• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.179-185
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• 2011

Purpose: This study analyzed recent trends of instrument usage assessing cognitive function of breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: The researcher collected 64 studies outside the country that were published between January 1996 and August 2010. Results: There was no study on the instrument assessing all domains of cognitive function in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Most instruments assessing cognitive function of breast cancer patients have been used for patients with dementia, depression, and/or organic brain damage. Also the objective neuropsychological tests such as the grooved pegboard for the psychomotor area, RCFT copy in visuospatial skill area and the WAIS-III block design have low sensitivity for measuring cognitive function in breast cancer patients, thus they are not good for applying to breast cancer patients. Conclusion: There is a need to develop an instrument which has good sensitivity and specificity for measuring the cognitive function of the breast cancer patients who experienced cognitive impairment after chemotherapy treatment. In addition, the developed instrument needs to be accessible and feasible in any nursing clinical setting for the purpose of accurate assessment and evaluation of the cognitive function among breast cancer patients.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 1982

Soft X-ray photography was used to study some characters of seeds, such as fullness, damage by blight and harmful insects and degree of mechanical damages, degree of development of embryos and endosperms, size and position of cotylendons, existence and position of twin seed. Thirty nine species of woody plants (31 angiosperms and 8 gymnosperms)and four species of herbs were examined in this study. The results showed that through the mechanism of the selective sensitivity of seed structure of soft X-ray, seed characters mentioned above could be recognized regardless of size of seeds and thickness of seed coat. We concluded that it is possible to use soft X-ray photography reliably to find out the various characters of seeds.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.30 no.6 s.113
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• pp.333-339
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• 2005

The pesticide is raising public interest in the world, because it causes damage to an environmental pollution and the human health remaining agricultural products and an ecosystem, in spite of the advantages. Particularly, each country restricts the residual pesticide and induces observance about the safety and usage standard so that they can control the amount of pesticide used and defend the safety of agricultural products. The habitual practice for the analysis of the residual pesticide depends on GC (gas chromatography), HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) and GC/MS (gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy), which triturate the fixed quantity of samples, abstract and purify as a suitable organic solvent. These methods have the highly efficient in aspects of sensitivity and accuracy. On the other hand, they need the high cost, time consuming, much effort, expensive equipment and the skillful management. Carbofuran is highly toxic by inhalation and ingestion and moderately toxic by dermal absorption. As with other carbamate compounds, it is metabolized in the liver and eventually excreted in the urine. The half-life of carbofuran on crops is about 4 days when applied to roots, and longer than 4 days if applied to the leaves. This research was conducted to develop immunoassay for detecting carbofuran residue quickly on the basis of surface plasmon resonance and to evaluate the measurement sensitivity. Gold chip used was CM5 spreaded dextran on the surface. An applied antibody to Immunoassay was GST (glutathione-s-transferase). The association and the dissociation time were 176 second and 215 second between GST and carbofuran. The total analysis time using surface plasmon resonance was 13 minutes including regeneration time, on the other hand HPLC and GC/MS was 2 hours usually. The minimum detection limit of a permissible amount for carbofuran in the country is 0.1 ppm. The immunoassay method using surface plasmon resonance was 0.002 ppm.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.114-120
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• 2009

Rupture directivity is the important parameter in estimating damage due to earthquakes. However, the traditional moment tensor inversion technique cannot resolve the real fault plane or the rupture directivity. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a new inversion algorithm to determine the moment tensor solution and the rupture directivity for moderate earthquakes, using the waveform inversion technique in the frequency domain. Numerical experiments for unilateral and bilateral rupture models with various rupture velocities confirm that the method can resolve the ambiguity of the fault planes and the rupture directivity successfully. To verify the feasibility of the technique, we tested the sensitivity to velocity models, which must be the most critical factor in practice. The results of the sensitivity tests show that the method can be applied even though the velocity model is not perfect. If this method is applied in regions where the velocity model is well verified, we can estimate the rupture directivity of a moderate earthquake. This method makes a significant contribution to understanding the characteristics of earthquakes in those regions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2014

In the present study, a yeast species isolated from CETP, Vellore, Tamilnadu was identified as Cryptococcus sp. VITGBN2 based on molecular techniques and was found to be a potent producer of acidic diacetate sophorolipid in mineral salt media containing vegetable oil as additional carbon source. The chemical structure of the purified biosurfactant was identified as acidic diacetate sophorolipid through GC-MS analysis. This sophorolipid was used as a stabilizer for synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZON). The formation of biofunctionalized ZON was characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, XRD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The antimicrobial activities of naked ZON and sophorolipid functionalized ZON were tested based on the diameter of inhibition zone in agar well diffusion assay, microbial growth rate determination, protein leakage analysis, and lactate dehydrogenase assay. Bacterial pathogen Salmonella enterica and fungal pathogen Candida albicans showed more sensitivity to sophorolipid biofunctionalized ZON compared with naked ZON. Among the two pathogens, S. enterica showed higher sensitivity towards sophorolipid biofunctionalized ZON. SEM analysis showed that cell damage occurred through cell elongation in the case of S. enterica, whereas cell rupture was found to occur predominantly in the case of C. albicans. This is the first report on the dual role of yeast-mediated sophorolipid used as a biostabilizer for ZON synthesis as well as a novel functionalizing agent showing antimicrobial property.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1202-1206
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• 1998

We have explored the impact of altering the Ras-cAMP pathway on cell survival upon oxidative exposures. A hyperactivated Ras mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, intrinsically more sensitive to heat shock than the wild type, was investigated with regard to oxidative stress. In this paper we report that the response of iral, ira2-deleted mutant (IR2.53) to an oxidant, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or menadione is more sensitive than that of the wild type. IR2.53 showed a dramatic decrease in survival rate when challenged with 0.1 mM H2O2 for 30 min. The greater sensitivity of IR2.53 was also noticed with treatment of 0.01 mM menadione. Prior to oxidative stresses by these oxidants, both the wild type and the mutant were preconditioned with a mild heat shock (37 ℃, 30 min), resulting in improved survivals against oxidative stresses. Rescue of IR2.53 from menadione stress by heat pretreatment was more clearly demonstrated than that from H2O2 treatment. On the other hand, no significant difference was observed between the wild type and the IR2.53 mutant in their survival rates upon paraquat treatments. These findings imply that the mechanism by which H2O2 and menadione put forth their oxidative effects may be closely associated with the cAMP-Ras pathway whereas that of paraquat is independent of the Ras pathway. Finally, the level of glutathione (GSH) was measured enzymatically as an indicator of antioxidation and compared with the survival rate. Taken all these together, this study provides an insight into a mechanism of the Ras pathway regulated by several oxidants and suggests that the Ras pathway plays a crucial role in protection of cell damage following oxidative stress.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.69-79
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• 2010

Objectives: Various cytokines induced by inhalation of coal dust may mediate inflammation and lead to tissue damage or fibrosis, such as coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP). Methods: To investigate the relevance of serum cytokines in CWP, the levels of serum interleukin-8 (IL-8) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-${\alpha}$) as CWP biomarkers in 110 retired coal miners (22 controls and 88 CWP subjects) were related to cross sectional findings and 1-year progressive changes of the pneumoconiosis. Progressive changes of CWP were evaluated by paired comparison of chest radiographs. Analysis by a receiver operating characteristic curve assessed the biomarker potential of each cytokine. Results: The mean serum IL-8 level was significantly higher in CWP compared to controls and IL-8 levels correlated with the degree of CWP. The median serum TNF-${\alpha}$ level was significantly higher in subjects with progressive CWP compared to subjects without CWP progression. The area under the ROC curve for IL-8 (0.70) and TNF-${\alpha}$ (0.72) for CWP identification and progression, respectively, indicated the biomarker potential of the two cytokines. Serum cutoff values of IL-8 and TNF-${\alpha}$ were 11.63 pg/mL(sensitivity, 69%; specificity, 64%) and 4.52 pg/mL (sensitivity, 67%; specificity, 79%), respectively. Conclusion: The results suggest that high levels of serum IL-8 are associated with the presence of CWP and those of serum TNF-${\alpha}$ are associated with the progression of CWP.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.350-357
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate a possible association between the anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody (anti-tTG) titer and stage of duodenal mucosal damage and assess a possible cut-off value of anti-tTG at which celiac disease (CD) may be diagnosed in children in conjunction with clinical judgment. Methods: This observational study was conducted at a gastroenterology clinic in a tertiary hospital from April 2012 to May 2013. Seventy children between 6-months and 18-years-old with suspected CD underwent celiac serology and duodenal biopsy. Statistical analyses were done using SPSS 16. Diagnostic test values were determined for comparing the anti-tTG titer with duodenal biopsy. An analysis of variance and Tukey-Kramer tests were performed for comparing the means between groups. A receiver operating characteristics curve was plotted to determine various cut-off values of anti-tTG. Results: The mean antibody titer increased with severity of Marsh staging (p<0.001). An immunoglobulin (Ig) A-tTG value at 115 AU/mL had 76% sensitivity and 100% specificity with a 100% positive predictive value (PPV) and 17% negative predictive value (NPV) for diagnosis of CD (p<0.001, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75-1). Conclusion: There is an association between the anti-tTG titer and stage of duodenal mucosal injury in children with CD. An anti-tTG value of 115 AU/mL (6.4 times the upper normal limit) had 76% sensitivity, 100% specificity, with a 100% PPV, and 17% NPV for diagnosing CD (95% CI, 0.75-1). This cut-off may be used in combination with clinical judgment to diagnose CD.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.523-530
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• 2019

Pavement distress and traffic accidents are caused by pot-hole. In addition, direct and indirect damages of road users are increasing, such as loss of life due to personal injury and damage to vehicles. Generally, the asphalt concrete pavements are continuously aging from the production process to the terminal performance period. Aging causes stripping due to cracks and moisture penetration and weakening the pavement structure to induce pot-hole. In this study, adhesion performance and moisture sensitivity were evaluated according to aging degree in order to investigate the effect of aging on asphalt pavement. As a result of the study, the viscosity of the asphalt binder was increased with aging and the bond strength of the aged was increased 2~3 times than that of the unaged. The results of accelerated aging test showed an increases in indirect tensile strength and the increase in the TSR (Tensile Strength Ratio) by 4.2~8.9 %. As a result, it is noted that the anti-stripping and adhesion performances of the aged asphalt concrete are improved compared to the unaged one under the aging conditions of asphalt binder coated on aggregates.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 2023

Recently, the increased use of anti-ship guided missiles, a weapon system that detects and attacks targets in naval engagement, has come to pose a major threat to the survivability of ships. In order to improve the survivability of ships in response to such anti-ship guided missiles, many studies of means to counteract them have been conducted in militarily advanced countries. The integrated survivability of a ship can be largely divided into susceptibility, vulnerability, and recoverability, and is expressed as the conditional probability, if the ship is hit, of damage and recovery. However, as research on susceptibility is a major military secret of each country, access to it is very limited and there are few publicly available data. Therefore, in this study, a possibility of estimating the susceptibility of ships using an anti-air defense system corresponding to anti-ship guided missiles was reviewed. To this, scenarios during engagement, weapon systems mounted to counter threats, and maximum detection/battle range according to the operational situation of the defense weapon system were defined. In addition, the effectiveness of the anti-air defense system and susceptibility was calculated based on the performance of the weapon system, the crew's ability to operate the weapon system, and the detection probability of the detection/defense system. To evaluate the susceptibility estimation feasibility, the sensitivity of the detailed variables was reviewed, and the usefulness of the established process was confirmed through sensitivity analysis.