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Study on the Consequence Effect Analysis & Process Hazard Review at Gas Release from Hydrogen Fluoride Storage Tank (최근 불산 저장탱크에서의 가스 누출시 공정위험 및 결과영향 분석)

  • Ko, JaeSun
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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    • v.9 no.4
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    • pp.449-461
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    • 2013
  • As the hydrofluoric acid leak in Gumi-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do or hydrochloric acid leak in Ulsan, Gyeongsangnam-do demonstrated, chemical related accidents are mostly caused by large amounts of volatile toxic substances leaking due to the damages of storage tank or pipe lines of transporter. Safety assessment is the most important concern because such toxic material accidents cause human and material damages to the environment and atmosphere of the surrounding area. Therefore, in this study, a hydrofluoric acid leaked from a storage tank was selected as the study example to simulate the leaked substance diffusing into the atmosphere and result analysis was performed through the numerical Analysis and diffusion simulation of ALOHA(Areal Location of Hazardous Atmospheres). the results of a qualitative evaluation of HAZOP (Hazard Operability)was looked at to find that the flange leak, operation delay due to leakage of the valve and the hose, and toxic gas leak were danger factors. Possibility of fire from temperature, pressure and corrosion, nitrogen supply overpressure and toxic leak from internal corrosion of tank or pipe joints were also found to be high. ALOHA resulting effects were a little different depending on the input data of Dense Gas Model, however, the wind direction and speed, rather than atmospheric stability, played bigger role. Higher wind speed affected the diffusion of contaminant. In term of the diffusion concentration, both liquid and gas leaks resulted in almost the same $LC_{50}$ and ALOHA AEGL-3(Acute Exposure Guidline Level) values. Each scenarios showed almost identical results in ALOHA model. Therefore, a buffer distance of toxic gas can be determined by comparing the numerical analysis and the diffusion concentration to the IDLH(Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health). Such study will help perform the risk assessment of toxic leak more efficiently and be utilized in establishing community emergency response system properly.

Prevalence and clinical significance of the positive antinuclear antibody in children with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (소아 특발혈소판감소 자색반병 환자에서 항핵항체 검사의 양성률 및 임상적 의의)

  • Jun, So Eun;Park, Seong Sik;Lim, Young Tak
    • Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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    • v.51 no.11
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    • pp.1217-1221
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    • 2008
  • Purpose : An association between idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been recognized for decades because thrombocytopenia is the first manifestation in some patients with SLE. However, the risk of later development of SLE in childhood ITP is currently unknown. We retrospectively evaluated the incidence and clinical significance of the positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) in children with acute ITP. Methods : This study was retrospectively performed to review the clinical and laboratory characteristics in 77 children diagnosed to have acute ITP and admitted to the Pusan National University Hospital between January 2003 and December 2006. Patients tested positive for ANA were regularly followed-up for at least 12 months for symptoms indicative of SLE. Results : Seventy-seven children were included in the study; 38 males (49.4%) and 39 females (50.5%), the mean age was 4.5 years. Sixteen (20.8%) ITP patients had a positive ANA, with a median titer of 1:320. The mean age of the patients with positive ANA was 9.3 years, which is much older than 3.3 years for patients with negative ANA (P<0.05). The positive ANA group was predominantly female (81.3%) compared to the negative ANA group (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in mean platelet counts between both groups. No statistically significant difference was found in ANA positivity and progression to chronic ITP or SLE. After the median follow-up of 32 months, SLE was diagnosed only in one ITP patient with positive ANA. Conclusion : Our data demonstrated that ANA positivity is often found in children with acute ITP. Large-scale studies should be considered to determine the significance of ANA positivity in childhood ITP for the later development of SLE.

A Study about the Direction and Responsibility of the National Intelligence Agency to the Cyber Security Issues (사이버 안보에 대한 국가정보기구의 책무와 방향성에 대한 고찰)

  • Han, Hee-Won
    • Korean Security Journal
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    • no.39
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    • pp.319-353
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    • 2014
  • Cyber-based technologies are now ubiquitous around the glob and are emerging as an "instrument of power" in societies, and are becoming more available to a country's opponents, who may use it to attack, degrade, and disrupt communications and the flow of information. The globe-spanning range of cyberspace and no national borders will challenge legal systems and complicate a nation's ability to deter threats and respond to contingencies. Through cyberspace, competitive powers will target industry, academia, government, as well as the military in the air, land, maritime, and space domains of our nations. Enemies in cyberspace will include both states and non-states and will range from the unsophisticated amateur to highly trained professional hackers. In much the same way that airpower transformed the battlefield of World War II, cyberspace has fractured the physical barriers that shield a nation from attacks on its commerce and communication. Cyberthreats to the infrastructure and other assets are a growing concern to policymakers. In 2013 Cyberwarfare was, for the first time, considered a larger threat than Al Qaeda or terrorism, by many U.S. intelligence officials. The new United States military strategy makes explicit that a cyberattack is casus belli just as a traditional act of war. The Economist describes cyberspace as "the fifth domain of warfare and writes that China, Russia, Israel and North Korea. Iran are boasting of having the world's second-largest cyber-army. Entities posing a significant threat to the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure assets include cyberterrorists, cyberspies, cyberthieves, cyberwarriors, and cyberhacktivists. These malefactors may access cyber-based technologies in order to deny service, steal or manipulate data, or use a device to launch an attack against itself or another piece of equipment. However because the Internet offers near-total anonymity, it is difficult to discern the identity, the motives, and the location of an intruder. The scope and enormity of the threats are not just focused to private industry but also to the country's heavily networked critical infrastructure. There are many ongoing efforts in government and industry that focus on making computers, the Internet, and related technologies more secure. As the national intelligence institution's effort, cyber counter-intelligence is measures to identify, penetrate, or neutralize foreign operations that use cyber means as the primary tradecraft methodology, as well as foreign intelligence service collection efforts that use traditional methods to gauge cyber capabilities and intentions. However one of the hardest issues in cyber counterintelligence is the problem of "Attribution". Unlike conventional warfare, figuring out who is behind an attack can be very difficult, even though the Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has claimed that the United States has the capability to trace attacks back to their sources and hold the attackers "accountable". Considering all these cyber security problems, this paper examines closely cyber security issues through the lessons from that of U.S experience. For that purpose I review the arising cyber security issues considering changing global security environments in the 21st century and their implications to the reshaping the government system. For that purpose this study mainly deals with and emphasis the cyber security issues as one of the growing national security threats. This article also reviews what our intelligence and security Agencies should do among the transforming cyber space. At any rate, despite of all hot debates about the various legality and human rights issues derived from the cyber space and intelligence service activity, the national security should be secured. Therefore, this paper suggests that one of the most important and immediate step is to understanding the legal ideology of national security and national intelligence.

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Current Status and Future Prospect of Plant Disease Forecasting System in Korea (우리 나라 식물병 발생예찰의 현황과 전망)

  • Kim, Choong-Hoe
    • Research in Plant Disease
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    • v.8 no.2
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    • pp.84-91
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    • 2002
  • Disease forecasting in Korea was first studied in the Department of Fundamental Research, in the Central Agricultural Technology Institute in Suwon in 1947, where the dispersal of air-borne conidia of blast and brown spot pathogens in rice was examined. Disease forecasting system in Korea is operated based on information obtained from 200 main forecasting plots scattered around country (rice 150, economic crops 50) and 1,403 supplementary observational plots (rice 1,050, others 353) maintained by Korean government. Total number of target crops and diseases in both forecasting plots amount to 30 crops and 104 diseases. Disease development in the forecasting plots is examined by two extension agents specialized in disease forecasting, working in the national Agricul-tural Technology Service Center(ATSC) founded in each city and prefecture. The data obtained by the extension agents are transferred to a central organization, Rural Development Administration (RDA) through an internet-web system for analysis in a nation-wide forecasting program, and forwarded far the Central Forecasting Council consisted of 12 members from administration, university, research institution, meteorology station, and mass media to discuss present situation of disease development and subsequent progress. The council issues a forecasting information message, as a result of analysis, that is announced in public via mass media to 245 agencies including ATSC, who informs to local administration, the related agencies and farmers for implementation of disease control activity. However, in future successful performance of plant disease forecasting system is thought to be securing of excellent extension agents specialized in disease forecasting, elevation of their forecasting ability through continuous trainings, and furnishing of prominent forecasting equipments. Researches in plant disease forecasting in Korea have been concentrated on rice blast, where much information is available, but are substan-tially limited in other diseases. Most of the forecasting researches failed to achieve the continuity of researches on specialized topic, ignoring steady improvement towards practical use. Since disease forecasting loses its value without practicality, more efforts are needed to improve the practicality of the forecasting method in both spatial and temporal aspects. Since significance of disease forecasting is directly related to economic profit, further fore-casting researches should be planned and propelled in relation to fungicide spray scheduling or decision-making of control activities.

Identifying Antecedents of Service Innovation: Based on Service-Dominant Logic and Resource-Advantage Theory (서비스 혁신의 선행요인에 관한 연구: 서비스 지배적 논리와 자원 우위 이론을 중심으로)

  • Ryu, Hyun-Sun;Han, Jin Young
    • Information Systems Review
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.79-106
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    • 2016
  • Service innovation is one means of gaining an advantage in a highly competitive environment. Although numerous studies have stressed the importance of service innovation, traditional good-dominant logic is still used in service innovation literature. Furthermore, few studies have been conducted on the link between service innovation and its antecedents in terms of service-oriented approach. To fill the gap, this article theoretically and empirically examines service innovation and its antecedents and consequences. Based on service-dominant logic and resource advantage theory, the current study aims to understand the effect of antecedents on service innovation as well as to identify the effect of service innovation on firm performance (i.e., non-financial and financial performance). Three service innovation activities, namely service creation-focused innovation, service delivery-focused innovation, and customer interaction-focused innovation, and four antecedents of service innovation, including human resource management capability, collaboration capability, marketing capability, and information technology capability, are identified based on Den Hertog (2000)'s service innovation framework. By using the empirical data collected from 189 service firms in Korea, this study explores the causal relationship among antecedents, service innovation and firm performance. Findings indicate that human resource management and marketing capabilities influence the three types of service innovation, whereas collaboration and information technology capabilities have a significant effect on both service creation-focused innovation and service delivery-focused innovation. In particular, human resource management capability is strongly related to customer interaction-focused innovation. The three types of service innovation have a positive influence on non-financial performance, whereas service delivery-focused innovation and customer interaction-focused innovation positively influence financial performance. These results support the crucial effects of antecedents, such as human resource management, collaboration, marketing and information technology capabilities, on service innovation.

An Analysis of the Roles of Experience in Information System Continuance (정보시스템의 지속적 사용에서 경험의 역할에 대한 분석)

  • Lee, Woong-Kyu
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.45-62
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    • 2011
  • The notion of information systems (IS) continuance has recently emerged as one of the most important research issues in the field of IS. A great deal of research has been conducted thus far on the basis of theories adapted from various disciplines including consumer behaviors and social psychology, in addition to theories regarding information technology (IT) acceptance. This previous body of knowledge provides a robust research framework that can already account for the determination of IS continuance; however, this research points to other, thus-far-unelucidated determinant factors such as habit, which were not included in traditional IT acceptance frameworks, and also re-emphasizes the importance of emotion-related constructs such as satisfaction in addition to conscious intention with rational beliefs such as usefulness. Experiences should also be considered one of the most important factors determining the characteristics of information system (IS) continuance and the features distinct from those determining IS acceptance, because more experienced users may have more opportunities for IS use, which would allow them more frequent use than would be available to less experienced or non-experienced users. Interestingly, experience has dual features that may contradictorily influence IS use. On one hand, attitudes predicated on direct experience have been shown to predict behavior better than attitudes from indirect experience or without experience; as more information is available, direct experience may render IS use a more salient behavior, and may also make IS use more accessible via memory. Therefore, experience may serve to intensify the relationship between IS use and conscious intention with evaluations, On the other hand, experience may culminate in the formation of habits: greater experience may also imply more frequent performance of the behavior, which may lead to the formation of habits, Hence, like experience, users' activation of an IS may be more dependent on habit-that is, unconscious automatic use without deliberation regarding the IS-and less dependent on conscious intentions, Furthermore, experiences can provide basic information necessary for satisfaction with the use of a specific IS, thus spurring the formation of both conscious intentions and unconscious habits, Whereas IT adoption Is a one-time decision, IS continuance may be a series of users' decisions and evaluations based on satisfaction with IS use. Moreover. habits also cannot be formed without satisfaction, even when a behavior is carried out repeatedly. Thus, experiences also play a critical role in satisfaction, as satisfaction is the consequence of direct experiences of actual behaviors. In particular, emotional experiences such as enjoyment can become as influential on IS use as are utilitarian experiences such as usefulness; this is especially true in light of the modern increase in membership-based hedonic systems - including online games, web-based social network services (SNS), blogs, and portals-all of which attempt to provide users with self-fulfilling value. Therefore, in order to understand more clearly the role of experiences in IS continuance, analysis must be conducted under a research framework that includes intentions, habits, and satisfaction, as experience may not only have duration-based moderating effects on the relationship between both intention and habit and the activation of IS use, but may also have content-based positive effects on satisfaction. This is consistent with the basic assumptions regarding the determining factors in IS continuance as suggested by Oritz de Guinea and Markus: consciousness, emotion, and habit. The principal objective of this study was to explore and assess the effects of experiences in IS continuance, with special consideration given to conscious intentions and unconscious habits, as well as satisfaction. IN service of this goal, along with a review of the relevant literature regarding the effects of experiences and habit on continuous IS use, this study suggested a research model that represents the roles of experience: its moderating role in the relationships of IS continuance with both conscious intention and unconscious habit, and its antecedent role in the development of satisfaction. For the validation of this research model. Korean university student users of 'Cyworld', one of the most influential social network services in South Korea, were surveyed, and the data were analyzed via partial least square (PLS) analysis to assess the implications of this study. In result most hypotheses in our research model were statistically supported with the exception of one. Although one hypothesis was not supported, the study's findings provide us with some important implications. First the role of experience in IS continuance differs from its role in IS acceptance. Second, the use of IS was explained by the dynamic balance between habit and intention. Third, the importance of satisfaction was confirmed from the perspective of IS continuance with experience.

The Impact of Perceived Risks Upon Consumer Trust and Purchase Intentions (인지된 위험의 유형이 소비자 신뢰 및 온라인 구매의도에 미치는 영향)

  • Hong, Il-Yoo B.;Kim, Woo-Sung;Lim, Byung-Ha
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.1-25
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    • 2011
  • Internet-based commerce has undergone an explosive growth over the past decade as consumers today find it more economical as well as more convenient to shop online. Nevertheless, the shift in the common mode of shopping from offline to online commerce has caused consumers to have worries over such issues as private information leakage, online fraud, discrepancy in product quality and grade, unsuccessful delivery, and so forth, Numerous studies have been undertaken to examine the role of perceived risk as a chief barrier to online purchases and to understand the theoretical relationships among perceived risk, trust and purchase intentions, However, most studies focus on empirically investigating the effects of trust on perceived risk, with little attention devoted to the effects of perceived risk on trust, While the influence trust has on perceived risk is worth studying, the influence in the opposite direction is equally important, enabling insights into the potential of perceived risk as a prohibitor of trust, According to Pavlou (2003), the primary source of the perceived risk is either the technological uncertainty of the Internet environment or the behavioral uncertainty of the transaction partner. Due to such types of uncertainty, an increase in the worries over the perceived risk may negatively affect trust, For example, if a consumer who sends sensitive transaction data over Internet is concerned that his or her private information may leak out because of the lack of security, trust may decrease (Olivero and Lunt, 2004), By the same token, if the consumer feels that the online merchant has the potential to profit by behaving in an opportunistic manner taking advantage of the remote, impersonal nature of online commerce, then it is unlikely that the merchant will be trusted, That is, the more the probable danger is likely to occur, the less trust and the greater need to control the transaction (Olivero and Lunt, 2004), In summary, a review of the related studies indicates that while some researchers looked at the influence of overall perceived risk on trust level, not much attention has been given to the effects of different types of perceived risk, In this context the present research aims at addressing the need to study how trust is affected by different types of perceived risk, We classified perceived risk into six different types based on the literature, and empirically analyzed the impact of each type of perceived risk upon consumer trust in an online merchant and further its impact upon purchase intentions. To meet our research objectives, we developed a conceptual model depicting the nomological structure of the relationships among our research variables, and also formulated a total of seven hypotheses. The model and hypotheses were tested using an empirical analysis based on a questionnaire survey of 206 college students. The reliability was evaluated via Cronbach's alphas, the minimum of which was found to be 0.73, and therefore the questionnaire items are all deemed reliable. In addition, the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) designed to check the validity of the measurement model indicate that the convergent, discriminate, and nomological validities of the model are all acceptable. The structural equation modeling analysis to test the hypotheses yielded the following results. Of the first six hypotheses (H1-1 through H1-6) designed to examine the relationships between each risk type and trust, three hypotheses including H1-1 (performance risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust), H1-2 (psychological risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust) and H1-5 (online payment risk ${\rightarrow}$ trust) were supported with path coefficients of -0.30, -0.27 and -0.16 respectively. Finally, H2 (trust ${\rightarrow}$ purchase intentions) was supported with relatively high path coefficients of 0.73. Results of the empirical study offer the following findings and implications. First. it was found that it was performance risk, psychological risk and online payment risk that have a statistically significant influence upon consumer trust in an online merchant. It implies that a consumer may find an online merchant untrustworthy if either the product quality or the product grade does not match his or her expectations. For that reason, online merchants including digital storefronts and e-marketplaces are suggested to pursue a strategy focusing on identifying the target customers and offering products that they feel best meet performance and psychological needs of those customers. Thus, they should do their best to make it widely known that their products are of as good quality and grade as those purchased from offline department stores. In addition, it may be inferred that today's online consumers remain concerned about the security of the online commerce environment due to the repeated occurrences of hacking or private information leakage. Online merchants should take steps to remove potential vulnerabilities and provide online notices to emphasize that their website is secure. Second, consumer's overall trust was found to have a statistically significant influence on purchase intentions. This finding, which is consistent with the results of numerous prior studies, suggests that increased sales will become a reality only with enhanced consumer trust.

Etiology and Clinical Manifestation of Acute Gastroenteritis in Children (소아 급성 위장관염에서의 원인과 임상양상)

  • Im, Ik-Jae;Lee, Mee Jeong;Chung, Eun Hee;Yu, Jeesuk;Chang, Young Pyo;Park, Woo Sung;Park, Kwisung;Song, Nak Soo;Baek, Kyung Ah;Cha, Yune Tae
    • Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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    • v.13 no.2
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    • pp.147-155
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    • 2006
  • Purpose : The purpose of this study is to evaluate epidemiological data of pathogens obtained from stool exams and compare them with the clinical course in pediatric patients with symptoms of acute gastroenteritis. Methods : Subjects were selected from patients presenting with symptoms of acute gastroenteritis who visited the outpatient clinic or who were admitted to the Dankook University Hospital from December of 2004 to December of 2005. Stool exams for 17 pathogens was performed. RT-PCR was used to detect norovirus and enzyme-linked immunoabsorbant assay (ELISA) was used to detect rotavirus, adenovirus and astrovirus in the subjects stool samples. Ten different species of bacteria(Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Clostridium perfrigens, Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Vibrio spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Yersinia spp., and L. monocytogenes) were each selectively cultivated and enzyme immunoassays(EIA) was used to test for antigens for C. parvum, E. histolytica and G. lamblia. Retrospective chart review was performed for comparisons of clinical manifestations. Results : A total of 215 subjects was selected and of these 89 cases(41.4%) showed positive results for at least one pathogen. Male to female ratio was 1.3:1. Age distribution showed 4 cases less than one month(4.5%), 4 cases from 1~2 months(4.5%), 24 cases from 3~12 months(26.7%), 47 cases form 13~48 months(52.8%), 10 cases greater than 48 months (21.2%). Viruses showed the greatest proportion of cases with 68 subjects(77.5%), of these rotavirus being the most commonly reported in 50 cases. Bacteria was identified in 26 cases (29.2%), of these nontyphoidal salmonella was noted in 10 cases. Protozoa followed with 21 cases(23.6%), of these C. parvum was noted in 11 cases and G. lamblia was noted in 10 cases. Mixed infections with more than two pathogens were seen in 22 cases(24.7%), of these viral infection with accompanying parasitic infection was seen in 12(54.5%) cases. Conclusion : In this study we examined various pathogens known to cause acute gastroenteritis in children. Further studies for various pathogens can provide useful information for management of the acute gastroenteritis.

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Nutrition of Calcium and Phosphorus in Poultry Diets (닭에 대한 칼슘과 인의 영양)

  • 한인규;오상집
    • Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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    • v.8 no.2
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    • pp.55-68
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    • 1981
  • Calcium and phosphorus are not only indispensable for the bone formation and body fluids equilibrium but also are major components of egg shell. It is nutritionally important, therefore, to investigate the metabolism of calcium and phosphorus and to search for optimum requirement of calcium and phosphorus and the availability of various sources of calcium an4 phosphorus by poultry. An attempt was made to review the nutrition of calcium and phosphorus in poultry diets. 1, Calcium and phosphorus have great interrelationship with vitamin D in their metabolisms. 2. Most of the plant-origin phosphorus are existing in phytic form and it leads to low availability when used in poultry rations, although calcium and phosphorus present in animal-origin or mineral supplements are highly available in general. 3. Calcium and phosphorus requirement from existing information indicated that 1.0% calcium and 0.7% phosphorus for broiler and egg-type chicks, and 3.5% calcium and 0.4% phosphorus for laying hen. 4. It has been recommended that calcium and phosphorus level should be increased when the feed intake was decreased or when the egg Production rate was higher or when the hens are old. 5. Mono-, ci-, tri-, calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, bone meal, limestone and oyster shell u the most readily available among various sources of calcium phosphorus supplements. Soft rock phosphate, deflourinated phosphate and gypsum are somewhat inferior to the previous ones in bioavailability. 6. The effect of particle size of calcium supplements on egg shell quality and egg production rate is not yet clearly defined but recent works showed that oyster shell is more available when it was coarse and limestone is more available when it was fine in panicle. size. 7. Present data indicated that mixed feeding of oyster shell and limestone is superior to the single feeding of each on laying performance. 8. Significant interaction between phosphorus and sodium was observed, that is, excessive sodium decreased egg production in layer and body weight growth in broiler in the low phosphorus diets but increased them in the high phosphorus diets.

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Perfusion Impairment in Infantile Autism on Brain SPECT Using Tc-99m ECD : Comparison with MR Findings (유아 자폐증 환아에서의 Tc-99m ECD를 이용한 뇌 단일 광전자 방출 전산화 단층 촬영술상의 관류 저하: 자기 공명 영상과의 비교 분석)

  • Ryu, Young-Hoon;Lee, Jong-Doo;Yoon, Pyeong-Ho;Kim, Dong-Ik;Oh, Young-Taik;Lee, Sun-Ah;Lee, Ho-Bun;Shin, Yee-Jin;Lee, Byung-Hee
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.31 no.3
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    • pp.320-329
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    • 1997
  • Neuroanatomic substrate of autism has been the subjects of continuing investigation. Because previous studies had not demonstrated consistent and specific neuroimaging findings in autism and most studies comprised adults and school-aged children, we performed a retrospective review in search of common functional and anatomical abnormalities with brain SPECT using Tc-99m ECD and correlative MRI The patient population was composed of 18 children aged 28 to 89 months(mean age : 55 months) who met the diagnostic criteria of autism as defined in the DSM-IV and CARS. Brain SPECT was performed after intravenous injection of 185-370MBq of Tc-99m ECD using brain dedicated annular crystal gamma camera. MRI was performed in all patients including T1, T2 axial and T1 sagittal sequences. SPECT data were visually assessed. Thirteen patients had abnormal SPECT scan revealing focal areas of decreased perfusion. Decreased perfusion of cerebellar vermis(12/18), cerebellar hemisphere(11/18), thalami(13/18), basal ganglia(4/18), posterior parietal(7/18), and temporal(4/18) area were noted on brain SPECT. Whereas, only 3 patients had abnormal MR findings which were subtle volume loss of parieto-occipital white matter in 3 and mild thinning of posterior body of corpus callosum in 2 and slightly decreased volume of cerebellar vermis in 1. Comparison of the numbers of abnormal findings revealed that regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) abnormalities seen on SPECT were more numerous than anatomical abnormalities seen on MRI. In conclusion, extensive perfusion impairment involving cerebellum, thalami and parietal lobe were found in this study. SPECT may be more sensitive in reflecting pathophysiology of autism than MRI. However, further studies are mandatory to determine the significance of thalamic and parietal perfusion impairment in autism.

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