• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.55 no.2
• /
• pp.167-174
• /
• 2017

China still has more than 30,000 patients of advanced schistosomiasis while new cases being reported consistently. D-dimer is a fibrin degradation product. As ascites being the dominating symptom in advanced schistosomiasis, the present study aimed to explore a prediction model of ascites with D-dimer and other clinical easy-achievable indicators. A case-control study nested in a prospective cohort was conducted in schistosomiasis-endemic area of southern China. A total of 291 patients of advanced schistosomiasis were first investigated in 2013 and further followed in 2014. Information on clinical history, physical examination, and abdominal ultrasonography, including the symptom of ascites was repeatedly collected. Result showed 44 patients having ascites. Most of the patients' ascites were confined in the kidney area with median area of $20mm^2$. The level of plasma D-dimer and pertinent liver function indicators were measured at the initial investigation in 2013. Compared with those without ascites, cases with ascites had significantly higher levels of D-dimer ($0.71{\pm}2.44{\mu}g/L$ vs $0.48{\pm}2.12{\mu}g/L$, P=0.005), as well ALB (44.5 vs 46.2, g/L) and Type IV collagen (50.04 vs $44.50{\mu}g/L$). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses indicated a moderate predictive value of D-dimer by its own area under curve (AUC) of 0.64 (95% CI: 0.54-0.73) and the cutoff value as $0.81{\mu}g/L$. Dichotomized by the cutoff level, D-dimer along with other categorical variables generated a prediction model with AUC of 0.76 (95% CI: 0.68-0.89). Risks of patients with specific characteristics in the prediction model were summarized. Our study suggests that the plasma D-dimer level is a reliable predictor for incident ascites in advanced schistosomiasis japonica patients.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.355-363
• /
• 2003

Purpose: Regional contractility can be calculated using the regional volume change of left ventricle measured by gated myocardial SPECT image and curve of central artery pressure obtained from radial artery pressure data. In this study, a program to obtain the regional contractility was developed, and reproducibility of regional contractility measurement was assessed. Materials and Methods: Seven patients(male:female=5:2, $58{\pm}11.9$ years) with coronary artery diseases underwent gated Tc-99m MIBI myocardial SPECT twice without delay between two scans. Regional volume change of left ventricle was estimated using CSA (Cardiac SPECT Analyzer) software developed in this study. Regional contractility was iteratively estimated from the time-elastance curve obtained using the time-pressure curve and regional time-volume curve. Reproducibility of regional contractility measurement assessed by comparing the contractility values measured twice from the same SPECT data and by comparing those measured from the pair of SPECT data obtained from a same patient. Results: Measured regional contractility was $3.36{\pm}3.38{mm}Hg/mL$ using 15-segment model, $3.16{\pm}2.25{mm}Hg/mL$ using 7-segment model, and $3.11{\pm}2.57{mm}Hg/mL$ using 5-segment model. The harmonic average of regional contractility value was almost identical to the global contractility. Correlation coefficient of regional contractility values measured twice from the same data was greater than 0.97 for all models, and two standard deviations of contractility difference on Bland Altman plot were 1.5%, 1.0%, and 0.9% for 15-, 7-, and 5-segment models, respectively. Correlation coefficient of regional contractility values measured from the pair of SPECT data obtained from a same patient was greater than 0.95 for all models, and two standard deviations on Bland Altman plot were 2.2%, 1.0%, and 1.2%. Conclusion: Regional contractility of left ventricle measured using developed software in this study was reproducible. Regional contractility of left ventricle will be a new useful index for myocardial function after analysis of the clinical data.

• Herbal Formula Science
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.183-194
• /
• 2011

Objectives : To estimate the shelf-life by long-term storage test of Pyungwi-san. Methods : Experiments were conducted to evaluate the stability such as the selected physicochemical, heavy metal, microbilogical experiment under an acceleration test and long-term storage test of Pyungwi-san in different storage under room temperature, refrigeration and freezing. Futhermore, HPLC analysis was performed for the determinations of glycyrrhizin in the Pyungwi-san on an Inertsil ODS-3 column(250 mm ${\times}$ 4.6 mm, 5 um) using solvent 35% acetonitrile include 0.05% phosphoric acid at 254 nm. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min. Results : The significant change was not showed in pH, heavy metal, microbiological, identification test and quantitative analysis based on acceleration test and long-term storage test. Retention time of glycyrrhizin in HPLC chromatogram was about 16.065 min and calibration curve showed good linearity($R^2$ = 0.9999). The contents of glycyrrhizin in acceleration test and long-term storage test were 0.068~0.076 mg/mL and 0.066~0.077 mg/mL, respectively. Shelf-lifes of room temperature, refrigeration and freezing by long-term storage test were predicted 41, 24 and 34 months, respectively. Conclusions : The suggested shelf-life would be helpful on the storage and distribution of herbal medicine.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.245-255
• /
• 2009

CN values are changed by various surface condition, which is cover type or treatment, hydrologic condition, or percent impervious area, even the same combination of land use and hydrologic soil group. In this study, CN parameters were regionalized for Nakdong River Basin by Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment (L-THIA) coupled with SCE-UA, which is one of the global optimization technique. Six watersheds were selected for calibration (optimization) and periodic validation and two watersheds for spatical validation as ungauged watershed within Nakdong River Basin. Nash-Sutcliffe (NS) values were 0.66~0.86 for calibration, 0.68~0.91 for validation, and 0.60 and 0.85 for ungauged watersheds, respectively. Urban area for the selected watersheds covered high impervious area with 85% for residential area and 92% for commercial/industrial/transportation area. Hydrologic characteristics for crop area was similar to row crop with contoured treatment and poor hydrologic condition. For the forested area, hydrologic characteristics could be clearly distinguished from the leaf types of plant. Deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forest showed low, moderate, and high runoff rates by representing wood with fair and poor hydrologic condition, and wood-grass combination with fair hydrologic condition, respectively. CN parameters from this study could be strongly recommended to be used to simulate runoff for ungauged watershed.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.233-250
• /
• 2019

A re-assessment of the age structure of the population of the Antarctic icefish Pseudochaenichthys georgianus based on body length data covering the years 1976-2009 and including larvae and postlarvae collected in 1989 and 1990 allowed us to define age groups 0, I, and II as containing fish with respective body lengths of 6-9 cm, 15-27 cm and 27-39 cm. Age at maturity (first spawning) was found to occur in age group III at body lengths that have been falling from 50.1 cm in 1979 to 45.4 cm in 1992. Considering postlarvae together with adult fish, the v. Bertalanffy growth curve parameters were determined as L_∞ = 60.62 cm, k = 0.4, t₀ = 0.25. Although the reasons for a maturity at shorter body lengths is not fully understood a host of environmental factors like increasing water temperatures and possibly changes in currents, interspecific competition, food availability, etc. are likely to be involved. Global warming (and not primarily overfishing) is likely to have been responsible for the disappearance of larger fish in the surface waters of South Georgia since 1977, for virtually all commercial fishing stopped in the early 1990s. On the other hand, the appearance of numerous younger spawning individuals suggests that larvae do survive in the colder deeper water below 200 m. The biomass of Ps. georgianus oscillates with a 4-year periodicity in contrast to that of the coexisting icefish Chaenocephalus aceratus: the former with a lower biomass in warm years and a higher one in cold years. The biomass of the third species of icefish in the region, i.e. Champsocephalus gunnari, also oscillates, but with a longer periodicity than that involved in the biology of the other two and its biomass increases in contrast to the other two species. The result is that the biomass all three species considered together is rather stable.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.83-92
• /
• 2022

The amount of the plastic waste has been increasing according to global demand for plastic. Microplastics are the most hazardous among all plastic pollutants due to their toxicity and unknown physicochemical properties. This study investigates the optimal methodology that can be applied to sewage samples for detecting microplastics before discussing reducing microplastics in MWTPs. In this study, the effect of different pretreatment methods while detecting microplastic analysis of MWTP influent samples was investigated; the samples were collected from the J sewage treatment plant. There are many pretreatment methods but two of them are widely used: Fenton digestion and hydrogen peroxide oxidation. Although there are many pretreatment methods that can be applied to investigate microplastics, the most widely used methods for sewage treatment plant samples are Fenton digestion and H₂O₂ oxidation. For each pretreatment method, there were factors that could cause an error in the measurement. To overcome this, in the case of the Fenton digestion pretreatment, it is recommended to proceed with the analysis by filtration instead of the density separation method. In the case of the H₂O₂ oxidation method, the process of washing with distilled water after the reaction is recommended. As a result of the analysis, the concentration of microplastics was measured to be 2.75ea/L for the sample using the H₂O₂ oxidation method and 3.2ea/L for the sample using the Fenton oxidation method, and most of them were present in the form of fibers. In addition, it is difficult to guarantee the reliability of measurement results from quantitative analysis performed via microscope with eyes. A calibration curve was created for prove the reliability. A total of three calibration curves were drawn, and as a result of analysis of the calibration curves, all R² values were more than 0.9. This ensures high reliability for quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis could determine the series of microplastics flowing into the MWTP, but could not confirm the chemical composition of each microplastic. This study can be used to confirm the chemical composition of microplastics introduced into MWTP in the future research.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.29 no.spc1
• /
• pp.63-64
• /
• 1996

The nature of distant faint blue field galaxies remains a mystery, despite the fact that much attention has been devoted to this subject in the last decade. Galaxy counts, particularly those in the optical and near ultraviolet bandpasses, have been demonstrated to be well in excess of those expected in the 'no-evolution' scenario. This has usually been taken to imply that galaxies were brighter in the past, presumably due to a higher rate of star formation. More recently, redshift surveys of galaxies as faint as B$\~$24 have shown that the mean redshift of faint blue galaxies is lower than that predicted by standard evolutionary models (de-signed to fit the galaxy counts). The galaxy number count data and redshift data suggest that evolutionary effects are most prominent at the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function. While these data constrain the form of evolution of the overall luminosity function, they do not constrain evolution in individual galaxies. We are carrying out a series of observations as part of a long-term program aimed at a better understanding of the nature and amount of luminosity evolution in individual galaxies. Our study uses the luminosity-linewidth relation (Tully-Fisher relation) for disk galaxies as a tool to study luminosity evolution. Several studies of a related nature are being carried out by other groups. A specific experiment to test a 'no-evolution' hypothesis is presented here. We have used the AUTOFIB multifibre spectro-graph on the 4-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and the Rutgers Fabry-Perot imager on the Cerro Tolalo lnteramerican Observatory (CTIO) 4-metre tele-scope to measure the internal kinematics of a representative sample of faint blue field galaxies in the red-shift range z = 0.15-0.4. The emission line profiles of [OII] and [OIII] in a typical sample galaxy are significantly broader than the instrumental resolution (100-120 km $s^{-l}$), and it is possible to make a reliable de-termination of the linewidth. Detailed and realistic simulations based on the properties of nearby, low-luminosity spirals are used to convert the measured linewidth into an estimate of the characteristic rotation speed, making statistical corrections for the effects of inclination, non-uniform distribution of ionized gas, rotation curve shape, finite fibre aperture, etc.. The (corrected) mean characteristic rotation speed for our distant galaxy sample is compared to the mean rotation speed of local galaxies of comparable blue luminosity and colour. The typical galaxy in our distant sample has a B-band luminosity of about 0.25 L$\ast$ and a colour that corresponds to the Sb-Sd/Im range of Hub-ble types. Details of the AUTOFIB fibre spectroscopic study are described by Rix et al. (1996). Follow-up deep near infrared imaging with the 10-metre Keck tele-scope+ NIRC combination and high angular resolution imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope's WFPC2 are being used to determine the structural and orientation parameters of galaxies on an individual basis. This information is being combined with the spatially resolved CTIO Fabry-Perot data to study the internal kinematics of distant galaxies (Ing et al. 1996). The two main questions addressed by these (preliminary studies) are: 1. Do galaxies of a given luminosity and colour have the same characteristic rotation speed in the distant and local Universe? The distant galaxies in our AUTOFIB sample have a mean characteristic rotation speed of $\~$70 km $s^{-l}$ after correction for measurement bias (Fig. 1); this is inconsistent with the characteristic rotation speed of local galaxies of comparable photometric proper-ties (105 km $s^{-l}$) at the > $99\%$ significance level (Fig. 2). A straightforward explanation for this discrepancy is that faint blue galaxies were about 1-1.5 mag brighter (in the B band) at z $\~$ 0.25 than their present-day counterparts. 2. What is the nature of the internal kinematics of faint field galaxies? The linewidths of these faint galaxies appear to be dominated by the global disk rotation. The larger galaxies in our sample are about 2"-.5" in diameter so one can get direct insight into the nature of their internal velocity field from the $\~$ I" seeing CTIO Fabry-Perot data. A montage of Fabry-Perot data is shown in Fig. 3. The linewidths are too large (by. $5\sigma$) to be caused by turbulence in giant HII regions.