• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.70-79
• /
• 2003

Object : Currently, the alteration of cytokine system has been known to play an important role in regard to depressive symptom. We focused on the relationship between immunological parameters and clinical improvement in major depressive disorder. Method : Data were collected on 26 patients with major depressive disorder using a 8-week prospective follow-up design. After 8-week treatment period with fluoxetine, patients were classified into a response group and a non-response group according to their psychopathological outcome as evaluated by Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The differences of the immunological parameters between pre-treatment phase and post-treatment phase were compared among patients. The difference of those was also compared within each phase among them. The relationship between socio-demographic variables, depression, cytokine, mononuclear cells was examined by correlation analysis. Multiple regression analyses were performed to explore the predictors of clinical improvement of major depressive disorder. Result : Pre-treatment levels of IL-$1{\beta}$ in the response group were significantly higher than those in the non-response group. Pre-treatment levels of IL-$1{\beta}$ of all patients and in the response group were positively correlated with pre-treatment monocyte counts. Patients with subsequent remission showed significantly lower IL-6 values at baseline than those with non-response. Post-treatment values of IL-6 did not differ significantly among the patients. The correlation test showed more frequent relations among cytokines and mononuclear cells in the response group than in the non-responder group. Especially, serum level of IL-6 in pre-treatment phase was only significantly correlated with HAMD score after 8-week treatement phase, while other cytokines and mononuclear cells were not. Pretreatment level of IL-6 was of paramount importance in predicting clinical improvement of depressive symptom. Conclusion : The immune system of major depressive disorder patients might dichotomize the patients into subsequent responders and non-responders. Immune system might be of great influence on the clinical improvement of major depressive disorder. The mode of interaction between depression and cellular immune function and the mediators responsible for the cytokine production need to be studied further.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.113-120
• /
• 2003

Drug interactions with food, on occasion, lead to serious nutritional and functional changes in the body as well as alternations of pharmacological effect. It, therefore, should be necessary to take drug interactions with food into consideration for effective and safe therapeutics. Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by abnormal glucose homeostasis, resulting in hyperglycemia, and is associated with increased risk of micovascular, macrovascular, and neuropathic complications. However, the precise mechanism of diabetes mellitus remains unclear. Three basic objectives in the care of diabetic patients are maintaining optimal nutrition, avoiding hypo- or hyperglycemia and preventing complications. The purpose of this study was to investigate thε effect of Laminaria japonica diet on the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of glipizide which are frequently used in the treatment of diabetes. Diabetic rats induced by streptozotocin were employed in this study. Blood concentrations of oral hypoglycemic agents were measured by HPLC and resultant pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by RSTRIP. The mechanisms of drug interaction with food were evaluated on the basis of pharmacokinetic parameters such as $k_{a},\;t_{1/2},\;C_{max},\;t_{max}$ and AUC. Administration of glipizide in normal rats treated with Laminaria japonica diet showed significant increase in AUC, $k_{a},\;t_{1/2},\;t_{max}$ and decrease in $C_{max}$, compared to those without Laminaria japonica diet. This might result from adsorption of glipizide on components of Laminaria japonica, causing delayed absorption. Administration of glipizide in diabetic rats treated with Laminaria japonica diet showed significant increase in $t_{1/2}\;and\;t_{max}$, and decrease in $C_{max}$, compared to those without Laminaria japonica diet. This might also result from adsorption of glipizide on components of Laminaria japonica, causing delayed absorption and flattened blood concentration of glipizide. The oral glucose test showed that Laminaria japonica diet could lower blood glucose level probably through either inhibiting the activity of disaccharidases, intestinal digestive enzymes, or delaying the absorption of glucose. More studies should be followed to fully understand pharmacokinetic changes of glipizide caused by long-term Laminaria japonica diet.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.219-228
• /
• 2007

The phase-shift method and correlation constants, i.e., the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques for studying linear relationships between the behaviors (${\varphi}\;vs.\;E$) of the phase shift ($0^{\circ}{\leq}-{\varphi}{\leq}90^{\circ}$) for the optimum intermediate frequency and those (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$) of the fractional surface coverage ($1{\geq}{\theta}{\geq}0$), have been proposed and verified to determine the Langmuir, Frumkin, and Temkin adsorption isotherms (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$) of H for the cathodic $H_2$ evolution reaction (HER) at noble and transition-metal/aqueous solution interfaces. At the Pt/0.1 MKOH aqueous solution interface, the Langmuir, Frumkin, and Temkin adsorption isotherms (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$), equilibrium constants ($K=5.6{\times}10^{-10}\;mol^{-1}\;at\;0{\leq}{\theta}<0.81$, $K=5.6{\times}10^{-9}{\exp}(-4.6{\theta})\;mol^{-1}\;at\;0.2<{\theta}<0.8$, and $K=5.6{\times}10^{-10}{\exp}(-12{\theta})\;mol^{-1}\;at\;0.919<{\theta}{\leq}1$, interaction parameters (g = 4.6 for the Temkin and g = 12 for the Frumkin adsorption isotherm), rates of change of the standard free energy ($r=11.4\;kJ\;mol^{-1}$ for g=4.6 and $r=29.8\;kJ\;mol^{-1}$ for g=12), and standard free energies (${\Delta}G_{ads}^0=52.8\;kJ\;mol^{-1}\;at\;0{\leq}{\theta}<0.81,\;49.4<{\Delta}G_{\theta}^0<56.2\;kJ\;mol^{-1}\;at\;0.2<{\theta}<0.8$ and $80.1<{\Delta}_{\theta}^0{\leq}82.5\;kJ\;mol^{-1}\;at\;0.919<{\theta}{\leq}1$) of OH for the anodic $O_2$ evolution reaction (OER) are also determined using the phase-shift method and correlation constants. The adsorption of OH transits from the Langmuir to the Frumkin adsorption isotherm (${\theta}\;vs.E$), and vice versa, depending on the electrode potential (E) or the fractional surface coverage (${\theta}$). At the intermediate values of ${\theta}$, i.e., $0.2<{\theta}<0.8$, the Temkin adsorption isotherm (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$) correlating with the Langmuir or the Frumkin adsorption isotherm (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$), and vice versa, is readily determined using the correlation constants. The phase-shift method and correlation constants are accurate and reliable techniques to determine the adsorption isotherms and related electrode kinetic and thermodynamic parameters. They are useful and effective ways to study the adsorptions of intermediates (H, OH) for the sequential reactions (HER, OER) at the interfaces.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.159-168
• /
• 1999

Cardiac disease is one of the leading causes of death in Korea. In quantitative analysis of cardiac function and morphological information by three-dimensional reconstruction of magnetic resonance images, left ventricle provides an important role functionally and physiologically. However, existing procedures mostly rely on the extensive human interaction and are seldom evaluated on clinical applications. In this study, we developed a system which could perform automatic extraction of enpicardial and endocardial contour and analysis of cardiac function to evaluate reliability and stability of each system comparing with the result of ARGUS system offered 1.5T Siemens MRI system and manual method performed by clinicians. For various aspects, we investigated reliability of each system by compared with left ventricular contour, end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), stock volume (SV), ejection fraction (EF), cardiac output (CO) and wall thickness (WT). When comparing with manual method, extracted results of developed process using minimum error threshold (MET) method that automatically extracts contour from cardiac MR images and ARGUS system were demonstrated as successful rate 90% of the contour extraction. When calculating cardiac function parameters using MET and comparing with using correlation coefficients analysis method, the process extracts endocardial and epicardial contour using MET, values from automatic and ARGUS method agreed with manual values within :t 3% average error. It was successfully demonstrated that automatic method using threshold technique could provide high potential for assessing of each parameters with relatively high reliability compared with manual method. In this study, the method developed in this study could reduce processing time compared with ARGUS and manual method due to a simple threshold technique. This method is useful for diagnosis of cardiac disease, simulating physiological function and amount of blood flow of left ventricle. In addition, this method could be valuable in developing automatic systems in order to apply to other deformable image models.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.661-678
• /
• 2006

Products developed in this research is a software which can transfer the type of shape(.shp) into the type of ascii using the land cover data and the topography data in the metropolitan area of Seoul. In addition, it can calculate the $CO_2$ flux according to distribution of plants within the land cover data. The $CO_2$ flux is calculated by the experimental equation which is compose of the meteorological parameters such as the solar radiation and the air temperature. The net flux was shown in about $-19ton/km^2$ by removing $CO_2$ through the photosynthesis during daytime, and in 2 ton/km2 by producing it through the respiration during nighttime on 10 August 2004, the maximum day of air temperature during the period of 3yr(2001 to 2004), in the metropolitan area of Seoul. Spatial distribution of the air temperature and the wind field is simulated by substituting the middle classification of the land cover map data, upgraded by the Korean Ministry of Environment(KME), for the land-use data of the United States Geological Survey(USGS) within the Meteorological Mesoscale Model Version 5(MM5) on 10 August 2006 in the metropolitan area of Seoul. Difference of the air temperature between both data was shown in the maximum range of $-2^{\circ}C\;to\;2.9^{\circ}C$, and the air temperature due to the land use data of KME was higher than that of USGS in average $0.4^{\circ}C$. Also, those of wind vectors were meanly lower than that of USGS in daytime and nighttime. Furthermore, the hourly time series of Volatile Organic Components(VOCs) is calculated by using the Biosphere Emission and Interaction System Version 2(BEIS2) including the new land cover data and the meteorological parameters such as the air temperature and so]ar insolation. It is possible to calculate the concentration of ozone due to the biogenic emission of VOCs.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• /
• v.18 no.3 s.118
• /
• pp.323-333
• /
• 2007

In this paper, a new MDAS-DR antenna structure designed to efficiently shape a flat-topped radiation pattern is proposed. The antenna structure is composed of a stacked micro-strip patch exciter and a multi-layered disk array structure(MDAS) surrounded by a dielectric ring. The MDAS, which was supplied by a stacked microstrip patch exciter with radiating power, can form a flat-topped radiation pattern in a far field by a mutual interaction with the surrounding dielectric ring. Therefore, the design parameters of the dielectric ring and the MDAS structure are important design parameters for shaping a flat-topped radiation pattern. The proposed antenna used twelve multi-layered disk array elements and a Teflon material with a dielectric constant of 2.05. An antenna operated at 10 GHz$(9.6\sim10.4\;GHz)$ was designed in order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed antenna structure. The commercial simulator of CST Microwave $Studio^{TM}$, which was adapted to a 3-D antenna structure analysis, was used for the simulation. The antenna breadboard was also fabricated and its electrical performance was measured in an anechoic antenna chamber. The measured results of the antenna breadboard with a flat-topped radiation pattern were found to be in good agreement with the simulated one. The MDAS-DR antenna gain measured at 10 GHz was 11.18 dBi, and the MDAS-DR antenna was capable of shaping a good flat-topped radiation pattern with a beam-width of about $40^{\circ}$, at least within a fractional bandwidth of 8.0 %.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.27-34
• /
• 2009

Site amplification should be considered in order to estimate Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI), seismic source and attenuation parameters with a greater degree of reliability. The horizontal to vertical (H/V) ratio technique, originally proposed by Nakamura (1989), has been applied to analyze the surface waves in microtremor records. Recently, its application has been extended to the shear wave energy of strong motion in order to study the site transfer function. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the H/V spectral ratio using the observed data from 9 seismic stations distributed within the Southern Korean Peninsula, from the Odesan earthquake (2007/01/20). The results show that most of the stations have more stable amplification characteristics in a low frequency band than in a high frequency band. However, each seismic station showed its own characteristic resonant frequency and low and high frequency. The resonant frequency at each station should be estimated carefully, because the quality of seismic data is dependent on the resonant frequency. It can be obtained more reliable results of seismic source and attenuation parameters, if seismic ground motions which deconvolved from site transfer function is used. The site amplification data from this study can be used to generally classify the sites within the Southern Korean Peninsula.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.312-320
• /
• 2003

The basic mechanistic aspects of the interaction and practical considerations related to polymer ablation were briefly reviewed. Photochemical and photothermal effects, which highly depend on laser wavelength have close correlation with each other. In this study, multi-scanning laser ablation processing of polymer with a DPSS (Diode Pumped Solid State) 3rd harmonic Nd:YVO$_4$ laser (355 nm) was developed to fabricate a three-dimensional micro shape. Polymer fabrication using DPSSL has some advantages compared with the conventional polymer ablation process using KrF and ArF laser with 248 nm and 193 nm wavelength. These advantages include pumping efficiency and low maintenance cost. And this method also makes it possible to fabricate 2D patterns or 3D shapes rapidly and cheaply because CAD/CAM software and precision stages are used without complex projection mask techniques. Photomachinability of polymer is highly influenced by laser wavelength and by the polymer's own chemical structure. So the optical characteristics of polymers for a 355 nm laser source is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The photophysical and photochemical parameters such as laser fluence, focusing position, and ambient gas were considered to reduce the plume effect which re-deposits debris on the surface of substrate. These phenomena affect the surface roughness and even induce delamination around the ablation site. Thus, the process parameters were tuned to optimize for gaining precision surface shape and quality. This maskless direct photomachining technology using DPSSL could be expected to manufacture tile prototype of micro devices and molds for the laser-LIGA process.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.57 no.5
• /
• pp.679-686
• /
• 2019

Characteristics of adsorption equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic of aniline blue onto activated carbon from aqueous solution were investigated as function of initial concentration, contact time and temperature. Adsorption isotherm of aniline blue was analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich-Peterson, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich models. Langmuir isotherm model fit better with isothermal data than other isotherm models. Estmated Langmuir separation factors ($R_L=0.036{\sim}0.068$) indicated that adsorption process of aniline blue by activated carbon could be an effective treatment method. Adsorption kinetic data were fitted to pseudo first order model, pseudo second order model and intraparticle diffusion models. The kinetic results showed that the adsorption of aniline blue onto activated carbon well followed pseudo second-order model. Adsorption mechanism was evaluated in two steps, film diffusion and intraparticle diffusion, by intraparticle diffusion model. Thermodynamic parameters such as Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and entropy for adsorption process were estimated. Enthalpy change (48.49 kJ/mol) indicated that this adsorption process was physical adsorption and endothermic. Since Gibbs free energy decreased with increasing temperature, the adsorption reaction became more spontaneously with increasing temperature. The isosteric heat of adsorption indicated that there is interaction between the adsorbent and the adsorbate because the energy heterogeneity of the adsorbent surface.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.15-26
• /
• 2019

The stability of the gravity quay wall against earthquakes is evaluated on the basis of the allowable displacement of the wall. To estimate the displacement caused by external forces, empirical equations based on the Newmark sliding block method or numerical analysis are widely used. In numerical analysis, it is possible to analyze precisely a complicated site and structure, but difficult to set the appropriate parameters and environments; there are limitations in obtaining reliable results, depending on one's level of expertise. The Newmark method, with only seismic motions, is widely used because it is simpler than numerical simulations when estimating permanent displacement. However, the empirical equations do not have any parameters for the response characteristics and sliding block of the structure, and sliding blocks being assumed as rigid bodies does not consider the nonlinear behavior of the soil and interaction with the structure. Therefore, in order to evaluate the seismic stability of the gravity quay wall, a newly-developed empirical equation is needed to overcome the above-mentioned limitations. In this study, numerical simulations are performed to analyze the response characteristics of the backfill of the structure, and to propose an optimal method of calculating the active area. For this purpose, finite element analyses were performed to analyze the response characteristics, and stress-strain relationships for various seismic motions. As a result, the response characteristics, sliding block, and failure surface of the backfill vary depending on the input seismic motions.