• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.45-53
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• 2013

Objectives Non-major depression with fewer symptoms than required for a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-4th edition diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) has consistently been found to be associated with functional impairment. In this study, we aim to estimate the cognitive impairment and the quality of life in elderly patients with subsyndromal depression (SSD) compared with non-depressive elderly (NDE). Methods The Korean version of Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was administered to 194 outpatients with depression and 108 normal controls. SSD is defined as having five or more current depressive symptoms with core depressive symptoms (depressive mood or loss of interest or pleasure) during more than half a day and more than seven days over two weeks. Depression was evaluated by the Korean form of Geriatric Depression Scale of a 15-item short version. Global cognition was assessed by Mini-Mental State Examination in the Korean version of CERAD assessment packet (MMSE-KC). Subjective cognitive impairment was assessed by the Subjective Memory Complaint Questionnaire. Quality of life was evaluated by the Korean Version of Short-Form 36-Item Health Survey. Results The mean score of the MMSE-KC in the SSD group was lower than that in the NDE group with adjustment for age, gender, and education [F = 4.270, p = 0.04, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA)]. If we defined those having Z-score of MMSE-KC < -1.5 as a high risk group of cognitive impairment, the odds ratio for the high risk group of cognitive impairment was 1.86 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.04-3.34] in SSD and 7.57 (95% CI 3.50-16.40) in MDD compared to NDE. The scores of physical component summary (F = 9.274, p = 0.003, ANCOVA) and mental component summary (F = 53.166, p < 0.001, ANCOVA) in the SSD group were lower than those in the NDE group with adjustment for age, gender, and education. Conclusions The subjects with SSD, as well as those with MDD, showed impairment of global cognition and also experienced low quality of life in both physical and mental aspects, compared to the NDE group.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.227-232
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• 2017

Although water is an essential component of the human body and is involved in many physiological processes, the effect of a steady and sufficient water intake on blood components has not well elucidated. Therefore, we investigated the changes in hematological parameters, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and immunoglobulin G (IgG) after water intake in 13 healthy adults. They were divided into two groups: The control group (N=4), which consumed water ad libitum, and the experimental group (N=9), which consumed 2 L of water per day. Two weeks later, blood cell counts, hematocrit, and hemoglobin content had increased in the experimental group, although not significantly (p>0.05); however, there was a significant increase in the mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) (p<0.05; and p<0.01, respectively), and a significant decrease in the mean platelet volume (MPV) (p<0.05). Of the immunologic parameters, a non-significant decrease in the concentration of hs-CRP, an indicator of cardiovascular disease risk, was observed (p>0.05). However, there was a dramatic and significant increase in the concentration of IgG (p<0.05). In conclusion, a steady and sufficient water intake may contribute to alleviate anemia by increasing hemoglobin. Additionally, it may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease by decreasing platelet activation and concentration of hs-CRP. Furthermore, a steady intake of water may improve immune function by increasing the concentration of the components of humoral immunity.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.257-267
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• 2017

Purpose: Pulmonary toxicities, including infectious pneumonia (IP) and idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS), are serious side effects of total body irradiation (TBI) used for myeloablative conditioning. This study aimed to evaluate clinical factors associated with IP and IPS following TBI. Materials and Methods: Fifty-eight patients with hematologic malignancies who underwent TBI before allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation between 2005 and 2014 were reviewed. Most patients (91%) received 12 Gy in 1.5 Gy fractions twice a day. Pulmonary toxicities were diagnosed based on either radiographic evidence or reduced pulmonary function, and were subdivided into IP and IPS based on the presence or absence of concurrent infection. Results: Pulmonary toxicities developed in 36 patients (62%); 16 (28%) had IP and 20 (34%) had IPS. IP was significantly associated with increased treatment-related mortality (p = 0.028) and decreased survival (p = 0.039). Multivariate analysis revealed that the risk of developing IPS was significantly higher in patients who received stem cells from a matched unrelated donor than from a matched sibling donor (p = 0.021; hazard ratio [HR] = 12.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.46-110.30). Combining other conditioning agents with cyclophosphamide produced a higher tendency to develop IP (p = 0.064; HR = 6.19; 95% CI, 0.90-42.56). Conclusion: IP and IPS involve different risk factors and distinct pathogeneses that should be considered when planning treatments before and after TBI.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.5151-5156
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• 2010

In the previous researches for storm sewer design, the flow paths in overall network were determined to minimize the construction cost and then, it was not considered the superposition effect of runoff hydrographs in the sewer pipes. However, in this research, the flow paths are determined considering the superposition effect to reduce the inundation risk by controlling and distributing the flows in the sewer pipes. This is accomplished by distributing the inflows that enter into each junction by changing the flow path in which pipes are connected between junctions. In this paper, the superposition effect and peak outflows at outlet were analyzed considering the changes of the flow paths in the sewer network. Then, the flow paths are determined using genetic algorithm and the objective function is to minimize the peak outflow at outlet. As the applied result for the sample sewer network, the difference between maximum and minimum peak outflows which are caused by the change of flow path was about 5.6% for the design rainfall event of 10 years frequency with 30 min. duration. Also, the typhoon 'Rusa' which occurred at 2002 was applied to verify the reduction of inundation risk for the excessive rainfall, and then, the amount of overflows was reduced to about 31%.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.377-401
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• 2011

Under the WTO system, direct export support system that provides financial and tax related support is altogether prohibited. This presented an obstacle in strengthening competitiveness of Korean export business and in increasing exports continuously. One of the methods used to solve this problem was to actively leverage export insurance. In Korea, export insurance services have been conducted by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (k-sure) to promote export. Korea has been among the world's active users of the export insurance system. Given this situation, this paper examines the effectiveness of the Korea export insurance system in the promotion of export. In particular, this study analyzed about discriminating effects of the export insurance on the export of big and small-medium business. In order to analyze, We introduce a Export Supply Function model. In this paper, We construct two model. The one is about big business, the other is small-medium business. For empirical analysis, unit-root test was conducted to understand the safety of time series. The results show that all variables are not I(0) time series. Instead, they are I(1) time series. To this, cointegration verification was conducted based on the use of Johansen verification method to define the existence (or non-existence) of long-term balance relationship among variables. The results come out as follows. The export insurance of big business has a stronger effect on export than that of small-medium business. The cause of these results is due to the distinct structure of Korea industries. In view of the fact that the insurance can make the risk decreased. We can say that the export insurance affects the export of a high-risk country.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.38 no.9 s.254
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• pp.622-626
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• 2005

Background: Non-invasive interventional therapy has been performed for main bronchial obstruction by endobronchial tuberculosis because of the risk of main bronchial reconstruction regardless of the pulmonary function. But, effects of the inteeventional therapy are attacked by arguments. This study was aimed at interpreting the risk and effectiveness of bronchoplasty for benign bronchial stenosis over the last ten years in our hospital by reviewing the results based on clinical progression. Material and Method: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records and out-patient medical records including 2f consecutive patients who underwent main bronchial reconstruction for obstruction by endobronchial tuberculosis. All of them had past medical history of anti-tuberculosis medication. They were preoperatively evaluated by bronchoscopy and chest computed tomography. Result: There were no incidences of postoperative mortality and signifcant morbidity. There were 2 cases of retained secretions but these problems were resolved by therapeutic bronchoscopy or intubation. All of the patients are still alive without obstructive airway problem. Conclusion: Bronchoplasty should be considered as one of the primary treatment modalities, if it is anatomically feasible.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.524-535
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• 2013

Catastrophe risk models require the damage functions of each vulnerable item in inventory to estimate volcanic ash losses. The damage functions are used to represent the relation between damage factors and damage and also widely used in engineering and natural hazard studies to calculate the vulnerability. In most cases, damage functions are constructed as fragility or vulnerability curves, and researchers are confused by the similarities between them particularly when they perform interdisciplinary research. Thus, we aim to explain the similarities and differences between fragility and vulnerability curves and their relationship by providing case studies to construct them. In addition, we suggest a simple method to construct the damage functions between damage ratio and volcanic ash thickness using limited damage data. This study comes from the fact that damage functions are generally constructed using damage data. However, there is no available volcanic ash damage data in Korea, and not even enough volcanic disaster data to construct damage functions in the world, compared to other hazards. Using the method suggested in the study and the limited damage data from Japan and New Zealand, we construct Weibull-type functions or linear functions dependent of available data to calculate volcanic ash loss estimation, which we think need to be corrected to make it more suitable for inventory characteristics and environmental conditions in Korea.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.157-192
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• 2006

Since the late 1990s, the Korean Venture Capital Industry has been remarkably grown in the aspect of quality and quantity. Korean government expects that the Venture company and Venture Capital Industry would contribute to the recovery of depressed Korean economy and restructuring of the high cost and low efficiency economic structure. Korean government reinforces supporting policies for the Venture Capital and Venture Business. Venture Capital is defined as the form of high risk and high profit investment capital growing the small & medium enterprises to competitive ones through capital and management support and collecting the capital. According to the Gompers and Lerners the venture capital cycle consists of raising investment capital, screening the investment opportunity and invest the money. And later, sold the retained stock to the other investor or to the company. This stage called EXIT Consequently, the function of the venture capital, which supply the fund and the business consultation to venture business, have been emphasized and how to effectively run this capital have been recognized as the way to develop the venture business. In this regard, the problem in Korean Venture Capital Market is as follows. First, most of the sources of fund depends on the government support and this conflict with the nature of risk capital because the government capital emphasis the stability than profitability. And secondly, the efficiency of the venture capital system in Korea do not reach that of the advanced countries due to many kinds of restriction and the rack of support. Consequently, the Activation Schemes for Korean Venture Capital Firms are as follows. First, the sources of venture capital need to diversify from angels to institutional investors such as banks, pensions, fund of fund. And Lastly, the internal management and operational system of venture capital companies should be strengthened by quality to that of global Venture Capital Firms.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2631-2634
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• 2014

Background: p53 gene is a well-known tumor suppressor gene that has several polymorphisms in both its exons and introns. It has been suggested that intron 3 16 bp duplication polymorphism may affect the gene function resulting in reduction or suppression of p53 anti tumor activity. In most case control studies a duplicated allele has been noticeably more frequent in cases rather than controls but there are also conflicting results. The aim of this study was to assess the association of intron 3 16 bp duplication polymorphism of p53 with breast cancer risk among Iranian-Azeri population. We also analyzed the clinicopathological information of patients as an epidemiological description of breast cancer in the north-west of Iran. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was performed on 221 breast cancer patients and 170 controls. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples and tumor tissues. p53 PIN3 genotype was determined using electrophoresis of PCR products on 8% non-denaturing polyacrylamide gels and silver staining. Results: In the control and case groups, respectively, 62.9% and 61.1% had no 16 bp insertion (A1A1 genotype), 7.1% and 7.7% had insertion in both p53 alleles (A2A2) and 30% and 31.2% were heterozygous (A1A2). There was no significant difference between genotype frequencies as well as allelic frequencies in two case and control groups. Conclusions: According to the result of the present study, the intron 3 16 bp duplication polymorphism of p53 could not be assessed as a marker of risk factor for predisposition to breast cancer in Azeri population. However, a high frequency of A2 allele (22.1%) in our population suggested that intron 3 16 bp duplication polymorphism may be a valuable marker for study in other cancers with well designed large groups.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.162-172
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the improvement effect of 5% mung bean (phaseolus aureus L.) on the blood glucose and lipid metabolism function of streptozotocin (STZ, 45 mg/kg body weight)-induced diabetic rats. Seven-week-old male rats were divided into four groups (n=6), and fed experimental diets containing mung bean meal [basal diet+5% mung bean (BM), basal diet+STZ+5% mung bean (SM)], and control (BD), BS groups (basal diet+STZ). The results of this study, mung bean diet groups (BM, SM) in lipid composition evidenced the significantly reduction of serum total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol), atherosclerotic index (AI), cardiac risk factor (CRF), triglyceride (TG), phospholipid (PL), free cholesterol, cholesteryl ester, uric acid, blood glucose, non esterified fatty acid (NEFA), and elevation of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol). The serum albumin/globulin ratio (A/G ratio) was increased in mung bean supplementation diet than STZ-induced diabetic rats (p<0.05). Concentrations of sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl) in sera were lower in the mung bean diet than diabetic group. Total calcium (T-Ca), phosphorus (Pi) and potassium (K) concentrations in sera were higher in the BM, SM and BD groups than BS group. In vivo experiments with Sprague-Dawley rats showed that ingestion of mung bean (phaseolus aureus L.) were effective in blood glucose and lipid composition.