• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2004

Background : In recent years, numerous human tumor specific antigens such as melanoma antigen gene(MAGE) that is recognized by autologous cytotoxic T lymphocytes have been identified. MAGE is expressed in many human malignancies in various organs, such as lung, breast, stomach, esophagus and leukemia. Therefore MAGE has been studied widely for tumor diagnosis and immunotherapy. But, so far there were no clinical studies evaluating the role of MAGE in pleural effusion. We investigated the expression of MAGE in the patients with exudative pleural effusion for it's diagnostic utility and the results were compared with those of cytologic examinations. Methods : Diagnostic thoracentesis was performed in 44 consecutive patients with exudative pleural effusion during 6 months. We examined the expression of MAGE and cytology with the obtained pleural effusion. Expression of MAGE was interpreted by means of a commercial kit using RT-PCR method. Enrolled patients were divided into two groups such as malignant and benign and we analyzed its' sensitivity and specificity. Results : There were no significant differences between two groups in age, sex, white blood cell counts in pleural fluid, pleural fluid/serum protein ratio and pleural fluid/serum LDH ratio. The sensitivity and specificity of MAGE were 72.2% and 96.2% respectively and the positive predictive value and negative predictive value of MAGE were also 92.9% and 83.3% respectively. The sensitivity and negative predictive value of cytologic examinations were 66.7% and 81.3% respectively. There were no significant differences between sensitivities of MAGE and cytologic examinations but false positive result of MAGE was found in 1 case of tuberculous pleurisy. Conclusion : MAGE is a sensitive and specific marker for the differential diagnosis between benign and malignant effusion in patients with exudative pleural effusion. And MAGE would provide the equal sensitivity compared with that of cytologic examination in patients with malignant pleural effusion if 5mL of the pleural fluid is examined.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.519-528
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• 1993

The biodegradation experiment, the TOD analysis and the element analysis for dispersant, Bunker-C and dispersant/Bunker-C oil mixtures were conducted for the purposes of evaluating the biodegradability of dispersnat/Bunker-C oil mixtures and studying the consumption of dissolved oxygen with relation to biodegradation in the seawater. The results of biodegradation experiment showed the mixtures with $1:10{\sim}5:10$ mix ratios of dispersant to 4mg/l of Bunker-C oil to be $0.34{\sim}2.06mg/l$ of $BOD_5$ and to be $1.05{\sim}5.47mg/l$ of $BOD_{20}$ in natural seawater. The results of TOD analysis showed 1mg of Bunker-C oil to be 3.16mg of TOD. The results of element analysis showed the contents of carbon and hydrogen to be $87.3\%\;and\;11.5\%$ for Bunker-C oil, respectively, but nitrogen element was not detected in Bunker-C oil. The biodegradability of dispersant/Bunker-C oil mixture shown as the ratio of $BOD_5$/TOD was increased from $3\%\;to\;11\%$ as a mix ratio of dispersant to 4mg/l of Bunker-C oil changed from 1:10 to 5:10, and the mixtures were found to belong in the organic matter group of low-biodegradability. The deoxygenation rates($K_1$) and ultimate oxygen demands($L_o$) obtained through the biodegration experiment and Thomas slope method were found to be $0.072{\sim}0.097/day$ and $1.113{\sim}6.746mg/l$ for the mixtures with $1:10{\sim}5:10$ mix ratios of dispersant to 4mg/l of Bunker-C oil, respectively. The ultimate oxygen demand of mixture was increased as a mix ratio of dispersant to Bunker-C oil changed from 1:10 to 10:5. This means that the more dispersants are applied to the sea for Bunker-C oil cleanup, the more decreases the dissolved oxygen level in the seawater.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2000

Background : The purpose of decortication is to eliminate the infection focus and to improve the decreased lung function due to chronic empyema. However, lung function is not improved in all cases. It would be clinically useful if we could predict prepoperatively whether lung function would improve after decortication. The purpose of this study is to find useful indices for predicting the possible improvement of lung function after decortication. Method : The medical records of 37 tuberculous empyema patients who underwent pleural decortication were analyzed retrospectively from 1990 to 1996. The measurements of preoperative and postoperative foræd vital capacity(FVC) were used for evaluating the effects of decortication. Results : The sex ratio was 29:8 (male to female), and the median age was 34 years. The time interval between the formation of empyema and operation was 1 month to 30 years. Postoperative pulmonary function test was performed 5.4$\pm$2.6 months later. FVC(forced vital capacity) was significantly increased from 2.77$\pm$0.67(L) to 2.95$\pm$0.81(L). Interestingly, postoperative pulmonary function was significantly improved in patients who were less than 40 years old, within 4 months after diagnosis of tuberculous empyema, in the group with FVC of less than 60% of the predicted value and in the absence of calcification. Conclusion : The improvement of lung function after decortication was expected in patients younger than 40 years old, within 4 months after diagnosis of tuberculous empyema, in the group having less than 60% of the predicted FVC, without calcification.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2006

Purpose: We Investigated to achieve high resolution magnetic resonance (MR) Imaging and spectra of human skin in vitro with using a 14.1 T MRI/MRS system, and to evaluate the hydration effect of a moisturizer by measuring the skin's water concentration. Materials and Methods: We used the Brukrer 14.1 T MRI/MRS system with a vertical standard bore that was equipped with a DMX spectrometer gradient system (200 G/cm at a maximum 40 A), RF resonators (2, 5 and 10 mm) and Para Vision software. Spin echo and fast spin echo pulse sequences were employed for obtaining the high resolution MR images. The 3D-localized point resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) method was used to acquire the MR spectra. Results: The high resolution MR images and spectra of human skin in vitro were successfully obtained on a 14.IT system. The water concentration of human skin after applying a moisturizer was higher than that before applying a moisturizer. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that the high-resolution MR images and spectra of human skin from a high field MRS instrument could be applicable to evaluating the hydration state of the stratum corneum.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.45-67
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• 2016

Given the recent development of smart devices, users are producing, sharing, and acquiring a variety of information via the Internet and social network services (SNSs). Because users tend to use multiple media simultaneously according to their goals and preferences, domestic SNS users use around 2.09 media concurrently on average. Since the information provided by such media is usually textually represented, recent studies have been actively conducting textual analysis in order to understand users more deeply. Earlier studies using textual analysis focused on analyzing a document's contents without substantive consideration of the diverse characteristics of the source medium. However, current studies argue that analytical and interpretive approaches should be applied differently according to the characteristics of a document's source. Documents can be classified into the following types: informative documents for delivering information, expressive documents for expressing emotions and aesthetics, operational documents for inducing the recipient's behavior, and audiovisual media documents for supplementing the above three functions through images and music. Further, documents can be classified according to their contents, which comprise facts, concepts, procedures, principles, rules, stories, opinions, and descriptions. Documents have unique characteristics according to the source media by which they are distributed. In terms of newspapers, only highly trained people tend to write articles for public dissemination. In contrast, with SNSs, various types of users can freely write any message and such messages are distributed in an unpredictable way. Again, in the case of newspapers, each article exists independently and does not tend to have any relation to other articles. However, messages (original tweets) on Twitter, for example, are highly organized and regularly duplicated and repeated through replies and retweets. There have been many studies focusing on the different characteristics between newspapers and SNSs. However, it is difficult to find a study that focuses on the difference between the two media from the perspective of supply and demand. We can regard the articles of newspapers as a kind of information supply, whereas messages on various SNSs represent a demand for information. By investigating traditional newspapers and SNSs from the perspective of supply and demand of information, we can explore and explain the information dilemma more clearly. For example, there may be superfluous issues that are heavily reported in newspaper articles despite the fact that users seldom have much interest in these issues. Such overproduced information is not only a waste of media resources but also makes it difficult to find valuable, in-demand information. Further, some issues that are covered by only a few newspapers may be of high interest to SNS users. To alleviate the deleterious effects of information asymmetries, it is necessary to analyze the supply and demand of each information source and, accordingly, provide information flexibly. Such an approach would allow the value of information to be explored and approximated on the basis of the supply-demand balance. Conceptually, this is very similar to the price of goods or services being determined by the supply-demand relationship. Adopting this concept, media companies could focus on the production of highly in-demand issues that are in short supply. In this study, we selected Internet news sites and Twitter as representative media for investigating information supply and demand, respectively. We present the notion of News Value Index (NVI), which evaluates the value of news information in terms of the magnitude of Twitter messages associated with it. In addition, we visualize the change of information value over time using the NVI. We conducted an analysis using 387,014 news articles and 31,674,795 Twitter messages. The analysis results revealed interesting patterns: most issues show lower NVI than average of the whole issue, whereas a few issues show steadily higher NVI than the average.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2022

Customized cosmetics are continuously mentioned as a trend in the cosmetics industry to respond to the recent rapid changes in the social environment and pursue individuality and diversity. Accordingly, four types of liposome essence corresponding to skin types were prepared by varying the ratio of liposome formulation and essence formulation as a customized cosmetic base that can be easily mixed and applied at the workplace. The volatilization residues of four types of liposome essence were measured and the nanoparticle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential and viscosity according to time for 90 d were measured, and Turbiscan was measured as a method for evaluating the stability of a colloidal dispersion system. In addition, a simple usability evaluation was performed for four types of liposome essence corresponding to the skin type. As a result, the amount of volatile residue in the four types of liposome essence was increased in dry products rather than oily ones, and the particle size showed a tendency to increase with time in the range of 165 to 175 nm, increasing up to 31.5%, and the polydispersity index was 0.23 to 0.26. There was little change with time, and the zeta potential was -74 to -72 mV, showing a slight decrease with time, but there was little change to the extent of a maximum decrease of 14.0%. Viscosity showed a decreasing trend with time in the range of 2,580 ~ 3,290 cps, showing a maximum decrease of 17.5%. In the turbiscan measurement, all of the turbiscan stability index, a measure of stability, were less than 1.0, indicating dispersion stability. In the overall simple usability satisfaction evaluation for skin types (6 points), products for oily skin (5.33 ± 0.75 points) > products for medium dry skin (5.13 ± 0.95 points) > products for dry skin (5.03 ± 0.96 points) > products for oily skin (4.80 ± 1.04 points) points) were evaluated in order. The four types of liposome essence corresponding to skin types with different ratios of liposome formulation and essence formulation were physically stable, and the possibility of application as a customized cosmetic base according to skin type was confirmed.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.249-257
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to weigh the possibility of endangered Jang-hang wetland at the estuary of Han River to be included on the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance and come up with ways to manage the wetland depending on its biotope patterns. The target area is located between Gimpo bridge and Isanpo I.C. with about $2.7km^2$ area. Through the analysis of RIS(Information Sheet for Ramsar Wetlands), it was known that the wetland is located on the sedimentary topography and formed as a result of sediment at the estuary of the river owing to the concentration of rainfall during summer. The vegetation environment in the area is divided into brackish water and fresh water areas depending on salinity. Rhizosphere soil(RS) of the area was analyzed to be Silt loam while bottom RS to be Sand loam. The plant ecology was composed of 52 families 135 species and 11 varieties and 146 types. Among indigenous species found are Salix koreensis, Phragmites communis and Miscanthus sacchariflorus. The analyzed results of the actual vegetation showed that willow community accounts for 37% of the area and rice field is 13.5%. As for animal ecology, total of 62 species and 25,977 individual wild birds were observed. After comparing and analyzing the RIS we compiled with the Ramsar Site designation standards, it turns out that the Jang-hang wetland meets criteria 1(biographic region), criteria 2,3 and 4(species and ecological communities) and criteria 5 and 6(water birds). Thus, Jang-hang wetland is eligible for the Ramsar site. As a result of establishing and evaluating the biotope types for setting management areas, Jang-hang wetland has a total of 13 different types, and the grade I represents 75.4% of the area while the grade III 0.8% of the land status. We categorized four management zones for the wetland depending on the biotope patterns - preservation, restoration, use and buffer zones and suggested management methods for each zone.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.473-480
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• 1999

Background: Early diagnosis of tuberculosis is critical, especially in Korea, an area where tuberculosis is endemic. Because antibody responses to some membrane proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are not comparable, and the policy of BCG vaccination and the prevalence of tuberculosis are different from country to country, the usefulness of the serological diagnostic tests is questionable in Korea, even though they have been confirmed to be useful in other countries. In the specific context of Korea, we tried to evaluate the validity of the ICT Tuberculosis Test (ICT), a membrane-based antibody kit that purports to detect the 5 M. tuberculosis complex-specific antigens including 38-kDa protein. Method: 68 patients with tuberculosis were tested : 37 had no history of previous tuberculosis, and 31 were reactivated cases. The control group comprised 77 subjects : 25 healthy adults, 35 hospital workers with frequent contact with tuberculosis patients, and 17 in-patients with non-tuberculous respiratory diseases. Results: The diagnostic sensitivities of the ICT were 87% and 73% in patients with versus without previous history of tuberculosis, respectively. The sensitivities of smear-positive and smear-negative patient groups were 81% and 73%, respectively. Both of the two patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis tested positive through the ICT. The specificities of the ICT were 88%, 94%, and 94% in healthy adults, hospital workers, and non-tuberculous patients, respectively, with an overall specificity of 92%. Conclusion: It is suggested that when combined with traditional techniques, the ICT is an useful tool for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. The procedure is simple, easy to perform, rapid, and needs no equipment. It shows 73% sensitivity and 92% specificity for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.343-355
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• 2022

Customized cosmetics are continuously mentioned as cosmetics in response to changes in the social environment and trends that emphasize individuality. Therefore, in this study, four types of nanoemulsion ampoules corresponding to skin types were prepared by different ratios of nanoemulsion formulation and ampoule formulation, and the applicability as a customized cosmetic base was checked. Particle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, and viscosity according to time for 90 d were measured for four nanoemulsion ampoules with different volatile residues, and turbiscan was measured as a method for evaluating the stability of a colloidal dispersion system. Finally, human usability satisfaction was evaluated. As a result, it was confirmed that four kinds of nanoemulsion ampoules had a higher amount of volatile residue in the dry skin test product than in the oily skin test product. The pH was in the range of 6.41 to 6.88, and the particle size was in the range of 170 to 174 nm, and the change after 90 d was within 1.2% of the maximum, and there was no specificity in particle size stability. It was confirmed that the polydispersity index was almost constant, and showed a particle size distribution close to monodispersity by showing a change within a value smaller than 0.21 in all test products. The zeta potential was initially -63 mV or more for all four types of test products, and although it showed a slight decrease with time, there was little change to the extent of a maximum decrease of 2.5%. Viscosity was initially in the range of 4,100 to 5,100 cps and showed a decreasing trend with time, showing a maximum decrease of 37.7%. In the turbiscan measurement, the turbiscan stability index, a measure of stability, was all below 1.0, indicating dispersion stability. In the usability satisfaction evaluation (6 points) of 4 nanoemulsion ampoules corresponding to skin type, oily skin product (5.42 ± 0.67 points) > neutral oily skin product (5.36 ± 0.67 points) > neutral dry skin product (5.15 ± 0.69 point) > dry skin product (4.75 ± 0.75 points) in the order of evaluation. Four types of nanoemulsion ampoules are physically stable and have confirmed their applicability as a customized cosmetic base according to skin type, and are expected to expand in various ways.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 1989

Visual assessment of regional wall motion abnormality (RWMA) by gated blood pol scan (GBPS) serves as an useful parameter in the diagnosis, functional evaluation, and follow up in various clinical settings, but are still subject to some inherent limitations. On important problem may be the interobserver as well as intraobsever variation that may well be present due to the subjective nature of the interpretations. This study was carried out to determine the reliability and reproducibility of visual assessments made in GBPSs, and to observe the degree to which the results would be influenced by observer variation. Fifty two patients with coronary heart disease had resting GBPS and contrast ventriculography within 4 days appall. Contrast ventriculography-showed normal wall motion in 6 patients and the remaining 46 had RWMA in one or more segments. The anterior and left anterolateral views of all 52 GBPSs were analyzed by three independent observers, who selected from 5 scales, their level of confidence that there was RWMA in that segment. Reciever operating characteristic (ROC) curves for each analysis was plotted and the area under the curve $(\theta)$ was used as a parameter representing each observer's performance in his interpretations. The findings of contrast ventriculographies were used as the standard for RWMA. The apical and inferoapical segments showed the best correlation with contrast ventriculography ($\theta=0.90-0.94$, 0.81-0.94, respectively), and the inferior wall showed the poorest correlation $(\theta=0.70-0.74)$. The interpretations of the inferior, septal, apical, and posteroinferior, segments showed no difference between the observers, but there was significantly better performance in assessment by observer A compared to that by B or C for the anterolateral segments ($\theta=0.87$, 0.78, 0.76, respectively. p<0.01 for A vs B, p<0.05 for A vs C), as well as when all segments were considered altogether ($\theta=0.88$, 0.83, 0.82, respectively. both p<0.05). This was also true for the infero-apical segment between A and C ($\theta=0.09$, 0.81, p<0.05). The intraobserver variation, however, did not appear significant, with only the inferior segment for observer B showing any significant difference when observer A and B repeated the analysis 10 days latter. There was no difference in assessing dyskinesia, with all observers showing a high performance ($\theta=0.98$, 0.87, 0.97, respectively). The visual assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction by all three observers correlated well with the calculated value from a semiautomated method (Spearman's r = 0.91, 0.83, 0.83. p<0.01, p<0.05, p < 0.05). The assessment of LV and RV size also correlated well between the three observers (Kendall's w = 0.80, 0.51, p<0.01 for both left and right ventricles). The above findings suggest that RWMA visually assessed by GBPS correlates well with that done by contrast ventriculography. And although the observer's experience or skill may influence the results in certain segments, visual analysis of GBPS may serve as a reliable and reproducible means for evaluating ventricular function.