• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.218-230
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• 1999

Background: Craniofacial anatomic abnormalities related to structural narrowing of the upper airway have been reported in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. In this study, we evaluated the craniofacial anatomic characteristics of Korean patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and the role of cephalometric analysis in the prediction of abnormal breathing during sleep. Methods: Thirty-nine patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome(OSAS), 39 simple snorers(simple snorers) and 20 controls(control) had cephalometric analysis using the technique of Riley et al, and underwent standardized polysomnographic recordings. Different variables, including sex, body mass index, cephalometric and polysomnographic data, were statistically analyzed. Results: Pm-UPW and V-LPW distances were significantly shorter in OSAS when compared with simple snorers or control. PAS in simple snorers was shorter than in control. ANS-Gn distance in OSAS was significantly longer than in control. PNS-P distance in OSAS or simple snorers was significantly longer than in control. MP-H distance in OSAS was significantly longer than in simple snorers or control and MP-H distance in simple snorers was also longer than in control. NL/Pm-P angle in OSAS was lesser than in control. MP-H distance in OSAS or in the combined groups of OSAS and simple snorers was significantly correlated with apneahypopnea index(AHI). PNS-P distance in the combined groups of OSAS and simple snorers was correlated with AHI. In male of all subjects, body mass index was significantly correlated with PNS-P or MP-H distance. Conclusion: Cephalometric analysis can be useful tool in determining the craniofacial anatomic abnormalities in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Cephalometric parameters, especially MP-H distance, can be useful for predicting frequency of narrowing or obstruction of upper airway during sleep.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.2
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• pp.120-125
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• 2011

Background: Although the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis has progressively decreased all over the world, drug-resistant tuberculosis is major obstacle in treating tuberculosis. This study was performed to examine the current prevalence and risk factors of drug resistant tuberculosis in a single tertiary hospital in Busan, Korea. Methods: We enrolled 367 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis on a retrospective basis who had undergone mycobacterium culture and drug sensitivity tests between January 2005 and December 2009. We analyzed all clinical and radiographic parameters to find predictors related to drug resistant tuberculosis. Results: At least one incident of drug resistance was found in 75 (20.4%) patients. Isoniazid (18.8%) was the most frequent resistant drug, followed by rifampin (10.9%), ethambutol (7.1%), streptomycin (4.9%), and fluoroquinolone (2.7%). Resistance to second-line drugs was found in 37 (10.1%) patients. Multidrug resistance and extensively drug resistance was evident in 39 (10.6%) and 4 (1.1%) patients, respectively. Using multiple logistic regression analysis, history of previous treatment including relapse (odd ratio [OR], 11.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.92~26.08; p<0.01), treatment failure (OR, 24.1; 95% CI, 5.65~102.79; p<0.01) and an age of below 46 years-old (OR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.62~8.65; p<0.01) were found to be independent predictors of multidrug resistant tuberculosis. Conclusion: We found that the prevalence of drug resistant tuberculosis was considerably high. A careful consideration for possible drug resistant tuberculosis is warranted in patients with a history of previous treatment or for younger patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.548-553
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• 2010

This study was carried out to compare the physicochemical characteristics of Korean traditional wines fermented by addition of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) using different nuruks (SH and BS nuruk). The alcohol contents of the fermented wines ranged from 12.36 to 13.21%. The brix degrees of sorghum wines fermented using SH and BS nuruks were $8.6\sim17.9^{\circ}Bx$ and $7.6\sim20.0^{\circ}Bx$ on addition ratio, respectively. Wine no addedsorghum using SH and BS nuruks showed pH 3.74 and 3.40, total acidity of 1.40 and 1.51%, and 0.441 and 0.149 of turbidity. With increase of sorghum addition, brix degree, pH, turbidity and L-value decreased whereas total acidity and a-value increased. Total color difference (${\Delta}Eab$) parameters of wines fermented in 30, 70 and 100% sorghum addition using SH and BS nuruk were 4.33, 6.63 and 26.13, and 4.08, 5.29 and 10.59. Glucose content decreased with increasing amounts of sorghum. Organic acids such as lactic acid and acetic acid were predominantly detected in the fermented wine. Finally, based on sensory evaluations, the wine fermented by BS nuruk showed the best overall quality at 30% sorghum addition.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.207-212
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• 2004

Purpose: Invasion and metastasis in solid tumors require the action of tumor-associated proteases. The serine protease urokinase-type plasminogen (uPA) and receptor (uPAR) appear to have a major function in these processes. Expression of the uPAR is elevated in breast and colon carcinomas, and this is often associated with invasiveness and poor prognosis. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the expression of the uPAR gene correlates with clinico-pathological parameters in human gastric carcinomas. Materials and Methods: We examined the expression of uPAR mRNA by using northern blot analysis and RT-PCR in 35 gastric carcinomas and the surrounding normal mucosa. Macroscopic and histopathological tumor findings and survival rates were obtained from the patient records and from endoscopic, surgical, and pathological reports. Results: The expression of uPAR and was higher in most neoplasms than in the corresponding normal mucosal tissue. uPAR mRNA expression in tumors correlated well with lymph-node metastasis (P<0.02) and tumor stage (P<0.01). The survival rate of patients with tumors displaying high uPAR expression levels was significantly lower (P<0.04) than that of patients without uPAR expression, but IL-8 showed only the tendency of survival difference. Conclusion: These results suggest that uPAR may be an important prognostic factor in human gastric carcinomas.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.67-74
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• 2017

Layered Ni-rich NCM cathode materials $Li[Ni_xCo_{(1-x)/2}Mn_{(1-x)/2}]O_2$ ($x{\geq}0.6$) have advantages of high energy density and cost competitive over $LiCoO_2$. The discharge capacity of NCM increases proportionally to the Ni contents. However, there is a problem that it is difficult to realize the stable electrochemical performance due to cation mixing. In this study, synthesis conditions for the layered Ni-rich NCMs are investigated to achieve deliver the ones having good electrochemical performances. Synthesis parameters are atmosphere, lithium source, synthesis time, synthesis temperature and Li/M (M=transition metal) ratio. The degree of cation mixing gets worse as the Ni content is increased from $Li[Ni_{0.6}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.2}]O_2$ (NCM6) to $Li[Ni_{0.8}Co_{0.1}Mn_{0.1}]O_2$ (NCM8). It is confirmed that higher level of cation mixing affects negatively on the electrochemical performance of NCMs. Optimum synthesis conditions are explored for NCMx (x=6, 7, 8) in order to reduce the cation mixing. Under optimized conditions for three representative NCMx, a high initial discharge capacity and a good cycle life are obtained for $180mAh{\cdot}g^{-1}$, 96.2% (50 cycle) in NCM6, $187mAh{\cdot}g^{-1}$, 94.7% (50 cycle) in NCM7, and $201mAh{\cdot}g^{-1}$, 92.7% (50 cycle) in NCM8, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.83-90
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• 2004

This study was conducted to examine the effects of $\beta$3-adrenergic receptor polymorphism on the blood glucose level and obesity in 530 volunteers, who attended a weight loss program in a local obesity clinic. The age differences in total subjects and the distribution of male and female were 26.55$\pm$0.31 yr, 9.1% (n=48), 90.9% (n=492). The genotype distribution of $\beta$3-AR gene polymorphism were WW type 75%, WR type 22% and RR type 3%. Among many parameters, fasting blood glucose was significantly higher in WR＋RR type (p=0.001) compared with WW type. When the subjects were divided into two groups by 6.105 mmol/L of the fasting blood glucose level, the frequency of hyperglycemia was 23.3% in WW type subjects, while there was a increase to 35.6% in WR＋RR type subjects (p=0.011, $\chi$$^2$-analysis). When hyperglycemia group was compared with normoglycemia group, obesity index (p=0.044), %body fat (p=0.046) and TG (p=0.000) were significantly higher, and HDL (p=0.006) was significantly lower in the hyperglycemia. When all of the above factors were included in stepwise logistic regression analysis to find risk factors of hyperglycemia, the results were that the odds ratio for hyperglycemia were 2.015 (p=0.011) for WR+RR type of $\beta$3-AR gene, 2.165 (p=0.000) for TG and 0.419 (p=0.059) for HDL cholesterol. There was a significantly positive correlation between the blood glucose vs BMI, WHR, body fat in the WW type (r=0.099, 0.119, 0.082) However, in the WR and RR type there were no significance between the blood glucose vs BMI, WHR, body fat. These data suggest that the WR＋RR genotype of $\beta$3-AR has a very strong association with increased blood glucose level and might be a significant risk factor for hyperglycemia among Korean subjects.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.375-375
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• 2010

CdTe as an absorber material is widely used in thin film solar cells with the heterostructure due to its almost ideal band gap energy of 1.45 eV, high photovoltaic conversion efficiency, low cost and stable performance. The deposition methods and preparation conditions for the fabrication of CdTe are very important for the achievement of high solar cell conversion efficiency. There are some rearranged reports about the deposition methods available for the preparation of CdTe thin films such as close spaced sublimation (CSS), physical vapor deposition (PVD), vacuum evaporation, vapor transport deposition (VTD), closed space vapor transport, electrodeposition, screen printing, spray pyrolysis, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and RF sputtering. The RF sputtering method for the preparation of CdTe thin films has important advantages in that the thin films can be prepared at low growth temperatures with large-area deposition suitable for mass-production. The authors reported that the optical and electrical properties of CdTe thin film were closely connected by the thickness-uniformity of the film in the previous study [1], which means that the better optical absorbance and the higher carrier concentration could be obtained in the better condition of thickness-uniformity for CdTe thin film. The thickness-uniformity could be controlled and improved by the some process parameters such as vacuum level and RF power in the sputtering process of CdTe thin films. However, there is a limitation to improve the thickness-uniformity only in the preparation process [1]. So it is necessary to introduce the external or additional method for improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film because the cell size of thin film solar cell will be enlarged. Therefore, the authors firstly applied the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin films with a G&P POLI-450 CMP polisher [2]. CMP process is the most important process in semiconductor manufacturing processes in order to planarize the surface of the wafer even over 300 mm and to form the copper interconnects with damascene process. Some important CMP characteristics for CdTe were obtained including removal rate (RR), WIWNU%, RMS roughness, and peak-to-valley roughness [2]. With these important results, the CMP process for CdTe thin films was performed to improve the thickness-uniformity of the sputtering-deposited CdTe thin film which had the worst two thickness-uniformities of them. Some optical properties including optical transmittance and absorbance of the CdTe thin films were measured by using a UV-Visible spectrophotometer (Varian Techtron, Cary500scan) in the range of 400 - 800 nm. After CMP process, the thickness-uniformities became better than that of the best condition in the previous sputtering process of CdTe thin films. Consequently, the optical properties were directly affected by the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film. The absorbance of CdTe thin films was improved although the thickness of CdTe thin film was not changed.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.515-525
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• 2007

In this investigation, results of laboratory tests on four reinforced concrete flat plate interior connections with elongated rectangular column support which has been used widely in tall residential buildings are presented. The purpose of this study is to evaluate an effect of column aspect ratio (${\beta}_c={c_1}/{c_2}$=side length ratio of column section in the direction of lateral loading $(c_1)$ to the direction of perpendicular to $c_1$) on the hysteretic behavior under earthquake type loading. The aspect ratio of column section was taken as $0.5{\sim}3\;(c_1/c_2=1/2,\;1/1,\;2/1,\;3/1)$ and the column perimeter was held constant at 1200mm in order to achieve nominal vertical shear strength $(V_c)$ uniformly. Other design parameters such as flexural reinforcement ratio $(\rho)$ of the slab and concrete strength$(f_{ck})$ was kept constant as ${\rho}=1.0%$ and $f_{ck}=40MPa$, respectively. Gravity shear load $(V_g)$ was applied by 30 percent of nominal vertical shear strength $(0.3V_o)$ of the specimen. Experimental observations on punching failure pattern, peak lateral-load and story drift ratio at punching failure, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation in the hysteresis loop, and steel and concrete strain distributions near the column support were examined and discussed in accordance with different column aspect ratio. Eccentric shear stress model of ACI 318-05 was evaluated with experimental results. A fraction of transferring moment by shear and flexure in the design code was analyzed based on the test results.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.111-122
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• 2008

This study was conducted to assess the usefulness of the temperature characteristics of the tidal flat sediments during low tide as a environmental factor, and burrowing behaviour, fatness, total hemocyte counts(THCs) and differential hemocyte counts(DHCs) of hard clam Meretrix lusoria as biological activity indices for the management of hard clam farms located in Taean(Chungnam province) and Gimje(Jeonbuk province) tidal flat in Korea. Temperature ranges of the sediment at 1cm depth during spring(March to May) and summer(June to August) in Taean(where the exposure time was about $5.5{\sim}6$ hours during low tide) were $8.7{\sim}26.8^{\circ}C\;and\;27.6{\sim}32.8^{\circ}C$, respectively. Even though there was no significant difference(P>0.05), temperatures of the surface sediment where submerged with remained seawater were generally higher than that of uncovered with seawater. Burrowing depths of normally digged hard clams were 0.9{\sim}3.6cm from March to October, 2002. In the field experiment performed at Taean farming ground covered with seawater, burrowing times of the clams under natural water temperatures were $41.6{\pm}10minutes$ in February and $5.4{\pm}1.3minutes$ in August, respectively, and these were influenced by water temperatures. Fatness of hard clams began to decrease from May(at Taean tidal flat) and June(at Gimje tidal flat), showed the lowest level in August and increased again from September. Total hemocytes counts in the hemolymph of the hard clams were decreased to the lowest level in July($24.7{\times}10^4cells/mL$, at Taean tidal flat) and August($28.2{\times}10^4cells/mL$, at Gimje tidal flat), and significantly increased again from September(at Taean tidal flat, P<0.01) and October(at Gimje tidal flat, P<0.001), respectively. We observed three types of hemocytes from the hemolymph of hard clams according to whether hemocytes retain the granules or not and the size of the granules. As a results, we could found that periodical monitoring of the sediment temperatures, clam burrowing behaviour and hemocyte parameters were very helpful for the management of hard clam farming.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.86-91
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• 2007

Background: Actigraphy is a reliable and valid method for assessing sleep in normal, healthy populations, but it may be less reliable and valid for detecting disturbed sleep in patients. In this study, we attempted to assess the utility of actigraphy in the estimation of sleep quality in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), a major sleep disorder. Method: We analyzed the data of patients who underwent polysomnography (PSG) and actigraphy simultaneously for one night at the Center for Sleep and Chronobiology, Seoul National University Hospital from November 2004 to March 2006. Eighty-nine subjects with OSAS alone and 21 subjects with OSAS and periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) were included for final data analyses between groups. Polysomnographic and actigraphic data were also compared. Results: In subjects with mild OSAS (RDI<15), modretae ($15{\leq}RDI$<30), and OSAS with PLMD, PSG and actigraphy did not show significant difference in total sleep time and sleep efficiency. However in severe ($30{\leq}RDI$) OSAS subjects, PSG and actigraphy showed significant difference in total sleep time and sleep efficiency. In all patients, no correlations were found between sleep parameters from PSG and from those using actigraphy. Conclusions: We suggest that in severe OSAS patients, PSG is the diagnostic tool. In mild and moderate cases, actigraphy might be used as a screening tool.