• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.307-315
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to study the differences of cyclooxygenase (COX-2) expression between Korean and Caucasian patients with early-onset breast carcinoma by immunohistochemistry. The test were analyzed to find a correlation between COX-2 and other biomarkers including HER-2/neu amplification, because we previously reported that a significant difference had been found in the expression of HER-2/neu between the two races. Furthermore, we investigated prognostic significance of COX-2 in korean patients. Materials and Methods: Sixty Korean women who were diagnosed breast carcinoma at 45 years old or younger and 60 Caucasian women with breast carcinoma were selected for this study. The median age of both groups was 37 years and tumor sizes were distributed evenly between the two group. Paraffin embedded blocks of primary tumor were processed for immunohistochemical staining of COX-2. The COX-2 expression was evaluated according to the percentage of positive cells and the intensity of staining. And the results were compared with the data of the previous studies to find correlation between COX-2 and other parameters and survival data. Results: Proportion of the COX-2 expression in total patients was $27.6\%$. The percentage of tumors that stained positive for COX-2 in korean and Caucasian women with early-onset breast carcinoma were $37.9\%$ and $20.8\%$, respectively. The difference was statistically not significant(p=0.090). Expression of COX-2 was not associated with several clinicopathologic parameters including HER-2/neu overexpression, but negative estrogen receptor status was correlated with significance (p=0.046). The 5 year disease free survival rate for patients with COX-2 expression was $67.9\%$, compared to $81.9\%$ of the COX-2 negative patients and the result was statistically not significant. Conclusions : A significant difference was not found in the expression of COX-2 between the two groups of patients with early-onset breast carcinoma. And correlation between COX-2 and other parameters was not observed except estrogen receptor negativity. Large scaled further research including radiotherapy factors will be needed to identify COX-2 as a prognostic role in patients with early-onset breast carcinoma.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.5-9
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• 2010

In recent, a digital x-ray detector attracted worldwide attention and there are many studies to commercialize. There are two methods in digital x-ray detector. This method is an Indirect method and Direct method. This study is to see the differences between the digital x-ray detector based on a-Se used in the existing indirect conversion method and an x-ray conversion material that has better SNR(Signal-to-noise ratio) and property than the a-Se. To solve the problem that is difficult to make a large area film using Screen-Print method, we used a Screen-Print method. In this study, we used a polyclystal $HgI_2$ as x-ray conversion material and a sample thickness is $150{\mu}m$ and an area is $3cm{\times}3cm$. ITO(Indium-Tin-Oxide) electrode was used as top electrode using a Magnetron Sputtering System and each area is $3cm{\times}3cm$, $2cm{\times}2cm$ and $1cm{\times}1cm$ and then we evaluated darkcurrent, sensitivity and SNR of the $HgI_2$ film are measured, then we evaluated the electrical properties. And we used a current integration mode when I-V test. This experiment shows that the sensitivity increases in accordance with the area of the electrode but the SNR is decreased because of the high darkcurrent. Through fabricating of various thicknesses and optimal electrodes, we will optimize SNR in the future work.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.29-48
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide the basic information on the improvement plan by identifying the role accomplishment and job satisfaction of the hospice nurses and analyzing the factors that impact such role accomplishment and job satisfaction. Methods: The data was collected of 189 hospice nurses who have been working more than 6 months in 56 hospice programs registered in Korea Hospice Association and Korean Catholic Hospice Association from October to November, 2007 by structured questionnaire which was developed by Ryu(1979), based on the Riehl's nursing role and the research of Choe(2005) on the role of hospice nurse. Results: The role accomplishment and job satisfaction of the study subject were 3.53 point and 3.39 point, respectively. The roles of hospice nurses were accomplished by the order of advocator, nursing care provider, coordinator (cooperation), educator, quality manager, counsellor, administrator, and researcher. The job satisfaction of the hospice nurses was shown highest in the satisfaction of professional status, followed by the satisfaction of the interaction, satisfaction of the task itself, satisfaction of the administrative aspect, satisfaction of the autonomous, and the lowest in the satisfaction of the pay. The role accomplishment of the subjects according to their socio-demographic and job characteristics was found to have a significant difference by their age, marriage status, academic background, and position. It also has a significant difference by whether they play role of coordinator, whether they took whole responsibility as hospice, working experience as hospice/palliative nurse, and the level of hospice/palliative nursing training(p<.05). In the study of job satisfaction of the subjects according to their socio-demographic and job characteristics, the job satisfaction was found to have a significant difference by the increase of age, the number of duties consisting the hospice team, whether they play role of coordinator, whether they take whole responsibility as hospice, the level of hospice/palliative nursing training, and whether they wish to work for as long as possible(p<.05). The role accomplishment and the job satisfaction of the subjects showed a statistically significant positive correlation. (r=.541, p<.01) Conclusion: Raised saiary will be increased hospice nurse's job satisfaction. And we suggest a repetitive study using the identical tool to the equally extracted subjects with same representativeness of each hospice/palliative institute type. For the expanded role and enhanced professional standard of hospice nurses, we also suggest a study on the improvement plan to enhance the roles of researcher and administrator.

• Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.648-661
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• 2018

Purpose: Pollen-food allergy syndrome (PFAS) is an immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated allergy in pollinosis patients caused by raw fruits and vegetables and is the most common food allergy in adults. However, there has been no nationwide study on PFAS in Korea. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and clinical characteristics of PFAS in Korea. Methods: Twenty-two investigators participated in this study, in which patients with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and/or bronchial asthma with pollen allergy were enrolled. The questionnaires included demographic characteristics, a list of fruits and vegetables, and clinical manifestations of food allergy. Pollen allergy was diagnosed by skin prick test and/or measurement of the serum level of specific IgE. Results: A total of 648 pollinosis patients were enrolled. The prevalence of PFAS was 41.7% (n = 270). PFAS patients exhibited cutaneous (43.0%), respiratory (20.0%), cardiovascular (3.7%) or neurologic symptoms (4.8%) in addition to oropharyngeal symptoms. Anaphylaxis was noted in 8.9% of the PFAS patients. Seventy types of foods were linked to PFAS; e.g., peach (48.5%), apple (46.7%), kiwi (30.4%), peanut (17.4%), plum (16.3%), chestnut (14.8%), pineapple (13.7%), walnut (14.1%), Korean melon (12.6%), tomato (11.9%), melon (11.5%) and apricot (10.7%). Korean foods such as taro/taro stem (8.9%), ginseong (8.2%), perilla leaf (4.4%), bellflower root (4.4%), crown daisy (3.0%), deodeok (3.3%), kudzu root (3.0%) and lotus root (2.6%) were also linked to PFAS. Conclusions: This was the first nationwide study of PFAS in Korea. The prevalence of PFAS was 41.7%, and 8.9% of the PFAS patients had anaphylaxis. These results will provide clinically useful information to physicians.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.868-873
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• 2019

In this study, the evaluation of performance of AORFB using methyl viologen and TEMPOL as organic active materials in neutral supporting electrolyte (NaCl) with various membrane types was performed. Using methyl viologen and TEMPOL as active materials in neutral electrolyte solution, the cell voltage is 1.37V which is relatively high value for AORFB. Two types of membranes were examined for performance comparison. First, when using Nafion 117 membrane which is commercial cation exchange membrane, only the charge process occurred in the first cycle and the single cell couldn't work because of its high resistance. However, when using Fumasep anion exchange membrane (FAA-3-50) instead of Nafion 117 membrane, the result was obtained as the totally different charge-discharge graphs. When current density was $40mA{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ and cut off voltage range was from 0.55 V to 1.7 V, the charge efficiency (CE) was 97% and voltage efficiency (VE) was 78%. In addition, the discharge capacity was $1.44Ah{\cdot}L^{-1}$ which was 54% of theoretical capacity ($2.68Ah{\cdot}L^{-1}$) at $10^{th}$ cycle and the capacity loss rate was $0.0015Ah{\cdot}L^{-1}$ per cycle during 50 cycles. Through cyclic voltammetry test, it seems that this difference in the performance between the full cell using Nafion 117 membrane and Fumasep anion exchange membrane came from increasing resistance due to chemical reaction between membrane and active material, not the capacity loss due to cross-over of active material through membrane.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.419-428
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• 2021

In order to develope a mobile-based greenhouse energy calculation program, firstly, the overall thermal transmittance of 10 types of major covers and 16 types of insulation materials were measured. In addition, to estimate the overall thermal transmittance when the cover and insulation materials were installed in double or triple layers, 24 combinations of double installations and 59 combinations of triple installations were measured using the hotbox. Also, the overall thermal transmittance value for a single material and the thermal resistance value were used to calculate the overall thermal transmittance value at the time of multi-layer installation of covering and insulating materials, and the linear regression equation was derived to correct the error with the measured values. As a result of developing the model for estimating thermal transmittance when installing multiple layers of coverings and insulating materials based on the value of overall thermal transmittance of a single-material, the model evaluation index was 0.90 (good when it is 0.5 or more), indicating that the estimated value was very close to the actual value. In addition, as a result of the on-site test, it was evaluated that the estimated heat saving rate was smaller than the actual value with a relative error of 2%. Based on these results, a mobile-based greenhouse energy calculation program was developed that was implemented as an HTML5 standard web-based mobile web application and was designed to work with various mobile device and PC browsers with N-Screen support. It had functions to provides the overall thermal transmittance(heating load coefficient) for each combination of greenhouse coverings and thermal insulation materials and to evaluate the energy consumption during a specific period of the target greenhouse. It was estimated that an energy-saving greenhouse design would be possible with the optimal selection of coverings and insulation materials according to the region and shape of the greenhouse.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.91-97
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• 2019

Oxidative desulfurization (ODS) has received much attention in recent years because refractory sulfur compounds such as dibenzothiophenes can be oxidized selectively to their corresponding sulfoxides and sulfones, and these products can be removed by extraction and adsorption. In this work, The oxidative desulfurization of marine diesel fuel was performed in a batch reactor with hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) in the presence of various supported heteropoly acid catalysts. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, XRF, XPS and nitrogen adsorption isotherm techniques. Based on the sulfur removal efficiency of promising silica supported heteropoly acid catalysts, the ranking of catalytic activity was: $30\;H_3PW_{12}/SiO_2$ > $30\;H_3PMo_{12}/SiO_2$ > $30\;H_4SiW_{12}/SiO_2$, which appears to be related with their intrinsic acid strength. The $30\;H_3PW_{12}/SiO_2$ catalyst showed the highest initial sulfur removal efficiency of about 66% under reaction conditions of $30^{\circ}C$, $0.025g\;mL^{-1}$ (cat./oil), 1 h reaction time. However, through the recycle test of the $H_3PW_{12}/SiO_2$ catalyst, significant deactivation was observed, which was attributed to the elution of the active component $H_3PW_{12}$. By introducing cesium cation ($Cs^+$) into the $H_3PW_{12}/SiO_2$ catalyst, the stability of the catalyst was improved with changing the solubility, and the $Cs^+$ ion exchanged catalyst could be recycled for at least five times without severe elution.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.727-735
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• 2018

Targeting the radiological technologists working in Gyoungsangnam province, this study was performed to obtain the fundamental data to improve the competency and right awareness of the hospital infection management, and to educate infection management of radiological technologists by analyzing the status, awareness, and performance of the hospital infection management. During April 1, 2018 to April 31, 2015, after we sent out a total of 400 questionnaires for the survey to radiological technologists working at the clinic located in Gyoungsangnam province, 320 questionnaires suitable for research were analysis by using SPSS 18.0 statistical analysis software. As the hospital infection management factors, 5 items for hospital infection and 60 items of the awareness and performance for the hospital infection management were used. 60 items of the awareness and performance for the hospital infection management were consisted hand hygiene, personal hygiene and clothing, medical equipment and supplies, cleaning and waste, examination and environment. And as the sociodemographic characteristics, the gender, marriage, age, level of education, working organization, working period, and working department were used. Consequentially, the awareness for the hospital infection management($4.19{\pm}.60$) and the performance($4.22{\pm}.52$) were confirmed as high level. Using these results, the hospital infection management level of the radiological technologists working in Gyoungsangnam province was found to be high in arareness and performance of hospital infection management. There was a significant correlation between the degree of awareness and performance of radiological technologists for hospital infection management. Furthermore, in the multiple regression analysis of cognitive factors on performance, it was found that 66.1% explanatory power had a significant positive influence. In order to improve the awareness of hospital infection management of radiological technologist working in various departments, the infection management education and improvement of hospital work environment are necessary. And also, It is important to participate actively in hospital infection management and preventive education and to play a pivotal role in securing expertise in hospital infection management.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.18-35
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• 2019

The Korea District Heating Corporation operates a gas engine generator with a capacity of $4500m^3 /day$ of biogas generated from the sewage treatment plant of the Nanji Water Recycling Center and 1,500 kW. However, the actual operation experience of the biogas power plant is insufficient, and due to lack of accumulated technology and know-how, frequent breakdown and stoppage of the gas engine causes a lot of economic loss. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare technical fundamental measures for stable operation of the power plant In this study, a series of process problems of the gas engine plant using the biogas generated in the sewage treatment plant of the Nanji Water Recovery Center were identified and the optimization of the actual operation was made by minimizing the problems in each step. In order to purify the gas, which is the main cause of the failure stop, the conditions for establishing the quality standard of the adsorption capacity of the activated carbon were established through the analysis of the components and the adsorption test for the active carbon being used at present. In addition, the system was applied to actual operation by applying standards for replacement cycle of activated carbon to minimize impurities, strengthening measurement period of hydrogen sulfide, localization of activated carbon, and strengthening and improving the operation standards of the plant. As a result, the operating performance of gas engine # 1 was increased by 530% and the operation of the second engine was increased by 250%. In addition, improvement of vent line equipment has reduced work process and increased normal operation time and operation rate. In terms of economic efficiency, it also showed a sales increase of KRW 77,000 / year. By applying the strengthening and improvement measures of operating standards, it is possible to reduce the stoppage of the biogas plant, increase the utilization rate, It is judged to be an operational plan.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2019

Purpose An examination guide is a useful medium to provide the patient with an overview, pre- and post-test preparation, and precautions of nuclear testing. The design and arrangement of existing written texts and announcements were evaluated to elucidate the comprehension of patients undergoing testing. Materials and Methods Informational material describing bone scanning and $^{201}thallium$ myocardium perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), as a secondary examination, which accounts for the largest portion of gamma imaging at Asan Hospital (Seoul, South Korea), was selected as an improvement target in consultation with a national innovation center. Existing informational material was dispensed to patients scheduled for bone scans from November 2016 to February 2017 and the revised material was issued from March 2017 to May 2017. A survey was conducted of 200 patients who underwent $^{201}thallium$ myocardium perfusion SPECT before and after the revisions (n = 100 each time period) to assess the patients' understanding of the informational material. Results When comparing the use of the conventional vs. revised material, the number of patients who received treatment before bone scanning had decreased from 130 to 60, while the number of those who required additional imaging decreased from 53 to 14. Prior to the revision, 43% of patients underwent testing before preparation and 18% underwent additional testing. The decreased need for additional image acquisition after revision of the informational material resulted in a decrease in acquisition time of about 2 min, from 16.5 to 14.2 min. In the case of $^{201}thallium$ myocardium perfusion SPECT, patient comprehension of all five items surveyed had increased, while the number of patients who had repeatedly asked about various facets of the procedure pre- and post-testing had decreased from 36% to 16% and 31% to 14%, respectively. Conclusion Lower patient comprehension is accompanied by a decrease in image quality due to non-compliance during pre-testing and may lead to repetitive questions from the patient, which may also negatively affect the fatigue and work efficiency of the examiner. Improved readability and visibility of informational material through visualization was correlated with greater patient comprehension as well as improved image quality and acquisition time.