• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.389-400
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• 2002

Background : The rapid diagnostic tests for tuberculosis are needed to facilitate early treatment of tuberculosis and prevention of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission. The Xeniss Rapid TB kit is a rapid, card-based immunochromatographic test for the detection of antibodies directed against M. tuberculosis antigens including antigen 5(38-kDa antigen). The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Xeniss Rapid TB kit for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis with serums from patients, asymptomatic healthy and close contact controls. Methods : 188 patients with active tuberculosis were tested; 177 with pulmonary tuberculosis(18 with combined pleurisy), and 11 with extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The control groups were composed of 82 close contacts and 57 healthy adults. Study subject were drawn from one national tuberculosis hospital for patients and close contacts, and another private hospital for healthy adults in Masan city, Korea. The Xeniss Rapid TB kit(Xeniss Life Science Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea) was evaluated by using serum samples according to the instructions of the manufacturer by an investigator masked to the clinical and microbiological status of the study subjects. Results : The diagnostic sensitivity of the Xeniss Rapid TB kit was 73.9% in patients and specificities were 73.2% and 93.0% in close contact and healthy adults respectively. The positive predictive value in patients was 84.2% and the negative predictive value in controls was 85.8%. Conclusion : This study shows that the Xeniss Rapid TB test is a simple and fast method to diagnose active TB. The results of the sensitivity and specificites suggest that serodiagnosis using this point of care testing(POCT) device would be valuable and advantageous for screening tuberculosis in the clinical field.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.71-75
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• 2013

Purpose: Currently, decrement revision using LDCT is used in PET/CT. But cold artifacts are often found in decrement revision image by mismatch between LDCT image and Emission image near diaphragm due to patient's respiration. This research studied reduction of cold artifact by patient's respiration using CTAC Shift among revision methods. Materials and Methods: From March to September in 2012, 30 patients who had cold artifacts by respiration were targeted using PET/CT Discovery 600 (GE Healthcare, MI, USA) equipment. Patients with cold artifacts were additionally scan in diaphragm area, and the image shown cold artifacts at whole body test were revised using CTAC Shift. Cold artifacts including image, additional scan image and CTAC Shift revision image were evaluated as 1~5 points with naked eye by one nuclear medicine expert, 4 radiotechnologists with over 5 year experience. Also, standard uptake value of 3 images was compared using paired t-test. Results: Additional scan image and CTAC Shift revision image received relatively higher score in naked eye evaluation than cold artifacts including image. The additional scan image and CTAC Shift revision image had high correlation as the results of ANOVA test of standard uptake value and did not show significant difference. Conclusion: When cold artifacts are appeared by patient's respiration at PET/CT, it causes not only patient inconvenience but troubles in test schedule due to extra radiation exposure and time consumption by additional scan. But if CTAC Shift revision image can be acquired with out additional scan, it is considered to be helped in exact diagnosis without unnecessary extra radiation exposure and additional scan.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2021

Along with the rapid growth of the food service industry, food safety requirements and hygiene are increasing in importance in restaurants and hotels. Accordingly, there is a need for quick and practical monitoring techniques to determine hygiene status in the field. In this study, we investigated 5 domestic 5-star hotels specifically, personal hygiene (hands of workers), cooking utensils (knife, cutting board, food storage container, slicing machine blade, ice-maker scoop) and other facilities (refrigerator handle, sink). In addition, we examined the hygiene management status of customer contact points (tongs for buffet, etc.) to derive the correlation between the ATP values as a, a verification method. As a result of our five-hotel survey, we found that cooking utensils and personal hygiene were relatively sanitary compared to other inspection items (cookware 92.2%, personal hygiene 91.4%, facilities and equipment 76.19%, customer contact items 88.6%). According to our ATP-based mothod, kitchen utensils (51 ± 45 RLU/25㎠) were relatively clean compared to other with facilities and equipment (167 ± 123 RLU/25㎠). In the present study, we also evaluated the usefulness of the ATP bioluminescence method for monitoring surface hygiene at hotel restaurants. After correlation analysis of surveillance of hygienic status points and ATP assay, most results showed negative and high correlation (-0.64--0.89). Our ATP assay (92 ± 67 RLU/25㎠) of each item after cleaning showed signigicantly reduced results compared to the ATP assay (1020 ± 1254 RLU/25㎠) for normal status, thereby indicating its suitability as a tool to verify the validity of cleaning. By our results, ATP bioluminescence could be used as an effective tool for visual numerical evaluation of invisible contaminants.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.363-368
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• 2014

Purpose : The aim of this study was to appraise properties for radiation therapy techniques and effectiveness of time and economy to a patient in the case of applying flattening filter-free (3F) and flattening filter (2F) beam to the radiation therapy. Materials and Methods : Alderson rando phantom was scanned for computed tomography image. Treatment plans for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with 3F and 2F beam were designed for prostate cancer. To evaluate the differences between the 3F and 2F beam, total monitor units (MUs), beam on time (BOT) and gantry rotation time (GRT) were used and measured with $TrueBeam^{TM}$ STx and Surveillance And Measurement (SAM) 940 detector was used for photoneutron emitted by using 3F and 2F. To assess temporal and economical aspect for a patient, total treatment periods and medical fees were estimated. Results : In using 3F beam, total MUs in IMRT plan increased the highest up to 34.0% and in the test of BOT, GRT and photoneutron, the values in SBRT plan decreased the lowest 39.8, 38.6 and 48.1%, respectively. In the temporal and economical aspect, there were no differences between 3F and 2F beam in all of plans and the results showed that 10 days and 169,560 won was lowest in SBRT plan. Conclusion : According as the results, total MUs increased by using 3F beam than 2F beam but BOT, GRT and photoneutron decreased. From above the results, using 3F beam can decrease intra-fraction setup error and risk of radiation-induced secondary malignancy. But, using 3F beam did not make the benefits of temporal and economical aspect for a patient with the radiation therapy.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.157-164
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to develop a kelp (Laminaria japonica) product with optimal sensory and nutritional properties for eating as a snack by investigating its physicochemical properties and conducting sensory evaluation. A preliminary study using tripolypolyphosphate solution found that it was good for removing the fishy smell and for making it soft. We soaked the kelp in 0.3-0.4% sodium tripolyphosphate buffer and tested with or without baking. In searching for the optimal polyphosphate dilution concentration, soaking in 0.3-0.4% sodium tripolyphosphate resulted in the best texture and flavor. As kelp separates into thick or thin samples, thick kelp was best when soaked in 0.4% sodium tripolyphosphate buffer and thin soaked in 0.3%. The kelp snack made from the thick one (over 221 mm thickness) was better than the thin one. Baking improved the moisture, texture and feel of the kelp snack. Tripolyphosphate treatment affected protein contents and texture softening. The differences by baking and tripolyphosphate treatment were shown with electromicroscopic image. Kelp snacks with added sweet and hot taste were preferred to sour taste. In conclusion, in making kelp snacks, it is advisable to use a thick kelp, 0.3-0.4% sodium tripolyphosphate, and baking treatment for better texture and feel. This kelp snack has low fishy smell, better taste and soft feel. Further research is needed to support sea food's importance, and usefulness of the kelp snack to help prevent goiter in inland province citizens.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.5-10
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• 2012

There is a still unsettled issue about the comparison of long-term clinical effects between sirolimus-(SES) and paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) for the patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Therefore, we performed a retrospective analysis to evaluate the 4-year clinical outcome of SES as compared with PES after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with AMI. From January 2004 to August 2006, all consecutive patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) underwent primary PCI and acute NSTEMI underwent PCI by implantation either SES or PES were enrolled. The occurrence of death, cardiac death, recurrent infarction, target vessel revascularization (TVR) and stent thrombosis were analyzed. The composite of major adverse cardiac events (MACE; death, recurrent infarction and TVR) were also analyzed. During the study period, total 668 AMI patients had visited. Of them, total 522 patients (299 with SES and 223 with PES) were enrolled. During 4-year clinical follow-up, there were similar occurrences of death ($18.3{\pm}3.0%$ vs. $14.6{\pm}2.2%$, p=0.26), cardiac death ($11.2{\pm}2.6%$ vs. $6.8{\pm}1.52%$, p=0.39), re-infarction ($6.4{\pm}1.8%$ vs. $3.3{\pm}1.1%$, p=0.31), and stent thrombosis ($5.4{\pm}1.7%$ vs. $3.2{\pm}1.1%$, p=0.53) between the two groups, consecutively. The occurrences of TVR ($10.0{\pm}3.0%$ vs. $4.0{\pm}1.2%$, p=0.008) and MACE ($29.4{\pm}3.5%$ vs. $19.4{\pm}2.5%$, p=0.003) were significantly higher in patients treated with PES than SES. In AMI patients treated with either SES or PES implantation, SES had a significantly lower risk of TVR and MACE during 4-year clinical follow-up. Rates of death, cardiac death or recurrent infarction, and stent thrombosis were similar.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.150-167
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• 2021

Since the advent of tertiary curriculum, middle school history education has been focused on political history, but many students perceive history as a simple memorization subject and complain about difficulties in abstract learning. The researcher saw this problem as caused by the history curriculum, and carried out this study for the purpose of proposing a revitalization of cultural property education in the middle school history curriculum. First, through the analysis of prior research, the usefulness of cultural property education, such as nurturing creative talent and realizing interactive history classes, was revealed, and the problems of the current political history-centered middle school history curriculum were pointed out. Afterwards, as a result of conducting an opinion survey on middle school 3rd grade students and social studies teachers, it was found that first, both middle school students and their teachers thought that the current political history-centered history had much room for improvement. Second, all groups agreed on the necessity of cultural property education in history education. However, in reality, it was found that it was not easy to sufficiently educate students about cultural property in a political history-centered curriculum. Third, teachers thought that it was necessary to improve the current history curriculum in order to enhance cultural property education. Based on these findings, the researcher suggested an improvement plan for the 2015 revised history curriculum. First, in the 'nature of the subject' section, cultural properties and historical materials should be included, and in the 'objective' section, politics, economy, society, and culture should be included. Contents related to cultural properties should be added to the sub-themes in the 'content system and achievement standards', and cultural properties-related contents should be further reinforced in the achievement standards, 'teaching, learning and evaluation'. It was suggested that this section should include cultural property learning and historical material learning, and guidance on teaching and learning methods of cultural property education should be added. If these aspects are reflected in the 2022 revised curriculum that is currently being developed, cultural property education will be improved, and more lively history education will be provided to students.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.36-41
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• 2016

Purpose Sentinel lymphoscintigraphy (SLS) was using only $^{99m}Tc-phytate$. If the supply is interrupted temporarily, there is no alternative radiopharmaceuticals. The aim of this study measure the particle size of radiopharmaceuticals and look for radiopharmaceuticals which can be substituted for $^{99m}Tc-phytate$. Materials and Methods The particle size of radiopharmaceuticals were analyzed by a nano-particle analyzer. This study were selected known radiopharmaceuticals to be useful particle size for SLS. We were divided into control and experimental groups using $^{99m}Tc-DPD$, $^{99m}Tc-MAG3$, $^{99m}Tc-DMSA$ with $^{99m}Tc-phytate$. For in-vivo experiment, radiopharmaceuticals were injected intradermally at both foot to perform lymphoscintigraphy. Imaging was acquired to dynamic and delayed static image and observe the inguinal lymph nodes with the naked eye. Results Particle size was measured respectively Phytate 105~255 nm (81.9%), MAG3 91~255 nm (98.7%), DPD 105~342 nm (77.3%), DMSA 164~ 342 nm (99.2%), MAA 1281~2305 nm (90.6%), DTPA 342~1106 nm (79.4%), and HDP 295~955 nm (94%). In-vivo delayed static image, inguinal lymph nodes of all experiment groups and two control groups are visible to naked eye. however, $^{99m}Tc-MAG3$ of control groups is not visible to naked eye. Conclusion We were analyzed to the particle size of the radiopharmaceuticals that are used in in-vivo. Consequently, $^{99m}Tc-DPD$, $^{99m}Tc-DMSA $are possible in an alternative radiopharmaceuticals of emergency.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2019

With regard to current Neck CT, Bismuth shielding boards are often being used to reduce exposure to superficial organs such as the thyroid. However, beam hardening often occurs near superficial organs with Bismuth shielding boards and variations in CT Number, Noise, and Uniformity values occur severely. This study looked into the usefulness of shielding boards made from aluminum and silicone that can be easily obtained and have good machinability by comparing them to the existing Bismuth shielding board. An Aluminum 7.3mm and a Silicone 21.5mm were made with shielding ratios similar to that of the Bismuth(0.06 mmPb). TLD (TLD-100) was placed on the thyroid area of the Phantom (RS-108T) and 5 doses were measured for each. To compare image quality, CT Number and Noise variations in axial images of the thyroid area in Neck CT images were compared. Also, variations in CT Number, Noise, and Uniformity were measured in the AAPM phantom images and compared. In the results, when thyroid doses for each shielding board were compared, the Bismuth shielding board showed a 14% reduction, the Silicone 21.5mm showed a 15% reduction, and the Aluminum 7.3mm showed a 13% reduction compared to the Non-Shield. Statistically, there were no significant differences in comparison with the Bismuth shielding board. In CT Number variations of thyroid area images, variations were largest for the Bismuth shielding board. With Uniformity evaluations of the AAPM phantom, the Bismuth shielding board was found unsuitable and the Aluminum 7.3mm and Silicone 21.5mm satisfied the acceptance criteria. Research results show that the Aluminum 7.3mm and Silicone 21.5mm have a similar shielding ratio to the high-priced Bismuth shielding board that is currently being used clinically and in comparison tests of CT Number attenuation coefficient variations, Noise, and Uniformity which are phantom image evaluation items, they proved to be better than Bismuth shielding boards. If various shielding boards are made using aluminum and silicone, sized appropriately for superficial organs, it would be useful in decreasing patient doses.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2016

Acoustic noise during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the main source for patient discomfort. we report our preliminary experience with this technique in neuroimaging with regard to subjective and objective noise levels and image quality. 60 patients(29 males, 31 females, average age of 60.1) underwent routine brain MRI with 3.0 Tesla (MAGNETOM Tim Trio; Siemens, Germany) system and 12-channel head coil. Q-$T_2$ and $T_2$ sequence were performed. Measurement of sound pressure levels (SPL) and heart rate on Q-$T_2$ and $T_2$ was performed respectively. Quantitative analysis was carried out by measuring the SNR, CNR, and SIR values of Q-$T_2$, $T_2$ and a statistical analysis was performed using independent sample T-test. Qualitative analysis was evaluated by the eyes for the overall quality image of Q-$T_2$ and $T_2$. A 5-point evaluation scale was used, including excellent(5), good(4), fair(3), poor(2), and unacceptable(1). The average noise and peak noise decreased by $15dB_A$ and $10dB_A$ on $T_2$ and Q-$T_2$ test. Also, the average value of heartbeat rate was lower in Q-$T_2$ for 120 seconds in each test, but there was no statistical significance. The quantitative analysis showed that there was no significant difference between CNR and SIR, and there was a significant difference (p<0.05) as SNR had a lower average value on Q-$T_2$. According to the qualitative analysis, the overall quality image of 59 case $T_2$ and Q-$T_2$ was evaluated as excellent at 5 points, and 1 case was evaluated as good at 4 points due to a motion artifact. Q-$T_2$ is a promising technique for acoustic noise reduction and improved patient comfort.