• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.459-470
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• 2012

From the PSA point of view, the Fukushima accident of Japan in 2011 reveals some issues to be re-considered and/or improved in the PSA such as the limited scope of the PSA, site risk, etc. KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) has performed researches on the development of an integrated risk assessment framework related to some issues arisen after the Fukushima accident. This framework can cover the internal PSA model and external PSA models (fire, flooding, and seismic PSA models) in the full power and the low power-shutdown modes. This framework also integrates level 1, 2 and 3 PSA to quantify the risk of nuclear facilities more efficiently and consistently. We expect that this framework will be helpful to resolve the issue regarding the limited scope of PSA and to reduce some inconsistencies that might exist between (1) the internal and external PSA, and (2) full power mode PSA and low power-shutdown PSA models. In addition, KAERI is starting researches related to the extreme external events, the risk assessment of spent fuel pool, and the site risk. These emerging issues will be incorporated into the integrated risk assessment framework. In this paper the integrated risk assessment framework and the research activities on the emerging issues are outlined.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.4973-4976
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• 2013

Background: To identify correlation and incidence of bone metastases in prostate cancer patient with low Gleason scores (GS) and prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels. Materials and Methods: This descriptive restrospective study covered patients with prostate cancer in Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in 2006-2011. Of a total of 478, those who had PSA values, histological examination, and bone scan were included, resulting in 358 eligible cases. PSA values were measured using the sandwich electrochemiluminescent immunoassay. Histological examination was graded according to Gleason's grading system and divided into 3 categories: well differentiated ($GS{\leq}6$), moderately differentiated (GS 7) and poorly differentiated (GS 8-10). Bone scans were performed using a radiopharmaceutical agent ($T_c$ 99m methylenen diphosphonate) with images captured by gamma camera. Results: The mean age was $67.5{\pm}7.8$, mean GS was $7.7{\pm}1.3$ and median PSA was 56.9 (range: 0.48-17000 ng/mL). There were 11 patients (3.0%) with positive bone scan with PSA<20 ng/mL and GS<8. Furthermore, there were 2 patients (0.6%) with $GS{\leq}6$ and PSA<10 ng/mL showing bone metastasis. Conclusions: In our study, there were still small percentage of patients with bone metastasis even when low values of PSA (PSA<10 ng/mL) and GS ($GS{\leq}6$) were applied.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.331-343
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• 2002

We performed an importance analysis of In-Service Testing (157) components for Ulchin Unit 3 using the integrated evaluation method for categorizing component safety significance developed in this study. The developed method is basically aimed at having a PSA expert perform an importance analysis using PSA and its related information. The importance analysis using the developed method is initiated by ranking the component importance using quantitative PSA information. The importance analysis of the IST components not modeled in the PSA is performed through the engineering judgment, based on the expertise of PSA, and the quantitative and qualitative information for the 157 components. The PSA scope for importance analysis includes not only Level 1 and 2 internal PSA but also Level 1 external and shutdown/low power operation PSA. The importance analysis results of valves show that 167 (26.55%) of the 629 IST valves are HSSCs and 462 (73.45%) are LSSCs. Those of pumps also show that 28 (70%)of the 40157 pumps are HSSCs and 12 (30%) are LSSCs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.7085-7088
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• 2015

Background: The high incidence of prostate cancer as the most common malignancy in males in many countries raises the question of developing reliable detection tests. The prostate specific antigen (PSA) test is the most widely used for screening for prostate cancer; however, its low specificity elevates the number of unnecessarily biopsies. Serum human kallikrein-2 (hK2) is considered as a promising marker, and especially its ratio to fPSA, for predicting the presence of malignancy to select the best choice referring to biopsy or surveillance. In this study, we investigated the role of hK2 and its combinations with other markers to discriminate prostate cancer from benign diseases in Syrian patients. Materials and Methods: In this prospective oriented cross-sectional cohort study, serum samples were collected from patients referred to many Hospitals in Damascus, Syria, between May 2011 and March 2012, and diagnosed with biopsy proven benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) or prostate cancer (PCa). Serum was analyzed for hK2, PSA and fPSA, and the ratios of fPSA/PSA and hK2/fPSA were calculated. Results: We found that mean hK2/fPSA ratios were significantly higher (P=0.01) in prostate cancer patients than in the BPH or control groups. Also the ratio hk2/fPSA gave the largest area under the curve (AUC:0.96) which was significantly larger than for fPSA/PSA (AUC:0.41) indicative of higher specificity. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that the ratio of hK2/fPSA might be superior to the use of fPSA/PSA alone. The hK2 could be shown to enhance the early detection of prostate cancer; especially the ratio hK2/fPSA improves specificity and hence may reduce the number of negative biopsies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.601-606
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• 2015

Background: Prostate cancer is predominately a disease of older men, with a median age of diagnosis of 68 years and 71% of cancer deaths occurring in those over 75 years of age. While prostate cancer screening is not recommended for men >70 years, fit elderly men with controlled comorbidities may have a relatively long life expectancy. We compare the use of age related PSA with the detection of primary malignant circulating prostate cells mCPCs to detect clinically significant PC in this population. Materials and Methods: All men undergoing PC screening with a PSA >4.0ng/ml underwent TRUS 12 core prostate biopsy (PB). Age, PSA, PB results defined as cancer/no-cancer, Gleason, number of positive cores and percentage infiltration were registered. Men had an 8ml blood sample taken for mCPC detection; mononuclear cells were obtained using differential gel centrifugation and mCPCs were identified using immunocytochemistry with anti-PSA and anti-P504S. A mCPC was defined as a cell expressing PSA and P504S; a positive test as at least one mCPC detected/sample. Diagnostic yields for subgroups were calculated and the number of avoided PBs registered. Esptein criteria were used to define small grade tumours. Results: A total of 610 men underwent PB, 398 of whom were aged <70yrs. Men over 70 yrs had: a higher median PSA, 6.24ng/ml versus 5.59ng/ml (p=0.04); and a higher frequency of cancer detected 90/212 (43%) versus 134/398 (34%) (p=0.032). Some 34/134 cancers in men <70yrs versus 22/90 (24%) of men >70yrs complied with criteria for active surveillance. CPC detection: 154/398 (39%) men <70yrs were CPC (+), specificity for cancer 86%, sensitivity 88%, 14/16 with a false (-) result had a small low grade PC. In men >70 years, 88/212 (42%) were CPC (+); specificity 92%, sensitivity 87%, 10/12 with a false (-) had small low grade tumours. False (+) results were more common in younger men 36/154 versus 10/88 (p<0.02). With a PSA cutoff of 6.5ng/ml, in men <70yrs, 108 PB would be avoided, missing 56 cancers of which 48 were clinically significant. Using CPC detection, 124 biopsies would be avoided, missing only 2 clinically significant cancers. In men >70 yrs using a PSA >6.5ng/ml would have resulted in 108 PB with 34 PC detected, of which 14(41%) were small low grade tumours. Conclusions: The use of CPC detection in the fit elderly significantly decreases the number of PBs without missing clinically significant cancers, indicating superiority to the use of age-related PSA.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 1997

Recent reports indicate that the clinical usefulness of prostate specific antigen (PSA), particulary in the differentiation of benign prostate hyperplasia from prostate cancer, can be improved by measuring the amount of free PSA in serum. Measuring free PSA is especially useful in attempts to improve diagnositc performance of PSA in the diagnostic gray zone of total PSA. The objective of this study was to develop free PSA assay kit using sandwich microplate enzyme immunoassay format. We chose a test format with polyclonal anti-PSA antibodies coated on the wells and monoclonal anti-free PSA antibodies for quantification to gain higher test sensitivity. We adpoted 10 uL of specimen and 2 hours of first incubation time with detecting antibody for free PSA EIA format using microplate. The within-day and between-day precision (%CV) in the high and low concentration ranges were below 4%. The correlation coefficient between in-house free PSA assay and commercial assay kit was r=0.9965 (slope=0.0984, y intercept=0.0173, N=27). No hook effect was found by 40 ng/mL and correlation coefficient (r) value of the fitted linear regression was over 0.995. The recovery tests were in the range of 98.9∼104.1％ for free PSA. In conclusion, in-house free PSA enzyme immune assay is cost effective, simple and rapid and could be useful for the prognosis after theraphy as well as for the differential diagnosis between prostate cancer and benign prostate hyperplasia.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1350-1354
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• 2007

As the importance of low power design is emphasized, power consumption became one of the standards that represent the performance of the system. The purpose of this study is to decide design variable that minimize power consumption for the oxygen concentrator in two bed-one compressor 8 step PSA process that has above 90% purity at 3lpm by using given constants and selected parameters. Setting selected parameters as cycle time and equalization time, optimization for PSA process in the oxygen concentrator is progressed. For this, we need to know the features and basic principals of PSA process and to deduce objective function of performance analysis. Validations for objective function and lots of experiments are needed too. By using the characteristic curve of the compressor and the pressure curve of the process for 1 cycle, objective function was set. After theoretical 2 dimensional optimized paths was obtained. And then, by experiment, theoretical optimized path was verified.

• Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.59-72
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• 1997

The influence of respiration on photosythetic electron transport were investigated in the Wid type and psaB mutants from Syneehocystis sp. PCC6803. The amount of glucose uptake in the wild type was proportional to the glucose concentration added in wild type and less than that of psaB mutants in the dark. It was suggested that psaB mutants more depend on the glucose than the wild type. It was investigated how the activities of isocitrate dehydrogenase(IDH) and glucose-6-phos-phate dehydrogenase(G6PDH) were changed. The activities of IDH were very low. While, the ac-tivities of G6PDH were much higher than that of IDH. These results agree to the reports that ex-ogenous glucose was dismilated aerobically via Oxidative Pentose Phosphate Pathway in heterotrophic cyanobacteria. PsaB mutants showed high G6PDH activity in the presence of glucose as well as in the dark and high respiratory activities especially in the dark. It was also investigated how photosynthetic electron transport activities were changed. PsaB mutants showed higher photosynthetic electron tranasport activities than wild type in the presence of glucose as well as in the dark. In the results, it was proposed that photosynthetic electron transport between PS I and PS U was complemented by respiratory electron transport through the NADPH generated by Dxidative Pentose Phophate Pathway in psaB mutant from Synechocystis sp. PCC6803. Key words: Photosynthetic electron transport, Respiration, Synechoystis sp. PCC6803, psaB mutant, Glucose uptake, IDH, G6PDH, Respiratory electron transport activity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.306-312
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• 2017

The purpose of this research is to introduce the technical standard of accident sequence precursor (ASP) analysis, and to propose a case study using the dynamic-probabilistic safety assessment (D-PSA) approach. The D-PSA approach can aid in the determination of high-risk/low-frequency accident scenarios from all potential scenarios. It can also be used to investigate the dynamic interaction between the physical state and the actions of the operator in an accident situation for risk quantification. This approach lends significant potential for safety analysis. Furthermore, the D-PSA approach provides a more realistic risk assessment by minimizing assumptions used in the conventional PSA model so-called the static-PSA model, which are relatively static in comparison. We performed risk quantification of a steam generator tube rupture (SGTR) accident using the dynamic event tree (DET) methodology, which is the most widely used methodology in D-PSA. The risk quantification results of D-PSA and S-PSA are compared and evaluated. Suggestions and recommendations for using D-PSA are described in order to provide a technical perspective.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.5695-5699
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• 2012

We investigated the relationships between demographics, lifestyle characteristics, and serum total prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentration and examined the population-based distribution of total PSA by age among 2,246 Korean men with a median age of 45 years. We obtained data about demographic and lifestyle characteristics based on self-reporting using a quetionnaire. We also performed physical examinations, anthropometric measurements, and biochemical measurements. The PSA concentration increased with age and there was a significant difference in total PSA concentration between the age groups of 21-60 years and >60 years. Age >60 years, height ${\geq}1.8$ m, a low frequency of alcohol consumption, and taking nutritional supplements showed a significantly increased odds ratio for increased PSA when 3.0 ng/mL was chosen as the PSA cut-off level. Smoking status, BMI, percent body fat, diabetes mellitus, fatty liver, herbal medicine use, vitamin use, and diet were not significantly associated with total PSA regardless of the cut-off level. When interpreting a single PSA test, height, alcohol consumption, and nutritional supplement use should be considered, in addition to age.