influenza, chronic asthma, chronic bronchitis, allergic rhinitis, emphysema, chronic gastritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and preventive care in the summer, reinforcing deficient yang qi of five viscera by using exuberant yang qi from summer heat. 2. It was based upon historically established theories which is 'nourishing yang qi in the spring and summer', 'long summer, namely rainy spell in the summer overwhelms the winter, because of earth winning water according to the five phases theory' and 'To replenish yang qi is major principle to treat winter diseases, which can be most appropriately and timely applied to the patient with deficient yang qi of five viscera inherently, especially in the three dog days of the summer, because of exuberant exterior yang qi and deficient interior yang qi in the five viscera'. 3. In the adjacent China and Taiwan, acupoint applying method in the three dog days named 'San Fu Tie' have been stirring a boom throughout the nation, in which Xiaochuan Gao was used as a basic prescription and it mainly was applied at bilateral $BL_{13}$, $_{15}$ and $_{17}$ for about 4 hours. As far as domestic current status, the necessity of adopting the above method prior to Herbal formula was also recognised, because not a few koreans have apprehension for the safety of it including medicinal herbs and are reluctant to take it any more due to negative advertisement of narrow minded doctors' association. 4. Indication of acupoint applying method in the three dog days included most of winter diseases such as common cold, influenza, chronic asthma, chronic bronchitis, allergic rhinitis, emphysema, chronic gastritis. contraindication was pregnant woman and the weak such as infants and the old. More attention was paid to grasp firmly the normal reaction following the treatment for preventing side effect and teasing blister. recommendation was also given to abstain from food inducing phlegm and dampness such as meat, shrimp and crab as well as cold drinks and foods 5. In the simulation observational study based upon the above findings following review the related articles, no blister was shown on the acupoints icluding bilateral $BL_{13}$, $_{15}$ and $_{17}$ in every experimental group during 24hr observation following the acupoint applying treatment with pills made by modified and devised prescription. At 4 hr, the effectiveness of it reached a peak showing redness and mild tenderness and there is little difference between groups 3cm pills groups regardless of the way ginger was treated. abdominal distention and growling was found in all the volunteers during the treatment at CV 8. Strategic directions and road maps : Through successful fulfillment of the program preventing winter disease in the summer, Korean traditional medicine should be integrated into mainstream national health care services. Cultural access was thought to be as important as Scientific EBM approach. First of all, To evoke potential cultural homogeneity from campaigns and press advertisement was needed for promoting public awareness about preventing winter disease in the summer by enhancing immunity via acupoint applying treatment in the three dog days, and then indigenous name as Sambokcheop, protocol, Clinical Research Form for data collection of it should be developed and prepared. Once the first step was taken this summer, through a thorough data collection and scrutinized scientific evaluation, drawbacks should be compensted for and the efficacy and safety should be substantiated.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.111-121
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• 2009

Background: Osteosarcoma is one of the most common primary malignant tumors of bone occurring mainly in children and adolescents. Although surgery combined with chemotherapy has markedly improved patient survival during the last years, the use of anticancer drugs is still associated with serious problem, such as the frequent acquisition of drug-resistant phenotypes and occurrence of "secondary malignancies". Several solid tumors display enhanced expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and recently clinical trials have been initiated on MMP-inhibitors. On the other hand, bisphosphonates (BPs) are inhibitors of bone resorption, and widely used to treat osteoclast-mediated bone diseases. Also they appear to possess direct antitumor activity. Methods: One osteosarcoma cell line (U2OS) was treated with ibandronate (0, 0.1, 1, $10{\mu}M$) for 48 hours. Cell viabilities were determined using MTT assay, the mRNA levels of MMP-2 and MT1-MMP were detected by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, the amount of MMP-2 and MT1-MMP protein were measured by Westernblot, the activities of MMP-2 were observed by Gelatin zymography, and Matrigel invasion assays were used to investigate the invasive potential of osteosarcoma cell lines before and after ibandronate treatment. Results: The invasiveness of U2OS cell line was reduced dose-dependently following 48 hour treatment of up to $10{\mu}M$ of the ibandronate at which concentration no cytotoxicity occurred. Furthermore, the gelatinolytic activities and protein and mRNA levels of MMP-2 and MT1-MMP were also suppressed by increasing ibandronate concentrations. Conclusion: Given that MMP-2 is instrumental in tumor cell invasion, it is very likely that the reduction in osteosarcoma cell invasion by ibandronate is a consequence, at least in part, of suppressed expression of both MMP-2 and MT1-MMP. Isolation of a molecule (s) responsible for the bisphosphonate inhibition of tumor cell invasion would pave the way for the development of a new generation of metastasis inhibitors.

• Strategy21
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• s.32
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• pp.123-159
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• 2013

The purpose of this research paper is to re-valuate the factors that affected the Royal Navy's rearmament and preparation for war by conducting analysis on the discussion held in the Britain on the strategic priorities and Navy's coping measures adopted during the interwar period. After the end of the WWI, each of the military arms of the Britain faced significant difficulty in securing budget and increasing their military power all throughout the interwar period, and the Navy was not an exception. The WWII that got started on September 1939 was the turning point in which this difficulty led to full-fledged crisis. Immensely many criticisms followed after the war and problems were identified when it comes to the Royal Navy's performance during the war. This type of effort to identify problem led to the attempt to analyze whether Royal Navy's preparation for war and rearmament policy during interwar period were adequate, and to identify the root causes of failure. Existing studies sought to find the root cause of failed rearmament from external factors such as the deterioration of the Britain itself or pressure from the Treasury Department to cut the budget for national defense, or sought to detect problems from the development of wrong strategies by the Navy. However, Royal Navy's failed preparation for the war during interwar period is not the result of one or two separate factors. Instead, it resulted due to the diverse factors and situations that the Britain was facing at the time, and due to intricate and complex interaction of these factors. Meanwhile, this research paper focused on the context characterized by 'strategic selection and setting up of priorities' among the various factors to conduct analysis on the Navy's rearmament by linking it with the discussion held at the time on setting up strategic priorities, and sought to demonstrate that the Navy Department's inadequate counter-measures developed during this process waned Royal Navy's position. After the end of WWI, each of the military arms continued to compete for the limited resources and budget all throughout the interwar period, and this type of competition amidst the situation in which the economic situation of Britain was still unstable, made prioritization when it comes to the allocation of resources and setting up of the priorities when it comes to the military power build-up, inevitable. Amidst this situation, the RAF was able to secure resources first and foremost, encouraged by the conviction of some politicians who were affected by the 'theory of aerial threat' and who believed that curtailing potential attack with the Air Force would be means to secure national security at comparatively lower cost. In response, Navy successfully defended the need for the existence of Navy despite the advancement of the aerial power, by emphasizing that the Britain's livelihood depends on trade and on the maintenance of maritime traffic. Despite this counter-measuring logic, however, Navy's role was still limited to the defense of overseas territory and to the fleet run-off instead of sea traffic route production when it comes to the specific power build-up plan, and did not understand the situation in which financial and economic factors gained greater importance when it comes to the setting up of strategic priorities. As a result, Navy's plan to build its powers was met with continual resistance of the Treasury Department, and lost the opportunity to re-gain the status of 'senior service' that it had enjoyed in the past during the competition for strategic prioritization. Given that the strategic and economic situation that Korea faces today is not very different from that of the Britain during the interwar period, our Navy too should leverage the lessons learned from the Royal Navy to make the effort to secure viable position when it comes to the setting of priorities in case of national defense strategy by presenting the basis on why maritime coping should be prioritized among the numerous other threats, and by developing the measures for securing the powers needed effectively amidst the limited resources.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.514-520
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• 2014

In this study, the production potential of alternative coagulant ($Al_2(SO_4)_3$ solution) having the identical coagulation activity with respect to the commercial coagulant was investigated. The raw material of alternative coagulant was a spent catalyst including aluminium (waste activated alumina) generated in the manufacturing process of the polymer. The alternative coagulant was produced through a series of processes: 1) intense heat and grinding, 2) chemical polymerization and substitution with $H_2SO_4$ solution, 3) dissolution and dilution and 4) settling and separation. To determine the optimal operating conditions in the lab-scale autoclave and dissolver, the content of $Al_2O_3$ in alternative coagulant was analyzed according to changes of the purity of sulfuric acid, reaction temperature, injection ratio of sulfuric acid and water in the dissolver. The results showed that the alternative coagulant having the $Al_2O_3$ content of 7~8% was produced under the optimal conditions such as $H_2SO_4$ purity of 50%, reaction temperature of $120^{\circ}C$, injection ratio of $H_2SO_4$ of 5 times and injection ratio of water of 2.3 times in dissolver. In order to evaluate the coagulation activity of the alternative coagulant, the Jar-test was conducted to the effluent in aerobic reactor. As a result, in both cases of Al/P mole of 1.5 and 2.0, the coagulation activity of the alternative coagulant was higher than that of the existing commercial coagulant. When the production costs were compared between the alternative and commercial coagulant through economic analysis, the production cost reduction of about 50% was available in the case of the alternative coagulant. In addition, it was identified that the alternative coagulant could be applied at field wastewater treatment plant without environmental problem through ecological toxicity testing.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.157-176
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• 2018

The purpose of this research is to develop a detection model for companies designated as administrative issue in KOSDAQ market using financial data. Administration issue designates the companies with high potential for delisting, which gives them time to overcome the reasons for the delisting under certain restrictions of the Korean stock market. It acts as an alarm to inform investors and market participants of which companies are likely to be delisted and warns them to make safe investments. Despite this importance, there are relatively few studies on administration issues prediction model in comparison with the lots of studies on bankruptcy prediction model. Therefore, this study develops and verifies the detection model of the companies designated as administrative issue using financial data of KOSDAQ companies. In this study, logistic regression and decision tree are proposed as the data mining models for detecting administrative issues. According to the results of the analysis, the logistic regression model predicted the companies designated as administrative issue using three variables - ROE(Earnings before tax), Cash flows/Shareholder's equity, and Asset turnover ratio, and its overall accuracy was 86% for the validation dataset. The decision tree (Classification and Regression Trees, CART) model applied the classification rules using Cash flows/Total assets and ROA(Net income), and the overall accuracy reached 87%. Implications of the financial indictors selected in our logistic regression and decision tree models are as follows. First, ROE(Earnings before tax) in the logistic detection model shows the profit and loss of the business segment that will continue without including the revenue and expenses of the discontinued business. Therefore, the weakening of the variable means that the competitiveness of the core business is weakened. If a large part of the profits is generated from one-off profit, it is very likely that the deterioration of business management is further intensified. As the ROE of a KOSDAQ company decreases significantly, it is highly likely that the company can be delisted. Second, cash flows to shareholder's equity represents that the firm's ability to generate cash flow under the condition that the financial condition of the subsidiary company is excluded. In other words, the weakening of the management capacity of the parent company, excluding the subsidiary's competence, can be a main reason for the increase of the possibility of administrative issue designation. Third, low asset turnover ratio means that current assets and non-current assets are ineffectively used by corporation, or that asset investment by corporation is excessive. If the asset turnover ratio of a KOSDAQ-listed company decreases, it is necessary to examine in detail corporate activities from various perspectives such as weakening sales or increasing or decreasing inventories of company. Cash flow / total assets, a variable selected by the decision tree detection model, is a key indicator of the company's cash condition and its ability to generate cash from operating activities. Cash flow indicates whether a firm can perform its main activities(maintaining its operating ability, repaying debts, paying dividends and making new investments) without relying on external financial resources. Therefore, if the index of the variable is negative(-), it indicates the possibility that a company has serious problems in business activities. If the cash flow from operating activities of a specific company is smaller than the net profit, it means that the net profit has not been cashed, indicating that there is a serious problem in managing the trade receivables and inventory assets of the company. Therefore, it can be understood that as the cash flows / total assets decrease, the probability of administrative issue designation and the probability of delisting are increased. In summary, the logistic regression-based detection model in this study was found to be affected by the company's financial activities including ROE(Earnings before tax). However, decision tree-based detection model predicts the designation based on the cash flows of the company.