• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.576-587
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• 2009

Background: The up-regulation of the nitric oxide (NO)-cGMP pathway might be involved in the change of vascular reactivity in rats 3 days after they suffer acute myocardial infarction. However, the underlying mechanism for this has not been clarified. Material and Method: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was induced by occluding the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) for 30 min (Group AMI), whereas the sham-operated control rats were treated similarly without LAD occlusion (Group SHAM), The concentration-response relationships for phenylephrine (PE), KCl, acetylcholine (Ach) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) were determined in the endothelium intact E(+) and endothelium denuded E(-) thoracic aortic rings from the rats 3 days after AMI or a SHAM operation. The concentration-response relationships of PE in the E(+) rings from the AMI rats were compared with those relationships in the rings pretreated with nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor $N{\omega}$-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) or the cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin. The plasma nitrite/nitrate concentrations were checked via a Griess reaction. The cyclic GMP content in the thoracic aortic rings was measured by radioimmunoassay and the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) mRNA expression was assessed by real time PCR. Result: The mean infarct size (%) in the rats with AMI was $21.3{\pm}0.62%$. The heart rate and the systolic and diastolic blood pressure were not significantly changed in the AMI rats. The sensitivity of the contractile response to PE and KCl was significantly decreased in both the E(+) and E(-) aortic rings of the AMI group (p<0.05). L-NAME completely reversed these contractile responses whereas indomethacin did not (p<0.05). Moreover, the sensitivity of the relaxation response to Ach was also significantly decreased in the AMI group (p<0.05). The plasma nitrite and nitrate content (p<0.05), the basal cGMP content (p<0.05) and the eNOS mRNA expression (p=0.056) in the AMI rats were increased as compared with the SHAM group. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the increased eNOS activity and the up-regulation of the NO-cGMP pathway can be attributed to the decreased contractile or relaxation response in the rat thoracic aorta 3 days after AMI.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 2006

Objectives: This study was aimed at investigating the ratio of medical aid over health insurance of age adjusted mortality rate of tuberculosis and related factors. And we want to compare the ratio of medical aid over health insurance of age adjusted mortality rate of tuberculosis and related factors among the provinces. Methods: In order to compare, the data was referred to National health insurance center for affirming the insurance type of the dead. And age adjusted mortality rate of tuberculosis of each insurance type was analyzed by whole country and the provinces. Related factors of the provinces were gathered from public statistic books. We analysed correlation study between the ratio of medical aid over health insurance of age adjusted mortality rate of tuberculosis and related factors among the provinces. Results: Major findings were as follows 1. The ratio of medical aid over health insurance of age adjusted mortality rate of tuberculosis was 5.6. And the ratio was relatively high at 40-60 ages. 2. The ratio of medical aid over health insurance of age adjusted mortality rate of tuberculosis by the province was varying. And the factors that were financial independence, crowdedness, percent of people on medical aid, population size served by each public health center, number of hospital by a million peoples have correlated with increment of the ratio. Conclusions: As a consequence of tuberculosis control, the ratio was high. Thus this finding suggests that medical utilization and preventive behavior, environment of tuberculosis patient are under handicapped condition. Especially large cities like metropolitan area who have high financial independence, high population density, high percentage of medical aid peoples have high ratio of medical aid over health insurance of age adjusted mortality rate of tuberculosis. There is need for additional and systematic research on the attitude or tendency toward medical services(inc1uding preventive services) utilization of medical aid tuberculosis patients.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 1996

Recently diseases related to personal health habit and lifestyle have become common in modern industrial society. These kinds of diseases can be prevented simply by changing one's lifestyle to be more healthy. As a result of realization our interest in general health has become stronger. The most basic environment for human-being in society is the home. Humans secure their livelihood, physically. mentally, and socially at home. Therefore health care at home is very important. In modern society the responsibility for this task is traditionally given to housewives. The purpose of this study was to measure the degree of the health knowledge, health concern, health behavior and family health care of the married women and to analyze its related factors. The subjects for this study. 1,100 married women who studied at social education institutes and who had children attending an elementary school or a kindergarten, were surveyed with questionnaires. The preliminary survey was carried out from Aug. 7, to Aug. 19, 1995. With complement of questions, the main survey was carried out from Sep. 11, to Sep. 30, 1995. The data was analysed by using the SAS program. The results were as follows. 1. General Characteristics (1) In the individual characteristics of the respondents, the married women aged 30-39 were 54.8%, the average age was 39.8 years old. 33.8% of respondents had 6-10 years of marriage period, and the average marriage period was 14.9 years. Most of them(96.5%) lived with their husband. Those who graduated from college and graduate school were 53.4%. And 68.3% of respondents had no job. (2) In the family characteristics, 69.3% of the married women had 3 or 4 family members and the average family size was 4.1 person. 60.0% of the respondents had 2 children. Most of the respondents(90.9%) had no married children. 84.8% of the respondents lived with their parents. Those who reported that the total family income was more than 2,500,000 won a month were 32.3%. When making the decisions, 68.5% of the married women discussed the family matter with their husband. (3) In the individual characteristics of the respondents, 51.5% answered they were in good health. 61.7% of the married women answered they obtained the health knowledge through mass media. 24.3% of the women answered they had patients in their family in these days. 67.5% of the respondents answered they could generally control their health by themselves. 2. The Health Knowledge, Concern and Behavior. (1) For the health knowledge, the average score was 11.8. The lowest percent of correct answer(27.8%) was in the item about the skin tests for tuberculosis. And the highest percent(97.%) was in the item about taking a rest. (2) For the health concern, the married women had the highest concern about washing hands. But they were indifferent to smoking. (3) For the health behavior, the highest score was in "changing socks and underwear everyday", and the lowest one was in "taking a regular dental examination". 3. The Family Health Care (1) For the family health care, the item of "using a drug with the order of doctor or pharmacist" had the highest grade(4.78), and "consulting with the family physician about the health problem" had the lowest grade(2.03). (2) Older women and the women with a longer period of marriage had the highest level of the family health care(p<0.001). The married women who had 3 children had the highest level of the family health care(p<0.001). Those who had 5 or 6 family member and higher income had the highest level had the high level of the family health care(p<0.01). Women in good health and those who had the health knowledge from health experts had a high level of the family health care. (3) For the correlation of the family health care and other variables, the health behavior showed the highest correlation with family heath care practice(r=0.74) and the second was health concern(r=0.43). The variables which could explain the family health care were health behavior, the health concern and married women's health status(r²=55.87). The most closely associated with family health care was health behavior(r²=54.93)

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.93-98
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• 2011

We induced the activation of melanocytes in the epidermis of C57BL/6 mice by ultraviolet-B (UV-B) irradiation, and observed the effect of an herbal preparation (HemoHIM, HH) on the formation, and decrease of UV-B-induced epidermal melanocytes. C57BL/6 mice were irradiated by UV-B $80\;mJ{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ ($0.5\;mW{\cdot}sec^{-1}$) daily for 7 days, and HH was intraperitoneally, orally or topically applied pre- or post-irradiation. For the estimation of change of epidermal melanocytes, light microscopic observation with dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) stain was performed. Split epidermal sheets prepared from the ear of untreated mice exhibited 13~15 melanocytes${\cdot}mm^{-2}$, and one week after UV irradiation, the applied areas showed an increased number of strongly DOPA-positive melanocytes with stout dendrites. But intraperitoneal, oral or topical treatment with HH before each irradiation interrupted UV-B-induced pigmentation and resulted in a marked reduction in the number of epidermal melanocytes as compared to the number found in UV-B-irradiated, untreated control skin. The number and size of DOPA-positive epidermal melanocytes were also significantly decreased in intraperitoneally injected or topically applicated group after irradiation with HH at 3rd and 6th weeks after irradiation. The present study suggests the HH as inhibitor of UV-B-induced pigmentation, and depigmenting agent.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.123-133
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• 2007

Z-axis automatic tube current modulation technique automatically adjusts tube current based on size of body region scanned. The purpose of the current study was to compare noise, and radiation dose of multi-detector row CT (MDCT) of lower extremity performed with Z-axis modulation technique of automatic tube current modulation with manual selection fixed tube current. Fifty consecutive underwent MDCT venography of lower extremity with use of a MDCT scanner fixed tube current and Z-axis automatic tube current modulation technique (10, 11 and 12 HU noise index, $70{\sim}450\;mA$). Scanning parameters included 120 kVp, 0.5 second gantry rotation time, 1.35:1 beam pitch, and 1 mm reconstructed section thickness. For each subject, images obtained with Z-axis modulation were compared with previous images obtained with fixed tube current (200, 250, 300 mA) and with other parameters identical. Images were compared for noise at five levels: iliac, femoral, popliteal, tibial, and peroneal vein of lower extremity. Tube current and gantry rotation time used for acquisitions at these levels were recorded. All CT examinations of study and control groups were diagnostically acceptable, though objective noise was significantly more with Z-axis automatic tube current modulation. Compared with fixed tube current, 2-axis modulation resulted in reduction of CTDIvol (range, $-6.5%{\sim}-35.6%$) and DLP (range, $-0.2%{\sim}-20.2%$). Compared with manually selected fixed tube current, 2-axis automatic tube current modulation resulted in reduced radiation dose at MDCT of lower extremity venography.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.61-75
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• 2011

A Geographic Information System(GIS) is a system that captures, stores, analyzes, manages and presents data with reference to geographic location data. In the later 1990s and earlier 2000s it was limitedly used in government sectors such as public utility management, urban planning, landscape architecture, and environmental contamination control. However, a growing number of open-source packages running on a range of operating systems enabled many private enterprises to explore the concept of viewing GIS-based sales and customer data over their own computer monitors. K telecommunication company has dominated the Korean telecommunication market by providing diverse services, such as high-speed internet, PSTN(Public Switched Telephone Network), VOLP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), and IPTV(Internet Protocol Television). Even though the telecommunication market in Korea is huge, the competition between major services providers is growing more fierce than ever before. Service providers struggled to acquire as many new customers as possible, attempted to cross sell more products to their regular customers, and made more efforts on retaining the best customers by offering unprecedented benefits. Most service providers including K telecommunication company tried to adopt the concept of customer relationship management(CRM), and analyze customer's demographic and transactional data statistically in order to understand their customer's behavior. However, managing customer information has still remained at the basic level, and the quality and the quantity of customer data were not enough not only to understand the customers but also to design a strategy for marketing and sales. For example, the currently used 3,074 legal regional divisions, which are originally defined by the government, were too broad to calculate sub-regional customer's service subscription and cancellation ratio. Additional external data such as house size, house price, and household demographics are also needed to measure sales potential. Furthermore, making tables and reports were time consuming and they were insufficient to make a clear judgment about the market situation. In 2009, this company needed a dramatic shift in the way marketing and sales activities, and finally developed a dedicated GIS_based market analysis and sales management system. This system made huge improvement in the efficiency with which the company was able to manage and organize all customer and sales related information, and access to those information easily and visually. After the GIS information system was developed, and applied to marketing and sales activities at the corporate level, the company was reported to increase sales and market share substantially. This was due to the fact that by analyzing past market and sales initiatives, creating sales potential, and targeting key markets, the system could make suggestions and enable the company to focus its resources on the demographics most likely to respond to the promotion. This paper reviews subjective and unclear marketing and sales activities that K telecommunication company operated, and introduces the whole process of developing the GIS information system. The process consists of the following 5 modules : (1) Customer profile cleansing and standardization, (2) Internal/External DB enrichment, (3) Segmentation of 3,074 legal regions into 46,590 sub_regions called blocks, (4) GIS data mart design, and (5) GIS system construction. The objective of this case study is to emphasize the need of GIS system and how it works in the private enterprises by reviewing the development process of the K company's market analysis and sales management system. We hope that this paper suggest valuable guideline to companies that consider introducing or constructing a GIS information system.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.5-16
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• 2012

In the case of using the soil materials created by cutting in-situ ground directly without adjusting particle size, it is recommendable to seek the compaction property or material constant required for filling design or density control through indoor test, and many studies on this subject have been carried out during that time. The researches conducted during that time, however, were focused on the mixed materials with different diameters that exist in a natural condition. There has been no study conducted using coal fly ash that is by-product of the thermal power plant that is actively considered as the building materials. Therefore, this study was aimed at implementing compaction test and examining the basic engineering property in order to explore the influence of crushing the particles through compacting the admixture of crushed stone and coal fly ash produced from thermal power plant on its engineering property, and then the impact of the admixture volume of each material on compaction property and material property by conducting the One-Dimensional Compression Test. As result of compaction test, the optimum moisture ratio of coal fly ash was shown to be approx. 23%. As result of compaction test in accordance with the mixed ratio of coal fly ash and crushed stone under the same compaction energy and moisture ratio, dry unit weight tended to drop when the mixed ratio of coal fly ash exceeded 30%, while it reached approx. $1.81gf/cm^3$ when the mixed ratio was 30%. As result of One-Dimensional Compression Test in accordance with the mixed ratio of crushed stone and coal fly ash, the change in void ratio by particle crushing was at the highest level in the case of coal fly ash 100%, while the lowest level in the case of crushed stone 100%. In the case of mixed materials of crushed stone and coal fly ash, compression index was at the lowest level in case of coal fly ash 30%, and therefore this ratio of mixed material was judged to be the most stable from an engineering aspect.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.389-394
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• 2006

The change of antioxidative character by germination of brown rice was evaluated. From the total methanolic extract of brown rice, 2.5 mm-germinated brown rice, and 5 mm-germinated brown rice, SOD-like activity and nitrite scavenging ability were identified as antioxidative character. SOD-like activities and nitrite scavenging abilities of all samples were changed dose-dependently and germination-dependently. After successive partitioning with hexane, ethyl acetate (EtOAc) and water, each fraction was tested for these activities. SOD-like activities of all fractions were increased by germination, and especially hexane fraction and EtOAc fraction of 5 mm-germinated brown rice had more strong activities than 50 ppm vitamin C. The $EC_{50}$ values of SOD-like activity showed a gradual decrease by germination and that of EtOAc fraction of 5 mm-germinated brown rice was 17 ppm, which was lower concentration than that of 50 ppm vitamin C. The $IC_{50}$ values of nitrite scavenging ability at PH 1.5 also underwent a great decrease by germination and germinated brown rice had the nitrite scavenging ability at lower concentration than brown rice. The results suggest that SOD-like activity and nitrite scavenging ability are thought to be enhanced by the germination effect.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.33 no.4 s.99
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• pp.307-317
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• 2003

Conventional osseointegrated titanium implants have many limitations; large size, limited location for placement of the implant, severity of the surgery, discomfort of initial healing, difficulty of oral hygiene and uncontrollable force direction. Recently titanium miniscrew and miniplate have been used for an alternative to conventional dental implant. But in relation to miniplate, miniscrew has disadvantages in that more potential inflammation, light orthodontic force application and limited orthodontic application. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of miniplate by observing the reactions of peri-implant tissues to early orthodontic and orthopedic loading of titanium miniplate. In four adult beagle dogs 10 miniplates were inserted into the alveolar bone using 20 osseointegrated titanium screws. 4 miniplates were placed in two dogs(dogA, B) and 6 miniplates in two dogs(dogC, D). In dogA, B miniplates were loaded with 200gm of force immediately after placement for 15 weeks. In dogc, D, miniplates were loaded with 400gm of force immediately after placement for 8 weeks. Miniplates of dogA were removed, dogA was healed for 4 weeks, and the area which was removed of miniscrew was examined. Following an observation period, the miniplates including miniscrews and the surrounding bone of dogB and dogC, D were removed, respectively. Undecalcified section along the long axis of miniscrews were made and the degree of osseointegration was examined under the light microscope. The results were as follows. 1. In the histologic features there was direct contact between bone and miniscrew in all groups except one, dogC control group. The loaded miniscrew demonstrated only a slight increase of the osseous proximaty when compared with unloaded miniscrew 2. There was no significant difference of the osseointegration of Peri-miniscrew surface between dogB and dogC, D. But dogB showed slightly more increased bone apposition than dogC, D 3. The gingiva overlapping the miniplate and miniscrew showed no inflammatory sign in clinical and histological aspects. 4. The impaled hard and soft tissues at the area which was removed of miniscrews showed good healing without inflammatory reaction. 5. The mobility showed slight increase in un-loaded miniplate but that was insignificant. Based on the results of this study, miniplate(C-tube) can be used as a firm osseous orthodontic and orthopedic anchorage unit immediately after insertion.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.140-151
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• 2002

Object and Method:Minor physical anomalies(MPAs) are frequently seen in patients with schizophrenia. MPAs are considered to arise from the anomalous development of ectoderm-originated tissues in the developing fetus. Since the central nervous system originates from ectoderm, MPAs can be regarded as externally observable and objective indicators of the aberrant development which might have taken place in the central nervous system. To investigate whether MPAs are more frequent in schizophrenic patients, the frequencies of MPAs were compared between schizophrenic patients and normal controls. Total 245 schizophrenic patients diagnosed with DSM-IV(male : 158, female : 87), and 418 normal control subjects(male : 216, female : 202) were included in this study. The MPAs were measured using the modified Waldrop scale with fifteen items in six bodily regions; head, eye, ear, mouth, hand, and foot. Result:The total scores of Waldrop scale were $4.40{\pm}1.93$($mean{\pm}standard$ deviation) in patients and $3.43{\pm}1.68$ in controls for females, and for males, $4.58{\pm}1.75$ in patients and $4.28{\pm}1.59$ in controls. For females, the excess of MPAs in schizophrenic patients was statistically significant(t-test : p<0.001). For males, schizophrenic patients also showed more MPAs than normal controls, but this tendency did not reach statistical significance (t-test : p=0.094). When the modified Waldrop total scores excluding head circumference were compared, the total scores in schizophrenic patients were significantly higher for both male and female subjects(t-test : male p<0.001, female p=0.001). The individual anomaly items included in Waldrop scale were also investigated. The items of epicanthus, hypertelorism, malformed ears, syndactylia were significantly more frequent in schizophrenic patients. In contrast, the items of adherent ear lobes, asymmetric ears, furrowed tongue, curved fifth finger, single palmar crease and big gap between toes did not show any differences in frequency between schizophrenic patients and normal controls. Since a lot of statistical analyses showed different results between male and female subjects, it seems to be necessary to consider gender as an important controlling variable for the analysis, however only the item of head circumference showed statistically significant gender-related difference according to log-linear analysis. Conclusion:With a relatively large sample size, the frequencies of MPAs enlisted in Waldrop scale were compared between schizophrenic patients and normal controls in this study. MPAs were more frequently seen in schizophrenic patients and, especially, several specific items in the Waldrop scale showed prominent excess in schizophrenic patients. Although definite conclusions cannot be drawn due to the inherent limitation of the study using Waldrop scale, these results seem to support the possibility that aberrant neurodevelopmental process might be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia in some of the patients.