• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.277-286
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• 2002

Most of the problems in dealing with the tunnel construction are the uncertainties and complexities of the stress conditions and rock strengths in ahead of the tunnel excavation. The limitations on the investigation technology, inaccessibility of borehole test in mountain area and public hatred also restrict our knowledge on the geologic conditions on the mountainous tunneling area. Nevertheless an extensive and superior geophysical exploration data is possibly acquired deep within the mountain area, with up to the tunnel locations in the case of alternative design or turn-key base projects. An appealing claim in the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) is that they give a more trustworthy results on our data based on identifying relevant input variables such as a little geotechnical information and biological learning principles. In this study, error back-propagation algorithm that is one of the teaching techniques of ANN is applied to presupposition on Rock Mass Ratings (RMR) for unknown tunnel area. In order to verify the applicability of this model, a 4km railway tunnel's field data are verified and used as input parameters for the prediction of RMR, with the learned pattern by error back propagation logics. ANN is one of basic methods in solving the geotechnical uncertainties and helpful in solving the problems with data consistency, but needs some modification on the technical problems and we hope our study to be developed in the future design work.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.330-339
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• 2012

Background : Hypertension is treated with both lifestyle modification and pharmacotherapy. The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC-7), published in 2003, provides a streamlined management approach to hypertension for the primary care physician. The JNC-7 is the gold standard also in Korea. According to the JNC-7, special therapeutic considerations are recommended for high-risk individuals with compelling indications. The presence of compelling indications in any given patient should be considered when selecting specific pharmacotherapy to treat hypertension. However, in patients with compelling indications, it is unknown that hepatotoxicity is caused by Calcium Channel Blocker (CCB), one of 1st anti-hypertensive drugs. Now, the CCB is the most used 1st anti-hypertensive drug in Korea Therefore, we evaluated the changes in blood liver function parameters (ALT, AST, Total bilirubin, serum albumin) for the study group. Methods : We randomly collected and retrospectively analyzed Electronic Medical Record data (n=28,788) of patients, and who took calcium channel blockers(non-dihydropyridines; diltiazem, verapamil, dihydropyridines; amlodipine, barnidipine, benidipine, clinidipine, efonidipine, felodipine, isradipine, lacidipine, lercanidipine, nicardipine, nifedipine, nimodipine), with having liver function tests (LFTs) from July 1st 2009 to June 30th 2010 at the Seoul National University Hospital in Korea. Control groups are two antihypertensive agents: RAS blockade (ARB; candesartan, irbesartan, losartan, olmesartan, telmisartan, valsartan, ACE-I; cilazapril, enalapril, fosinopril, imidapril, perindopril, ramipril) and, Diuretics (loop; furosemide, torsemide, thiazide; hydrochlorothiazide[HCTZ], indapamide). Patients not having LFT results at these three standard points of time(baseline, during, medication, and after finishing medication) were excluded. The collected data were analyzed by using the SPSS (Version12.0) and Microsoft Excel (Version2007). Results : 711 patients who were treated CCB (297), RAS blockade (232) or Diuretics (182) monotherapy were selected for the study. In selected patients, liver damage degree(changes of each LFTs value) was higher in diuretics group than other groups, followed by RAS blockade and CCB. In diuretics group's was loop-diuretics group was higher than thiazide-diuretics group. In CCB group, Nondihydropyridine-CCB's damage degree was higher than Dihydropyrine-CCB's that. Conclusions : Despite the limitations due to the retrospective study, among patients with abnormal LFTs, the use of CCBs led to a less liver damage than other 1st anti-hypertensive agents. It can be recommended CCBs as one of the initial treatments of hypertension in patients with liver disease.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.395-405
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• 2014

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate 1) somatotopic arrangement of the second and third fingers in SI area 2) difference of neural activation in the SI area produced by stimulation with different frequencies 3) correlation between the intensity of tactile perception by different stimulus intensity and the level of brain activation measurable by means of fMRI. Background: Somatosensory cortex can obtain the information of environmental stimuli about "where" (e.g., on the left palm), "what" (e.g., a book or a dog), and "how" (e.g., scrub gently or scrub roughly) to organism. However, compared to visual sense, the neural mechanism underlying the processing of specific electrotactile stimulus is still unknown. Method: 10 right-handed subjects participated in this study. Non-painful electrotactile stimuli were delivered to two different finger tips of right hand. Functional brain images were collected from 3.0T MRI using the single-shot EPI method. The scanning parameters were as follows: TR and TE were 3000, 35ms, respectively, flip angle 60, FOV $24{\times}24cm$, matrix size $64{\times}64$, slice thickness 4mm (no gap). SPM5 was used to analyze the fMRI data. Results: Significant activations produced by the stimulation were found in the SI, SII, the subcentral gyrus, the precentral gyrus, and the insula. In all participants, statistically significant activation was observed in the contralateral SI area and the bilateral SII areas by the stimulation on the fingers but ipsilaterally dominant. The SI area representing the second finger generally located in the more lateral and inferior side than that of the third finger across all the subjects. But no difference in brain area was found for the stimulation of the fingers by different frequencies. And two typical patterns were observed on the relationship between the perceived psychological intensity and the amount of voxels in the primary sensory cortex during the stimulation. Conclusion: It was possible to discriminate the representation sites in the SI by electrotactile stimulation of digit2 and digit3. But we could not find the differences of the brain areas according to different stimulation frequencies from 3 to 300Hz. Application: The results of the study can provide a deeper understanding of somatosensory cortex and offer the information for tactile display for blinds.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.21-22
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• 2000

Expressed sequence tags (EFTs) are the partial segments of cDNA produced from 5 or 3 single-pass sequencing of cDNA clones, error-prone and generated in highly redundant sets. Advancement and expansion of Genomics made biologists to generate huge amount of ESTs from variety of organisms-human, microorganisms as well as plants, and the cumulated number of ESTs is over 5.3 million, As the EST data being accumulate more rapidly, it becomes bigger that the needs of the EST analysis tools for extraction of biological meaning from EST data. Among the several needs of EST analyses, the extraction of protein sequence or functional motifs from ESTs are important for the identification of their function in vivo. To accomplish that purpose the precise and accurate identification of the region where the coding sequences (CDSs) is a crucial problem to solve primarily, and it will be helpful to extract and detect of genuine CD5s and protein motifs from EST collections. Although several public tools are available for EST analysis, there is not any one to accomplish the object. Furthermore, they are not targeted to the plant ESTs but human or microorganism. Thus, to correspond the urgent needs of collaborators deals with plant ESTs and to establish the analysis system to be used as general-purpose public software we constructed the pipelined-EST analysis system by integration of public software components. The software we used are as follows - Phred/Cross-match for the quality control and vector screening, NCBI Blast for the similarity searching, ICATools for the EST clustering, Phrap for EST contig assembly, and BLOCKS/Prosite for protein motif searching. The sample data set used for the construction and verification of this system was 1,386 ESTs from human intrathymic T-cells that verified using UniGene and Nr database of NCBI. The approach for the extraction of CDSs from sample data set was carried out by comparison between sample data and protein sequences/motif database, determining matched protein sequences/motifs that agree with our defined parameters, and extracting the regions that shows similarities. In recent future, in addition to these components, it is supposed to be also integrated into our system and served that the software for the peptide mass spectrometry fingerprint analysis, one of the proteomics fields. This pipelined-EST analysis system will extend our knowledge on the plant ESTs and proteins by identification of unknown-genes.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.125-129
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• 2017

Lumbar degenerative kyphosis (LDK) is a subgroup of the flat-back syndrome and is most commonly caused by unique life styles, such as a prolonged crouched posture during agricultural work and performing activities of daily living on the floor. Unfortunately, LDK has been used as a byword for degenerative sagittal imbalance, and this sometimes causes confusion. The aim of this review was to evaluate the exact territory of LDK, and to introduce another appropriate term for degenerative sagittal deformity. Unlike what its name suggests, LDK does not only include sagittal balance disorder of the lumbar spine and kyphosis, but also sagittal balance disorder of the whole spine and little lordosis of the lumbar spine. Moreover, this disease is closely related to the occupation of female farmers and an outdated Asian life style. These reasons necessitate a change in the nomenclature of this disorder to prevent misunderstanding. We suggest the name "primary degenerative sagittal imbalance" (PDSI), which encompasses degenerative sagittal misalignments of unknown origin in the whole spine in older-age patients, and is associated with back muscle wasting. LDK may be regarded as a subgroup of PDSI related to an occupation in agriculture. Conservative treatments such as exercise and physiotherapy are recommended as first-line treatments for patients with PDSI, and surgical treatment is considered only if conservative treatments failed. The measurement of spinopelvic parameters for sagittal balance is important prior to deformity corrective surgery. LDK can be considered a subtype of PDSI that is more likely to occur in female farmers, and hence the use of LDK as a global term for all degenerative sagittal imbalance disorders is better avoided. To avoid confusion, we recommend PDSI as a newer, more accurate diagnostic term instead of LDK.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5435-5440
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• 2013

Background: Recent estimates suggest that in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) the burden of cancer in terms of DALYs lost is amongst the highest in South East Asia. As such, increasingly cancer is becoming an important public health concern in the country. Lao PDR however has no population-based cancer registry and only one hospital-based registry. Cancer treatment within the country is extremely limited. Patients who can, may travel to neighboring countries for treatment, but little information about this is available in the country. The aim of this study was to estimate some of the otherwise largely unknown parameters of the cancer burden in Lao PDR. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive study based on the records of 847 Lao cancer cases treated with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy at Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University, in Thailand between 1988 and 2010. Results: The annual rate of registration of Lao cancer cases fluctuated, but showed an increasing trend. Most cancers were diagnosed by histology (65.2%), and a combination of endoscopy and radiology (15.6%). In most cases (70.2%) the stage of cancer at diagnosis could not be determined. In those whose stage could be identified, 54.0% were at the final stage (Stage IV). Among males, the commonest cancer sites were the liver (16.1%), blood (12.3%) and nasopharynx (10.6%). Those in female patients were the cervix (22.2%), breast (14.6%) and blood (8.1%). Conclusions: This study indicates that despite some fluctuations, the number of Lao cancer patients presenting at Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen, gradually increased between 1988 and 2010. The unfavorable pattern of late-stage cancer diagnosis among male and female patients suggests a need for cancer control interventions and the establishment of cancer registration and treatment facilities within Lao PDR.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.751-758
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• 2015

Mathematical models are actively used to reduce the experimental expenses required to understand physical phenomena. However, they are different from real phenomena because of assumptions or uncertain parameters. In this study, we present a calibration and validation method using a paper helicopter and statistical methods to quantify the uncertainty. The data from the experiment using three nominally identical paper helicopters consist of different groups, and are used to calibrate the drag coefficient, which is an unknown input parameter in both analytical models. We predict the predicted fall time data using probability distributions. We validate the analysis models by comparing the predicted distribution and the experimental data distribution. Moreover, we quantify the uncertainty using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. In addition, we compare the manufacturing error and experimental error obtained from the fall-time data using Analysis of Variance. As a result, all of the paper helicopters are treated as one identical model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.904-912
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• 2019

We have studied the numerical analysis about the fragment ejection velocity and spray angle when the High Explosive warhead detonated at proximity distance at an aircraft. To study the physical quantities about the warhead components is very important to assessment the vulnerability of aircraft. Generally, the physical quantities about the components of a warhead such as the mass, length, diameter and charge to mass ratio are unknown. Therefore, it is required to estimate the physical quantities by using physical continuities of similar threats. The empirical formulas to understand the dependence among charge to mass ratio, length and diameter ratio were driven by using the physical parameters of similar threatening such as terrier, sparrow. As a result, we confirmed that the dead mass ratio was closed to 20% of warhead mass since the metal case of the proximity threat acts as a simple carrier. This implies that the effective length and diameter of High Explosive Compound is smaller than the length and diameter of warhead, and become a key to understand the large ejection gradient velocity and small spray angle of fragments within 6 degree.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.106-115
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• 2011

Systematic toxicological analysis (STA) means the process for general unknown screening of drugs and toxic compounds in biological fluids. In order to establish STA, in previous study we investigated pattern of drugs & poisons in autopsy cases during 2007~2009 in Korea, and finally selected 62 drugs as target drugs for STA. In this study, rapid and simple drug identification and quantitative analytical program by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC-MS) was developed. The in-house program, "DrugMan", consisted of modified chemstation data analysis menu and newly developed macro modules. Total 55 drugs among 62 target drugs were applied to this program, they were 14 antidepressants, 8 anti-histamines, 5 sedatives/hypnotics, 5 narcotic analgesics, 3 antipsychotic drugs, and etc. For calibration curves, fifty five drugs were divided into four groups of range considering their therapeutic or toxic concentrations in blood specimen, i.e. 0.05~1 mg/l, 0.1~1 mg/l, 0.1~5 mg/l or 0.5~10 mg/l. Standards spiked bloods were extracted by solid-phase extraction (SPE) with trimipramine-D3 as internal standard. Parameters such as retention times, 3 mass fragment ions, and calibration curves for each drug were registered to DrugMan. A series of identification, semi quantitation of target drugs and reporting the results were performed automatically. Calibration curves for most drugs were linear with correlation coefficients exceeding 0.98. Sensitivity rate of DrugMan was 0.90 (90%) for 55 drugs at the level of 0.5 mg/l. For standard spiked bloods at the level of 0.5 mg/l for 29 drugs, semi quantitative concentrations were ranged 0.36~0.64 mg/l by DrugMan. If more drugs are registered to database in DrugMan in further study, it will be useful tools for STA in forensic toxicology.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.209-214
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• 2017

Background: Both ginsenoside Re and B-complex vitamins are widely used as nutritional supplements. They are often taken together so as to fully utilize their antifatigue and refreshing effects, respectively. Whether actually a drug-nutrient interaction exists between ginsenoside Re and B-complex vitamins is still unknown. The objective of this study was to simultaneously investigate the effect of B-complex vitamins on the antifatigue activity and bioavailability of ginsenoside Re after their oral administration. The study results will provide valuable theoretical guidance for the combined utilization of ginseng and B-complex vitamins. Methods: Ginsenoside Re with or without B-complex vitamins was orally administered to mice to evaluate its antifatigue effects and to rats to evaluate its bioavailability. The antifatigue activity was evaluated by the weight-loaded swimming test and biochemical parameters, including hepatic glycogen, plasma urea nitrogen, and blood lactic acid. The concentration of ginsenoside Re in plasma was determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results: No antifatigue effect of ginsenoside Re was noted when ginsenoside Re in combination with B-complex vitamins was orally administered to mice. B-complex vitamins caused to a reduction in the bioavailability of ginsenoside Re with the area under the concentration-time curve from zero to infinity markedly decreasing from $11,830.85{\pm}2,366.47h{\cdot}ng/mL$ to $890.55{\pm}372.94h{\cdot}ng/mL$. Conclusion: The results suggested that there were pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic drug-nutrient interactions between ginsenoside Re and B-complex vitamins. B-complex vitamins can significantly weaken the antifatigue effect and decrease the bioavailability of ginsenoside Re when simultaneously administered orally.