• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 1993

In this study fermentation of fresh ascidian was attempted to widen the utility of ascidian. Fresh deshelled and sliced ascidians were fermented for 90days at $25^{\circ}C$ with different salt contents of 5, 10, 15 and $20\%$ (w/w) and at $5^{\circ}C$ with 5 and $10\%$ salt. Changes of such components during fermentation as free amino acids, nucleotides and the related compounds, volatile basic nitrogen(VBN), trimethyl amine(TMA), amino nitrogen and total creatinine were determined. VBN increased rapidly after 30days of fermentation at $25^{\circ}C$ while slowly in cases of fermentation at $5^{\circ}C$ and with high salt concentration. Amino nitrogen and the total creatinine also increased gradually until 45 days and 30days of fermentation, respectively, hereafter tended to decrease. ATP and ADP seemed to degrade rapidly in fresh ascidian post harvest and AMP, IMP and inosine also degraded down to hypoxanthine during fermentation. After 45days of fermentation, in the free amino acid composition of fermented ascidian were taurine, proline, glutamic acid, histidine, lysine, alanine and valine in order. The amino acids known as sweetner like prolline, lysine, alanine and glycine were in increased in fermented ascidian. The result of sensory evaluation of fermented ascidian pretreated with acid or sulfite solution showed that the peculiar taste and flavor of ascidian remained without browning for 45days fermentation at $5^{\circ}C$.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7825-7829
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• 2015

Background: Egypt has the highest prevalence of HCV infection in the world (~14.7%). Around 10-15% of HCV-infected persons will advance to cirrhosis within the first 20 years. The incidence of HCC is expected to grow in the next two decades, largely due to HCV related cirrhosis, and detection of HCC at an early stage is critical for a favorable clinical outcome. No simple reliable non-invasive marker has been available till now. B2M, a non-glycosylated polypeptide composed of 99 amino acids, is one of the components of HLA class I molecules on the surfaces of all nucleated cells. It has been reported that the level of serum B2M is elevated in patients with chronic hepatitis C and HCV-related HCC when compared to HCV-negative patients or healthy donors. Determining the clinical utility of serum B2M as a marker for disease progression in Egyptian patients with HCV related chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma was the aim of the present study. Materials and Methods: In this analytical cross sectional study 92 participants were included in 4 equal groups: Group (1) non cirrhotic chronic HCV; Group (2) HCV related liver cirrhosis; Group (3) HCC on top of HCV,; and Group (4) healthy controls. History taking, clinical examination, routine labs and abdominal ultrasound were conducted for all patients, PCR and Metavir scores for group (1) patients, and triphasic CT abdomen and AFP for Group (3) patients. B2M levels were measured in serum with a fully-automated IMX system. Results: The mean serum B2M level of Group (1) was $4.25{\pm}1.48{\mu}g/ml$., Group (2) was $7.48{\pm}3.04$, Group (3) was $6.62{\pm}2.49$ and Group (4) was $1.62{\pm}0.63$. Serum B2M levels were significantly higher in diseased than control group (p<0.01) being significantly higher in cirrhosis ($7.48{\pm}3.04$) and HCC groups ($6.62{\pm}2.49$) than the HCV group ($4.25{\pm}1.48$) (p<0.01). There was a significant correlation between B2M Level and ALK, total and direct bilirubin and INR (p<0.05), and a significant inverse correlation between B2M level and albumin, total proteins, HB andWBCS values (p<0.05). There was no significant correlation between B2M level and viral load or Metavir score, largest tumour size or AFP (p>0.05). The best B2M cut-off for HCV diagnosis was 2.6 with a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 92%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 97% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 100%. The best B2M cut-off for HCC diagnosis was 4.55 which yielded sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive values of 74%, 62%, 39.5, 87.8% respectively (p-value <0.01) while best cut-off for cirrhosis was 4.9, with sensitivity 74 % and specificity 74%.The sensitivity for HCC diagnosis increased upon B2M and AFP combined estimation to 91%, specificity to 79%, NPV to 95% and accuracy to 83%. Conclusions: Serum B2M level is elevated in HCV related chronic liver diseases and may be used as a marker for HCV disease progression towards cirrhosis and carcinoma.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 1998

This study was carried out to investigate the in vivo developmental potential of mouse zona-hatched blastocysts (HBs). The HBs were cultured in vitro until day 5 and day 6 from zygotes produced in vivo and classified to small (S-HBs), medium (M-HBs) and large (L-HBs) on the basis of embryo diameters. The results obtained in these experiments were summarized as follows ; 1) when the blastocysts at day 4 were further cultured for $24\sim48hr$, HBs obtained at day 5 and day 6 culture in vitro were 29.1% and 22.8%, respectively. 2) Also, when the total cell number of HBs were counted, cell numbers of classified HBs on day 5 and day 6 to small ($77.3\pm5.3$, $59.6\pm4.4$), medium ($83.7\pm4.0$, $66.8\pm3.5$) and large ($100.7\pm2.6$, $88.9\pm3.8$) were increased as their size increases. Especially, there were significantly different between S-HBs and L-HBs (p<0.01). 3) In addition, when the classified HBs were transferred into when the classified HBs were transferred into day 3 pseudopregnant recipients, the pregnancy and implantation rates of S-HBs (28.6%, 15.7%), M-HBs (44.4%, 30.9%) and L-HBs (62.5%, 49.1%) at day 5 were increased as their size increases. However, this pattern was not showed in embryo transfer of day 6 HBs. But, when the live fetuses formation against total implantation rates were observed, the result (87.5%) of S-HBs of day 5 was significantly higher than that of the others (p<0.01). Therefore, this study demonstrates that in vitro cultured healthy HBs can not only be developed normally with good pregnancy rates, implantation rates and live fetuses formation, but also served as a fundamental data for utility of supernumerary HBs in human blastocyst transfer.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.335-373
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• 2014

According to one Medicare report, in the US, total federal spending on health care expends almost 18 percent of the nation's GDP, about double what most industrialized nations spend on health care. And in 2011, Medicare spending reached close to $554 billion, which amounted to 21 percent of the total spent on U.S. health care in that year. Of that $554 billion, Medicare spent 28 percent, or about $170 billion, on patients' last six months of life. So what are the reasons of this high cost in EOL care and its possible solutions? Much spendings of Medicare on End-of-Life care for the terminally ill/chronically ill in the US has led health economics experts to assess the characteristics of the care. Decades of study shows that EOL care is usually supply-sensitive and poor in cost-effectiveness. The volume of care is sensitively depending on the supply of resources, rather than the severity of illness or preferences of patients. This means at the End-of-Life care, the medical resources are being overused. On the other hand, opposed to the common assumption, "The more care the better utility", the study shows that the outcome is very poor. Actually the patient preference and concerns are quite the opposite from what intense EOL care would bring about. This study analyzes the reasons for the supply-sensitiveness of EOL care. It can be resulted from the common misconception about the intense care and the outcome, physicians' mission for patients, lack of End-of-Life Care Decision which helps the patients choose their own preferred treatment intensity. It also could be resulted from physicians' fear of legal liabilities, and the management strategy since the hospitals are also seeking for financial benefits. This study suggests the possible solutions for over-treatment at the End-of-Life resulting from supply-sensitiveness. Solutions can be sought in two aspects, legal implementation and management strategy. In order to implement advance directive properly, active ethics education for physicians to change their attitude toward EOL care and more conversations about end-of-life care between physicians and patients is crucial, and incentive system for the physicians who actively have the conversations with patients will also help. Also, the general education towards the public is also important in the long run, and easy and official advance directive registry system-such as online registry-has to be built and utilized more widely. Alternative strategies in management are also needed. For example, the new strategic cost management and management education, such as cutting unnecessary costs and resetting values as medical providers have to be considered. In order to effectively resolve the problem in EOL care for the terminally ill/chronically ill and provide better experience to the patients, first of all, the misconception and the wrong conventional wisdom among doctors, patients, and the government have to be overcome. And then there should be improvements in systems and cultures of the EOL care.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.280-289
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• 1992

The 20-minute $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ uptake became readily available for routine use and it replaced $^{131}I$ for thyroid imaging. However measuring thyroid uptake during a 5-minute minimizes pertechnetate uptake by the salivary glands and presence of contaminated saliva from those glands in to the pharynx and esophagus. A study was carried out to determine the suitability of the utility of a S-minute and 20-minute interval from administration of $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ to imaging and uptake measurement as a replacement for the 24 hour standard originally established with $^{131}I$, and to evaluate the relationship between 5-minute $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ uptake and other thyroid functions. A 5-minute and 20-minute uptake of $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ were measured in 70 patients with thyroid disease at Yeungnam University Hospital from March 1, 1991 to Feb. 29, 1992. The results were as follows. 1) The 5-minute $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ uptake in Graves' disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, simple goiter, non toxic nodular goiter, subacute thyroiditis and euthyroid were 18.2%, 14.6%, 2.8%, 3.2%, 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively. There was a significant difference between the mean of the euthyroid group and the mean of the Graves' disease. So differenciation between them can be easily made. 2) The 5 minute $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ thyroid uptake was well correlated with 24 hour $^{131}I$ thyroid uptake (r=0.75, p<0.001). These data provided an equation for estimating the 24 hour uptake of iodide given the 5 minute pertechnetate uptake: Estimated 24-hour $^{131}I$ thyroid Uptake= 7.188*ln (5 minute $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ uptake)+16.94 3) The 20-minute $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ thyroid uptake was well correlated with 24-hour $^{131}I$ uptake (r=0.72, p<0.001) and 5-minute $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ thyroid uptake (r=0.96, p<0.001). 4) In the Graves' disease, The 5-minute $^{99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ thyroid uptake was well correlated with serum $T_3-resin$ uptake (r=0.46, p<0.01), serum total $T_3$ (r=0.55, p<0.05), serum total $T_4$ (r=0.46, p<0.05). These results suggest that 5-minute ${99m}Tc-pertechnetate$ thyroid uptake has been found at least as useful as 24-hour $^{131}I$ uptake for diagnostic confirmation at our hospital, the logistical advantages of completing the diagnosis. The exam in 5-minutes led us to abandon the 24-hour study in the majority of patients, but the 24-hour $^{131}I$ uptake is still obtained in patients with planned or potential radioiodine therapy.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.81-85
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• 2011

Purpose: With the introduction of PET since 1994, test methods have made rapid progress. Accordingly, the studies on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer as well as treatment response evaluation PET test are useful. However, it is difficult to divide stomach lesions and secretion. The purpose of this study is to reduce additional shooting by dividing lesions and secretion of stomach. Materials and Method: This study aiming at total 228 cancer patients was conducted from Aug 18 to Sep. 10, 2010. Among them, 115 patients had a test without water intake before shooting from Aug. 8 to 31 and 113 had a test after drinking 500 cc water right before shooting from Sep. 1 to 10 The Discovery ST PET/CT (GE Healthcare, USA) was used, and pearson's chi-square test was conducted to analyze significance through SPSS (Ver.18). Results: Among the total 228 cancer patients, there were 115 who had a test without water intake before shooting, 89 who had no double additional shooting, 13 who had stomach additional shooting and 13 who had other additional shooting. In addition, 109 had no additional shooting among 113 who had a test after taking 500 cc water, 1 had stomach additional shooting and 3 had other additional shooting. According to the findings above, the patients who had a test without water intake show reduced additional shooting, but for more exact significance, pearson's Chi-square test was carried out and the significance percentage was 0.001 that is smaller than 0.05, which means two groups have a significant relationship. As the minimum expectation frequency was 6.94 and there was no expectation frequency smaller than 5, so that it doesn't need to carry out pearson's exact verification. Conclusion: The above analysis has found that if one drinks 500cc water before the test, not only stomach additional shooting but also other additional shooting can be dramatically reduced, and test delay can be also reduced.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.459-467
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• 2009

Purpose: The maximum likelihood-expectation maximization (ML-EM) is the statistical reconstruction algorithm derived from probabilistic model of the emission and detection processes. Although the ML-EM has many advantages in accuracy and utility, the use of the ML-EM is limited due to the computational burden of iterating processing on a CPU (central processing unit). In this study, we developed a parallel computing technique on GPU (graphic processing unit) for ML-EM algorithm. Materials and Methods: Using Geforce 9800 GTX+ graphic card and CUDA (compute unified device architecture) the projection and backprojection in ML-EM algorithm were parallelized by NVIDIA's technology. The time delay on computations for projection, errors between measured and estimated data and backprojection in an iteration were measured. Total time included the latency in data transmission between RAM and GPU memory. Results: The total computation time of the CPU- and GPU-based ML-EM with 32 iterations were 3.83 and 0.26 see, respectively. In this case, the computing speed was improved about 15 times on GPU. When the number of iterations increased into 1024, the CPU- and GPU-based computing took totally 18 min and 8 see, respectively. The improvement was about 135 times and was caused by delay on CPU-based computing after certain iterations. On the other hand, the GPU-based computation provided very small variation on time delay per iteration due to use of shared memory. Conclusion: The GPU-based parallel computation for ML-EM improved significantly the computing speed and stability. The developed GPU-based ML-EM algorithm could be easily modified for some other imaging geometries.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.63-99
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• 1994

The international environmental activities and environmental education began in 1970's. Environmental education in Korea was emphasized since the Forth National Curriculum. 'The Environmental Education Curriculum' will be separated as one of the most important parts in the Sixth National Education Curriculum in Korea. The purpose of this study was development. of 'Environmental Science' of high school appropriate to Sixth National Education Curriculum. First step was to state goals of environmental education in detail based on analysis of goals about environmental education in our country and other countries. Second was to analyse seven environments-related texts of Korea, America and England. Third, to measure how much environmental education has achieved in Fifth National Curriculum of Korea. Fourth, to develop a new environmental text of high school level. Fifth, to verify the effect of developed environmental text. The environmental part of 'Science I'(unit V. Life and Environments) and high school environments-related reference text(Survival and Environments) in Korea, American knowledges. American 'Environments' was stressed in many skills but they didn't include various teaching strategies. On the other hand, American 'Science-Technology-Society(S-T-S)' and British 'Science and Technology in Society(SATIS)' were stressed in knowledges and skills, and they included many teaching strategies and student actions. American 'S-T-S' was the only one stressed in values and attitudes. And all seven texts were not interested in behaviors and participations. To measure the achievement of environmental education by questionnaire, 497 high school students in total were selected from five different schools. Actually, most students had a positive thinkings and attitudes in their hearts about environmental problems, about environmental problems, but many of them did not take actions to solve environmental problems and to protect environments. The higher the score students got in 'knowledges and informations', the higher the score in 'skill'. It implies that learning of skills is based on learning of knowledges and informations about environments. On the other hand, much knowledges and information about environments has not always ensured positive thinkings and attitudes or active behaviors and participations to solve environmental problem. In view that ultimate aim of environmental education is forming responsible environmental behaviors and the goals of values and behaviors are as important as knowledges and skills. A new environmental text of high school level was developed and it was based on analysis of seven texts and environmental education in Fifth Korean Curriculum. This text have seven units, 1. Habitates : What're the meanings?, 2. Nuclear Energy : Can't be Avoid?, 3. Acid Rain : What're the Messages?, 4. Ethanol : Is this Future Fuel?, 5. Wastes : A New War!, 6. What're the National and Gloval Environmental education and avoided from the array of knowledges. Therefore included various teaching strategies and independent actions of students. 'Open-ended value learning' and 'free behavior learning' in text were special learning parts for aquisition of values and formation of behaviors. To verify the effects. of new developed environmental text, the direct learning was carried out by 286 students in total. Post test scores of experimental groups per each units were significantly higher than those of control groups from five different schools were as follows. For validity of selecting contents for units, 74% of respondent replied positively. For classification and presentation of four goal-groups, 90% replied positively in validity and 82%, in utility. For validity of various teaching strategies, 88% and for the degree of including student-centered independent actions, 86% replied positively, For importances and expected effects of 'open=ended value learning' and 'free behavior learning', showed positive responses respectively, 88%, 92% Therefore this text is effective to achieve four goals of environmental education equally.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-49
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• 1979

In order to evaluate the utility of the anthocyanins of Amaranthys tricolor L. as an edible pigment, the present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of pH. temperature, ascorbic acid, sugars and their degradation products, quercetin, thiourea, sodium pyrophosphate and metal ions on the stability of the anthocyanins in the model systems. The results obtained from this study were as follows. 1. The degradation of total anthocyanins was retarded as the pH levels decreased from 8.0 to 1.0. At pH 1.0, however. the initial degradation reaction proceeded faster than at pH 2.0 to 3.0 2. On heating in buffered aqueous solution at $80^{\circ}C$, the total anthocyanin content was higher at pH 2.0 than other pH levels. Increasing the storage temperature accelerated greatly the pigment degradation. In darkness at $40^{\circ}C$, after 10 days, only 19% of the original amount was left, while at $2^{\circ}C$, under the same conditions of storage, approximately 90% of the pigment was retained. The half-life of the pigment, 63.0 days at $2^{\circ}C$, shortened to 1. 7 days at $40^{\circ}C$. 3. An increase in ascorbic arid concentration from 0. 15 to 0.50 mg/ml lowered the anthocyanin retention. 4. There was no significant difference between glucose and fructose in anthocyanin degradation effect. Furfural was more effective than other sugar degradation products, formic acid or levulinic acid in accelerating anthocyanin breakdown. 5. Neither quercetin nor sodium pyrophosphate had a protective effect on the anthocyanins in the presence of ascorbic acid, while, in the systems 0.5 or 1 mg/ml of thiourea with $150{\;}{\mu}g/ml$ of ascorbic acid, the loss of anthocyanins was significantly reduced. 6. Both mercuric and cupric ions in 30 ppm greatly accelerated anthocyanin degradation.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.250-257
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• 2019

Purpose: Aster glehnii (AG) and Aster yomena (AY) are medicinal plants that belong to the family Compositea and grow widely in Korea. Plants in the genus Aster have been used to treat snakebite wounds or bruises in oriental medicine. This study compared the effects of anti-oxidants and anti-adipocyte differentiation according to the species (the aerial parts of AG and AY). Methods: AG and AY were extracted using 70% ethanol (-E) and water (-W) at room temperature. The anti-oxidant activities were measured by total phenol contents (TPC), total flavonoid contents (TFC), DPPH and $ABTS^+$ assay. In addition, correlation analysis was performed for the anti-oxidant compounds and effect. The level of anti-adipocyte differentiation was assessed using an oil red O assay on pre-adipocytes. Results: AG-W showed higher TPC ($6.92{\mu}g/mL$) and AG-E presented higher TFC ($8.22{\mu}g/mL$) than the other extracts. Furthermore, AG-E exhibited higher radical scavenging activity in the DPPH and $ABTS^+$ assay ($IC_{50}$: 104.88 and $30.06{\mu}g/mL$). In the cytotoxicity assay, AG and AY extracts at concentrations less than $100{\mu}g/mL$ were non toxic. AG-W reduced the lipid accumulation of 3T3-L1 cells significantly after differentiation (70.49%) compared to the other extracts. Conclusion: These results show that the water extract of AG has anti-oxidant effects and reduces the differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells. Therefore, AG has utility as a functional food material for its anti-oxidant activities and ability to prevent lipid accumulation.