• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.382-388
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• 2018

In this study, the SELEX method was used to screen for and select aptamers with high selectivity and affinity for Streptococcus mutans, which is the causative agent of dental caries. Aptamers are single stranded oligonucleotides of DNA or RNA with high selectivity and affinity for target molecules because of their specific three-dimensional structures that are used to collect biometric information. When compared to antibodies in vitro, aptamers are more advantageous because of their ease of use in the screening process, low cost, chemical stability, and lack of restrictions on the target molecules. We sorted DNA aptamers, which contain 44 bp or 38 bp primer sequences in 5' and 3', 39 bp random sequences in the middle.We then analyzed the character and affinity to S. mutans. Aptamers of specific oligonucleotides that combine with S. mutans were selected and these results are selectively fused to S. mutans. The results confirmed that DNA aptamers can be used for rapid diagnosis and treatment of dental caries caused by bacteria of the oral cavity, namely S. mutans.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 2015

Purpose: The study aimed to determine data collected during tuberculosis (TB) contact investigations and to evaluate the outcomes of these investigations. Methods: We reviewed medical records for child contacts of patients with culture-positive pulmonary TB aged 19 years or older between August 2012 and July 2014. Results: A total of 116 child contacts were identified for 79 patients with culture-positive pulmonary TB. Of 116 contacts identified, 22% were incompletely screened. Of 90 contacts who completed screening, 42% had negative tuberculin skin test (TST) results, 58% had positive results, and 1% had active pulmonary TB at the time of investigation. Of 50 contacts with TB patients with a negative smear, 50% had positive TST results. Age ${\geq}5$ years (OR 8.3; 95% CI 2.3-30) and male gender (OR 3.9; 95% CI 1.5-9.9) were significantly associated with being incompletely screened. Conclusions: Improvement is needed in the process of contact investigations to ensure that contacts of patients with active pulmonary TB are identified and appropriately screened.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.511-524
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• 2007

Korea has 30 years of experiences in environmental impact assessment (EIA). Although EIA includes sanitation-public health factor, considering health impacts, among 74 unit projects of 17 sections, health impacts haven't been properly considered or have been ignored in many cases. The increasing awareness on the importance of health impacts has triggered this study to seek an optimal introduction scheme of health impact assessment (HIA). The processes of EIA already include screening, scoping, analysis, impact assessment, consultation, document review, decision making and monitoring, in which they would be the essential parts of HIA. In this context, integrating HIA into the existing EIA process could be the most effective way to use the benefits in both legal and procedural processes existed and to avoid the confusion and overlapping since the close relationships between environment and health impacts might be. Furthermore, it is desirable that the existing sanitation-public health factor should be substituted by and extended to environment-health factor with sufficient determinants to properly consider health impacts. When considering the first step of HIA, the prospective and qualitative approach is suitable more than the retrospective and quantitative one due to the lack of database accumulated. Similarly, an approach based on epidemiology and toxicology could analyze the limited evidences and impacts related to human disease, whereas one based on socio-science and psychology could provide the effective means available for predicting how the people and community will act by the change of surroundings. Checklist approach with various and comprehensive health determinants focused on prospective and qualitative methods will be very useful for more convenient and progressive dissemination of HIA. Various checklist approaches of toolkits could be found from HIA documents elsewhere, for example Westminster Toolkit, and they would be helpful to figure out how to develop common procedures and health determinants for checklist, in which the unique characteristics on korean cultural and political context compared to abroad should be carefully considered since checklist would be the most basic and essential part of HIA. After the establishment of checklist and procedural processes, the pilot projects should be conducted. Main purpose of pilot projects is to apparently prove the effectiveness and profitability of HIA. Pilot projects should be implemented to decide the effectiveness and suitability of HIA for future projects, programs and policies, and should be provided as the positive cases that can be achieved through the proper implementation and progress.

• 한국무역상무학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.45-72
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• 2006

The Equator Principles are a set of voluntary environmental and social guidelines for ethical project finance. These principles commit banks and other signatories to not finance projects that fail to meet these guidelines. The principles were conceived in 2002 on an initiative of the International Finance Corporation and launched in 2003. Since then, dozens of major banks have adopted the Principles, and with these banks among them accounting for more than three quarters of all project loan market volume the Principles have become the de facto standard for all banks and investors on how to deal with potential social and environmental effects of projects to be financed. While regarding the Principles an important initiative, NGOs have criticised the Principles for not producing real changes in financing activities and for allowing projects to go through that should have been screened out by the Principles, such as the Sakhalin-II oil and gas project in Russia. In early 2006, a process of revision of the principles was begun. The Equator Principles state that endorsing banks will only provide loans directly to projects under the following circumstances: - The risk of the project is categorized in accordance with internal guidelines based upon the environmental and social screening criteria of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). - For all medium or high risk projects (Category A and B projects), sponsors complete an Environmental Assessment, the preparation of which must meet certain requirements and satisfactorily address key environmental and social issues. - The Environmental Assessment report addresses baseline environmental and social conditions, requirements under host country laws and regulations, applicable international treaties and agreements, sustainable development and use of renewable natural resources, protection of human health, cultural properties, and biodiversity, including endangered species and sensitive ecosystems, use of dangerous substances, major hazards, occupational health and safety, fire prevention and life safety, socio-economic impacts, land acquisition and land use, involuntary resettlement, impacts on indigenous peoples and communities, cumulative impacts of existing projects, the proposed project, and anticipated future projects, participation of affected parties in the design, review and implementation of the project, consideration of feasible environmentally and socially preferable alternatives, efficient production, delivery and use of energy, pollution prevention and waste minimization, pollution controls (liquid effluents and air emissions) and solid and chemical waste management. - Based on the Environmental Assessment, Equator banks then make agreements with their clients on how they mitigate, monitor and manage those risks through an 'Environmental Management Plan'. Compliance with the plan is required in the covenant. If the borrower doesn't comply with the agreed terms, the bank will take corrective action, which if unsuccessful, could ultimately result in the bank canceling the loan and demanding immediate repayment. - For risky projects, the borrower consults with stakeholders (NGO's and project affected groups) and provides them with information on the risks of the project. - If necessary, an expert is consulted. The Principles only apply to projects over 50 million US dollars, which, according to the Equator Principles website, represent 97% of the total market. In early 2006, the financial institutions behind the Principles launched stakeholder consultations and negotiations aimed at revising the principles. The draft revised principles were met with criticism from NGO stakeholders, who in a joint position paper argued that the draft fails by ignoring the most serious critiques of the principles: a lack of consistent and rigorous implementation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.52-59
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• 2004

When both fructose and galactose were added to a production medium as carbon sources, the productivity of PAFS (Psedomonas Antifungal Substance) biosynthesized by Pseudomonas aeruginosa was observed to be reduced significantly due to the well-known phenomenon of catabolite repression. In order to overcome this phenomenon by use of fermentation bioprocess, fed-batch cultivation method was examined. In addition, a high producer mutant strain, AP-20 obtained by a rational screening method was tested for its productivity of PAFS in both batch and fed-batch fermentation processes. Notably fed-batch operation showed approximately 4 fold higher PAFS productivity than traditional batch operation process. It was appeared that galactose was utilized principally for the cell growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa whereas large portion of fructose was used for the biosynthesis of PAFS. Furthermore it was observed that composition and feeding rate of production media should be optimized even in the fed-batch fermentation bioprocess. As an example, very slow feeding of carbon sources gave rather negative effect on the production of PAFS due to significant limitation of carbon and energy sources available for the producer microorganism.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.335-355
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• 2009

We examined risk judgment and the accuracy of inference based on two kinds of probabilities in a Bayesian inference task: the death probability from a disease (base rates) and the probability of having a disease with positive results in the screening test (posterior probabilities). Risk information were presented in either a probability or a frequency format. In Study 1, we found a numerical format effect for both base rate and posterior probability. Participants rated information as riskier and inferred more accurately in the frequency condition than in the probability condition for both base rate and posterior probability. However, there was no frequency range effect, which suggested that the ranges of frequency format did not influence risk ratings. In order to find out how the analytic thought system influences risk ratings, we compared the ratings of a computation condition and those of a no-computation condition and still found the numerical format effect in computation condition. In Study 2, we examined the numerical format effect and frequency range effect in a high and a low probability condition and found the numerical format effect at each probability level. This result suggests that people feel riskier in the frequency format than in the probability format regardless of the base rates and the posterior probability. We also found a frequency range effect only for the low base rate condition. Our results were discussed in terms of the dual process theories.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7229-7235
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• 2013

Background: To determine whether the Health Partner Program is effective in training long-term cancer survivors to be health coaches. Materials and Methods: We randomly assigned cancer survivors who were selected through a rigorous screening process to either the Health Partner Program or the waiting-list control group. The program consisted of 8 weeks of training in health management, leadership, and coaching. At baseline, 8, and 16 weeks, we measured primary outcomes using the Seven Habit Profile (SHP), the Korean Leadership Coaching Competency Inventory (KCCI), Ed Diner's Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Posttraumatic Growth inventory (PTGI) and secondary outcomes using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) short form 36-item questionnaire (SF-36). Results: We recruited 70 subjects and randomly assigned 34 to the intervention group. The Sharpen the Saw habit of the SHP increased significantly more in intervention group than in the control group (p=0.049), as did most PTGI factors. The intervention group also showed a significantly greater enhancement of vitality (p=0.015) and mental health (p=0.049) SF-36 scores but no improvement in KCCI, SWLS, HADS, or IES-R scores. The intervention group also showed a greater clinically meaningful improvement in the "Think Win-Win" of SHP (p=0.043) and in the personal strength score (p=0.025) and total score (p=0.015) of the PTGI. Conclusions: Long-term cancer survivors can benefit from the Health Partner Program to become health coaches.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.788-794
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• 2009

Both strains of KD-1212 and DAH-1056 were isolated and identified from animal manure-contaminated soil by screening bacterial strains for the removal of sulfur compound-malodor with such substrate as sodium thiosulfate or free sulfur. Then the characteristics on the incubation of these microbes were observed under various incubating-condition such as pH, temperature, aerobic or anaerobic, substrate(sulfur compound) concentration, nitrogen and carbon source and rotating speed for mixing, and the optimum incubating condition was established. The optimum pHs of KD-1212 and DAH-1056 were 7.0 and 4.0, respectively, and their optimum temperatures were in the range of $30{\sim}35^{\circ}C$. Another autotrophic strain, ED-1138, was isolated from contaminated soil. The strain DAH-1056 excelled a strain Thiobacillus sp. IW in eliminating hydrogen sulfide during the process of malodor-biofiltration with a fixed strain. The characteristics on the incubation of strain KD-1212 were observed under various substrate-concentrations, nitrogen and carbon sources. KD-1212 favored glucose and maltose, and yeast extract as carbon sources and nitrogen source, respectively. The optimum concentrations of substrate and nitrogen source were 25 mM of sodium thiosulfate and 0.5% yeast extract, respectively for the growth of strain KD-1212.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.629-642
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• 2018

Future variability of the spatial patterns of rainfall events is the point of water-related risks and impacts of climate change. Recent related researches are mostly conducted based on the outcomes from General Circulation Models (GCMs), especially Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, phase 5 (CMIP5) GCMs which are the most advanced version of climate modeling system. GCM data have been widely used for various studies as the data utility keep getting improved. Meanwhile the model performances especially for raw GCM outputs are rarely evaluated prior to the applications although the process would essential for reasonable use of model forecasts. This study attempt to quantitatively evaluate the skills of 29 CMIP5 GCMs in reproducing spatial climatologies of precipitation in East Asia. We used 3 different gridded observational data as the references available over the study area and calculated correlation and errors of spatial patterns simulated by GCMs. As a result, the study presented diversity of the GCM evaluation in the performance, rank, or accuracy by different configurations, such as target area, evaluation method, and observation data. Yet, we found that Hadley-centre affiliated models comparatively performs better for the meso-scale area in East Asia and MPI_ESM_MR and CMCC family showed better performance specifically for the korean peninsula. We expect that the results and thoughts of this study would be considered in screening suitable GCMs for specific area, and finally contribute to extensive utilization of the results from climate change related researches.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.178-185
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• 2008

Living donor liver transplantation is increasingly performed as an alternative to cadaveric transplantation. Preoperative screening of the donor candidates is very important. The quality, size, and vascular and biliary anatomy of the liver are best assessed with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging or computed tomography (CT). In particular, the volume of the potential graft must be measured to ensure sufficient liver function after surgery. Preoperative liver segmentation has proved useful for measuring the graft volume before living donor liver transplantations in previous studies. In these studies, the liver segments were manually delineated on each image section. The delineated areas were multiplied by the section thickness to obtain volumes and summed to obtain the total volume of the liver segments. This process is tedious and time consuming. To compensate for this problem, automatic segmentation techniques have been proposed with multiplanar CT images. These methods involve the use of sequences of thresholding, morphologic operations (ie, mathematic operations, such as image dilation, erosion, opening, and closing, that are based on shape), and 3D region growing methods. These techniques are complex but require a few computation times. We made a phantom for volume measurement with pig and evaluated actual volume of spleen and liver of phantom. The results represent that our semiautomatic volume measurement algorithm shows a good accuracy and repeatability with actual volume of phantom and possibility for clinical use to assist physician as a measuring tool.