• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.565-574
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• 2024

Objective: To evaluate the safety and clinical outcomes of the Passeo-18 Lux drug-coated balloon (DCB) in endovascular revascularization procedures under real-world conditions in a Korean population with atherosclerotic disease of the infrainguinal arteries, including below-the-knee (BTK) arteries. Materials and Methods: Eight institutions in the Republic of Korea participated in this prospective, multicenter, single-arm, post-market surveillance study. Two hundred patients with Rutherford class 2-5 peripheral arterial disease and infrainguinal lesions suitable for endovascular treatment were competitively enrolled. Data were collected at baseline, the time of intervention, discharge, and 1-, 6-, 12-, and 24-month follow-up visits. The primary safety endpoint was freedom from major adverse events (MAE) within 6 months (except when limiting the time frame for procedure- or device-related mortality to within 30 days), and the primary effectiveness endpoint was freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization (CD-TLR) within 12 months after the procedure. Results: A total of 197 patients with 332 target lesions were analyzed. Two-thirds of the patients had diabetes mellitus, and 41.6% had chronic limb-threatening ischemia. The median target lesion length was 100 mm (interquartile range: 56-133 mm). Of the target lesions, 35.2% were occlusions, and 14.8% were located in the BTK arteries. Rate of freedom from MAE was 97.9% at 6 months, and the rate of freedom from CD-TLR was 95.0% and 92.2% at 12 and 24 months, respectively. Subgroup analysis of 43 patients and 49 target lesions involving the BTK arteries showed rate of freedom from MAE of 92.8% at 6 months and rates of freedom from CD-TLR of 88.8% and 84.4% at 12 and 24 months, respectively. Conclusion: The results of the present study, including the BTK subgroup analysis, showed outcomes comparable to those of other DCB studies, confirming the safety and effectiveness of Passeo-18 Lux DCB in the Korean population.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.285-290
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• 2020

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), a member of the genus Aphthovirus in the Picornaviridae family, affects wild and domesticated ruminants and pigs. FMDV causes various clinical symptoms, including severe inflammation in infected tissue. Genome RNA of FMDV shows a positive single-strand chain approximately 8.3 kb long and encodes a single long open reading frame (ORF). The ORF is translated into structural and non-structural proteins by viral proteases. The FMDV 2C protein is one of the non-structural proteins encoded by FMDV and plays a critical role in FMD pathogenesis, including inflammation, apoptosis, and viral replication. In this study, we examined whether FMDV 2C induces intracellular expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα). FMDV 2C expression in pig IBRS-2 cells increased mRNA and protein expression of TNFα at the transcriptional level via activation of TNFα promoter. Treatment with 4-phenylbutyric acid, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress reducer, decreased TNFα expression induced by FMDV 2C. Activating transcription factor 4 (ATF4), a transcription factor mediating ER stress response, induced transactivation of TNFα promoter and expression of mRNA and protein of TNFα. However, the dominant negative mutant of ATF4 did not induce FMDV 2C-mediated TNFα expression. The results indicate that FMDV 2C protein increases clinical inflammation via ATF4-mediated TNFα expression and is associated with ER stress induction.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.318-324
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• 2004

Purpose: Philips GEMINI is a newly introduced whole-body GSO PET/CT scanner. In this study, performance of the scanner including spatial resolution, sensitivity, scatter fraction, noise equivalent count ratio (NECR) was measured utilizing NEMA NU2-2001 standard protocol and compared with performance of LSO, BGO crystal scanner. Methods: GEMINI is composed of the Philips ALLEGRO PET and MX8000 D multi-slice CT scanners. The PET scanner has 28 detector segments which have an array of 29 by 22 GSO crystals ($4{\times}6{\times}20$ mm), covering axial FOV of 18 cm. PET data to measure spatial resolution, sensitivity, scatter fraction, and NECR were acquired in 3D mode according to the NEMA NU2 protocols (coincidence window: 8 ns, energy window: $409[\sim}664$ keV). For the measurement of spatial resolution, images were reconstructed with FBP using ramp filter and an iterative reconstruction algorithm, 3D RAMLA. Data for sensitivity measurement were acquired using NEMA sensitivity phantom filled with F-18 solution and surrounded by $1{\sim}5$ aluminum sleeves after we confirmed that dead time loss did not exceed 1%. To measure NECR and scatter fraction, 1110 MBq of F-18 solution was injected into a NEMA scatter phantom with a length of 70 cm and dynamic scan with 20-min frame duration was acquired for 7 half-lives. Oblique sinograms were collapsed into transaxial slices using single slice rebinning method, and true to background (scatter+random) ratio for each slice and frame was estimated. Scatter fraction was determined by averaging the true to background ratio of last 3 frames in which the dead time loss was below 1%. Results: Transverse and axial resolutions at 1cm radius were (1) 5.3 and 6.5 mm (FBP), (2) 5.1 and 5.9 mm (3D RAMLA). Transverse radial, transverse tangential, and axial resolution at 10 cm were (1) 5.7, 5.7, and 7.0 mm (FBP), (2) 5.4, 5.4, and 6.4 mm (3D RAMLA). Attenuation free values of sensitivity were 3,620 counts/sec/MBq at the center of transaxial FOV and 4,324 counts/sec/MBq at 10 cm offset from the center. Scatter fraction was 40.6%, and peak true count rate and NECR were 88.9 kcps @ 12.9 kBq/mL and 34.3 kcps @ 8.84 kBq/mL. These characteristics are better than that of ECAT EXACT PET scanner with BGO crystal. Conclusion: The results of this field test demonstrate high resolution, sensitivity and count rate performance of the 3D PET/CT scanner with GSO crystal. The data provided here will be useful for the comparative study with other 3D PET/CT scanners using BGO or LSO crystals.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.96-110
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• 2017

Most of vehicle detection studies using the existing general lens or wide-angle lens have a blind spot in the rear detection situation, the image is vulnerable to noise and a variety of external environments. In this paper, we propose a method that is detection in harsh external environment with noise, blind spots, etc. First, using a fish-eye lens will help minimize blind spots compared to the wide-angle lens. When angle of the lens is growing because nonlinear radial distortion also increase, calibration was used after initializing and optimizing the distortion constant in order to ensure accuracy. In addition, the original image was analyzed along with calibration to remove fog and calibrate brightness and thereby enable detection even when visibility is obstructed due to light and dark adaptations from foggy situations or sudden changes in illumination. Fog removal generally takes a considerably significant amount of time to calculate. Thus in order to reduce the calculation time, remove the fog used the major fog removal algorithm Dark Channel Prior. While Gamma Correction was used to calibrate brightness, a brightness and contrast evaluation was conducted on the image in order to determine the Gamma Value needed for correction. The evaluation used only a part instead of the entirety of the image in order to reduce the time allotted to calculation. When the brightness and contrast values were calculated, those values were used to decided Gamma value and to correct the entire image. The brightness correction and fog removal were processed in parallel, and the images were registered as a single image to minimize the calculation time needed for all the processes. Then the feature extraction method HOG was used to detect the vehicle in the corrected image. As a result, it took 0.064 seconds per frame to detect the vehicle using image correction as proposed herein, which showed a 7.5% improvement in detection rate compared to the existing vehicle detection method.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2013

In order to provide basic data for the development of a controlled environment cultivation system and standardization of the structures, structural status and improvement methods were investigated for the fruit tree greenhouses of grape, pear, and peach. The greenhouses for citrus and grape cultivation are increasing while pear and persimmon greenhouses are gradually decreasing due to the advance of storage facilities. In the future, greenhouse cultivation will expand for the fruit trees which are more effective in cultivation under rain shelter and are low in storage capability. Fruit tree greenhouses were mostly complying with standards of farm supply type models except for a pear greenhouse and a large single-span peach greenhouse. It showed that there was no greenhouse specialized in each species of fruit tree. Frame members of the fruit tree greenhouses were mostly complying with standards of the farm supply type model or the disaster tolerance type model published by MIFAFF and RDA. In most cases, the concrete foundations were used. The pear greenhouse built with the column of larger cross section than the disaster tolerance type. The pear greenhouse had also a special type of foundation with the steel plate welded at the bottom of columns and buried in the ground. As the results of the structural safety analysis of the fruit tree greenhouses, the grape greenhouses in Gimcheon and Cheonan and the peach greenhouses in Namwon and Cheonan appeared to be vulnerable for snow load whereas the peach greenhouse in Namwon was not safe enough to withstand wind load. The peach greenhouse converted from a vegetable growing facility turned out to be unsafe for both snow and wind loads. Considering the shape, height and planting space of fruit tree, the appropriate size of greenhouses was suggested that the grape greenhouse be 7.0~8.0 m wide and 2.5~2.8 m high for eaves, while 6.0~7.0 m wide and 3.0~3.3 m of eaves height for the pear and peach greenhouses.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.31 no.1 s.60
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• pp.15-26
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• 1998

p53 is the most frequently mutated gene in female breast cancer tissues and the prognosis of breast cancer could be changed by mutation of the gene. This study was performed to examine risk factors for breast cancer subtypes classified by p53 mutation and to investigate the roles of p53 gene mutation in carcinogenesis of breast cancer. The study subjects were 81 breast cancer patients and 121 controls who were matched to cases 1:1 or 1:2 age, residence, education level and menopausal status. All the subjects were interviewed by a well-trained nurse with standardized questionnaire on reproductive factors, and wire asked to fill the self-administrative food frequency questionnaire. p53 gene mutation in the cancer tissue was screened using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) method. Mutation type was identified by direct sequencing of the exon of which mobility shift was observed in SSCP analysis. Mutations were detected in p53 gene of 25 breast cancer tissues. By direct sequencing, base substitutions were found in 20 cancer tissues (10 transition and 10 transversion), and frame shift mutations in 5 (4 insertions and 1 deletion). For the whole cases and controls, risk of breast cancer incidence decreased when the parity increased, and increased when intake amount of total calory, fat, or protein increased. Eat and protein were statistically significant risk factors for breast cancer with p53 mutation. For breast cancer without p53 mutation, protein intake was the only significant dietary factor. These results suggest that causes of p53 positive breast lancer would be different from those of p53 negative cancer, and that dietary factors or related hormonal factors induce mutation of p53, which may be the first step of breast cancer development or a promoter following some unidentified genetic mutations.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.648-655
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• 2010

This study is the first comprehensive report on the molecular cloning, structural characterization, sequence comparison between wild and mutant types, copy number in the genome, expression features and activities of a gene encoding 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) in Korean lawn grass ($Zoysia$ $japonica$). The full length cDNA of the EPSPS from Korean lawn grass ($zj$EPSPS) obtained from a 3' and 5' RACE method was 1540 bp, containing a 1176 bp ORF, a 144 bp leader sequence (5' UTR) and a 220 bp 3' UTR, which was eventually decoded 391 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 41.74 kDa. The Southern blot detection of the $zj$EPSPS showed that the gene exists as a single copy in the Korean lawn grass genome. Sequence comparison of the $zj$EPSPS gene demonstrated that the glyphosate-tolerant mutant (GT) having a Pro-53 to Ser substitution in the gene seems to have a preferred binding activity of the enzyme to phosphoenol pyruvate(PEP) over glyphosate, which allows the continuous synthesis of aromatic amino acids in the shikimate pathway. From the Northern blotting analysis, the $zj$EPSPS was found to be highly expressed, with continuous increase until 36 hours after 0.5% glyphosate treatment in both wild and mutant samples, but 1.5-fold higher EPSP synthase activity was observed in the tolerant mutant when exposed to the glyphosate treatment. The molecular information of the $zj$EPSPS gene obtained from this study needs to be further dissected to be more effectively applied to the development of gene-specific DNA markers and zoysiagrass cultivars; nevertheless, the glyphosate-tolerant mutant having the featured $zj$EPSPS gene can be provided to turfgrass managers for weed problems with timely adoptable management options.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.121-150
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• 1997

This Study puts the purpose to explicate the regionalities of land-lease farming by a comparative analisis of the five case study areas in Kungpook Province as the agricultural space system of Teagu metropolitan city. For the regional comparative analysis the province was divided into the three zones with the distance from the central city(Teagu): urban fringes, intermediate and remote zone, and then subdivided into the five regions by farming systems : horticulture, rice-farming, and dry-field farming. The data were collected from 77 land-leasing farmers by questionnaire and interview with farm managers in 5 sample villages representing the regionalities of the above five regions respectively. In spite of relatively restricted scope of the research areas, the analytical results appear remarkable regional differences in the characteristics of land-lease farming within a single agricultural space system. In the final analysis the regionalities of the five land-lease farming regions could be described respectively as follows. (1) Koryong-Gun in the inner urban fringe zone : The developing land-lease farming region of commercialized suburban horticulture with medium scale. (2) Songju-Gun in the outer urban fringe zone : The developing land-lease farming region of highly commercialized horticulture with large scale. (3) Uisong-Gun in the intermediate zone : The stagnated land-lease farming region of commercialized rice-farming with large scale. (4) Yongil-Gun in the intermediate zone : The stagnated land-lease farming region of commercializing dry-field farming with medium scale. (5) Ponghwa-Gun in the remote zone : The stagnated and delayed region in commercializing of intermountain dry-field land-lease farming with small scale. These varied regionalities resulted from the diverse spatiality as a complex of spatial orders and localities. The spatial orders in this study are frequently recognizable as a form of distance-decay, and the locality of a region is determined mostly by the its peculiarity of physical and population conditions. In the comparative analysis of the regionalities the degree of commercialization of a region is a most comprehensive and useful frame of reference because it reflects the degree of development of capitalist land-lease farming. Finally these apparent regional differentiations of land-lease farming within a agricultural space system raise the problem of impracticality of the existing uniform logic on the land-lease farming such as "large scale farms share larger part of leased farmland." This problem suggests the urgent need of reappraisal of many aspatial logics and theories on the land-lease farming.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.41
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• pp.533-552
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• 2015

The environment of images in VR-based animation is constructed to generate and promote interactivity between the images and the viewer without any physical space like a screen, or a monitor. In this process, the images and the viewer are combined as a complex through the media technology, that is, an interface. And it is far more in the case of the animation consisted of the bio-feedback interface closely connecting with the body of viewer. As a result, the viewer experiences a permeable interaction between ego and images world, namely virtual reality. That is different from the way of seeing and interpreting the images from a distance. So it needs to analyse the perception of viewer in the world of virtual images. This paper examines the complex phenomena of both the VR-based animation and the viewer mediated by the interface in light of Media Aesthetics. Media Aesthetics is effective in analysing the phenomena of VR-based animation, for it is concerned with the perception of viewer mediated by the media technology. The perception in VR-based animation is a full-body immersion, or embodied immersion, and it is different from the contemplative immersion in that it is remediated continuously by the technological apparatus. The viewer as an immersant, especially with a bio-feedback interface, can immediately touch and control the images in VR-based animation. Such an immersion, therefore, is new every single moment. And the world of VR-based animation is ultimately constructed through the viewer's full-body, or embodied immersion crossing between the virtual and the real. So the animation is not interpreted, but embodied. And the meaning of it is constructed and reconstructed by the viewer's embodied immersion as an immersant. Here, a new frame of animation more oriented to the viewer's participation as an full-body immersant can be created.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.6-15
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• 2009

In this paper, a new 4-way search window is designed for the high-performance 2D PE architecture in H.264 Motion Estimation(ME) to improve the memory bandwidth. While existing 2D PE architectures reuse the overlapped data of adjacent search windows scanned in 1 or 3-way, the new window utilizes the overlapped data of adjacent search windows as well as adjacent multiple scanning (window) paths to enhance the reusage of retrieved search window data. In order to scan adjacent windows and multiple paths instead of single raster and zigzag scanning of adjacent windows, bidirectional row and column window scanning results in the 4-way(up. down, left, right) search window. The proposed 4-way search window could improve the reuse of overlapped window data to reduce the redundancy access factor by 3.1, though the 1/3-way search window redundantly requires $7.7{\sim}11$ times of data retrieval. Thus, the new 4-way search window scheme enhances the memory bandwidth by $70{\sim}58%$ compared with 1/3-way search window. The 2D PE architecture in H.264 ME for 4-way search window consists of $16{\times}16$ pe array. computing the absolute difference between current and reference frames, and $5{\times}16$ reusage array, storing the overlapped data of adjacent search windows and multiple scanning paths. The reference data could be loaded upward and downward into the new 2D PE depending on scanning direction, and the reusage array is combined with the pe array rotating left as well as right to utilize the overlapped data of adjacent multiple scan paths. In experiments, the new implementation of 4-way search window on Magnachip 0.18um could deal with the HD($1280{\times}720$) video of 1 reference frame, $48{\times}48$ search area and $16{\times}16$ macroblock by 30fps at 149.25MHz.