• Annals of Clinical Microbiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.37-43
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• 2015

Background: Tuberculosis is globally the most important cause of death from single pathogen. Rapid and accurate identification of mycobacteria is essential for the control of tuberculosis. We evaluated a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method using peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes for the differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in direct smears of sputum specimens. Methods: The cross-reactivity of MTB- and NTM-specific PNA probes was examined with reference strains of M. tuberculosis ATCC 13950, Mycobacterium kansasii ATCC 12479, Mycobacterium fortuitum ATCC 6841, several clinical isolates of mycobacteria (Mycobacterium abscessus, Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium intracellulare, Mycobacterium gordonae and Mycobacterium chelonae), and 11 frequently isolated respiratory bacterial species other than mycobacteria. A series of 128 sputa (89 MTB culture positive, 29 NTM culture positive, and 10 under treatment culture negative) with grades of trace to 4+ were used to evaluate the performance of the method. Results: The MTB- and NTM-specific PNA probes showed specific reactions with the reference strains of MTB and M. kansasii and clinical isolates of mycobacteria except M. fortuitum ATCC 6841, and no cross-reactivity with other tested bacteria. The PNA probe-based FISH assay for detection of MTB had a sensitivity and specificity of 100%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the NTM-specific PNA probe was 100%. The smear grades of the PNA FISH test were same as with those of the fluorescence AFB stain in 2+ or higher grade. Conclusion: Detection and differentiation based on PNA FISH is sensitive and accurate for detecting mycobacteria and for differentiating MTB from NTM in clinical sputum smears.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.105-110
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• 2006

A three-layer, feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) with sixteen input neurons, three hidden neurons, and one output neuron was developed to identify the presence of infectious bronchitis (IB) infection as early as possible in laying hen flocks. Retrospective data from flocks that enrolled IB surveillance program between May 2003 and November 2005 were used to build the ANN. Data set of 86 flocks was divided randomly into two sets: 77 cases for training set and 9 cases for testing set. Input factors were 16 epidemiological findings including characteristics of the layer house, management practice, flock size, and the output was either presence or absence of IB. ANN was trained using training set with a back-propagation algorithm and test set was used to determine the network's capability to predict outcomes that it has never seen. Diagnostic performance of the trained network was evaluated by constructing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve with the area under the curve (AUC), which were also used to determine the best positivity criterion for the model. Several different ANNs with different structures were created. The best-fitted trained network, IBV_D1, was able to predict IB in 73 cases out of 77 (diagnostic accuracy 94.8%) in the training set. Sensitivity and specificity of the trained neural network was 95.5% (42/44, 95% CI, 84.5-99.4) and 93.9% (31/33, 95% CI, 79.8-99.3), respectively. For testing set, AVC of the ROC curve for the IBV_D1 network was 0.948 (SE=0.086, 95% CI 0.592-0.961) in recognizing IB infection status accurately. At a criterion of 0.7149, the diagnostic accuracy was the highest with a 88.9% with the highest sensitivity of 100%. With this value of sensitivity and specificity together with assumed 44% of IB prevalence, IBV_D1 network showed a PPV of 80% and an NPV of 100%. Based on these findings, the authors conclude that neural network can be successfully applied to the development of a screening model for identifying IB infection in laying hen flocks.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.225-231
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• 2016

Glasshouse heating package technologies to improve energy usage efficiency in winter were developed. Heating package was composed of the ground water source heat pump with heating capacity of 105kW, the aluminum multi-layer thermal curtain with six layers of different materials and the root zone local heater with XL pipes of ${\phi}20mm$. Venlo type glasshouse($461m^2$) with the heating package was compared with the same type and area control glasshouse with the light oil boiler, the usual non-woven fabric thermal curtain with respect to the glasshouse inside temperature, relative humidity, crop growth, and heating energy consumption. The results of test in paprika cultivation glasshouses showed that the air temperature inside glasshouse with aluminum multi-layer thermal curtain was maintained $2.2^{\circ}C$ higher than that of control glasshouse in un-heating night time and the temperature in bed with root zone local heating was $4.7^{\circ}C$ higher than that in bed without local heating. Average heating coefficient of performance(COP) of the ground water source heat pump used in paprika cultivation was 3.7 and the glasshouse inside temperature was maintained at $21^{\circ}C$ of heating set up temperature. The heating energy consumptions per 10a were measured at 14,071L of light oil and 364kWh of electric power for the control glasshouse and 35,082kWh for the glasshouse applied heating package. As results, the heating cost of the glasshouse applied heating package was 87 percent lower than that of control glasshouse. The growths of paprika in glasshouses of control and applied heating package did not show any significant difference.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.866-871
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• 2006

The nutrient recovery in phosphate crystallization process was investigated by using laboratory scale uptlow reactors, adopting sequencing batch type configuration. The industrial waste lime was used as potential cation source with magnesium salt($MgCl_2$) as control. The research was focused on its successful application in a novel integrated sludge treatment process, which is comprised of a high performance fermenter followed by a crystallization reactor. In the struvite precipitation test using synthetic wastewater first, which has the similar characteristics with the real fermentation effluent, the considerable nutrient removal(about 60%) in both ammonia and phosphate was observed within $0.5{\sim}1$ hr of retention time. The results also revealed that a minor amount(<5%) of ammonia stripping naturally occurred due to the alkaline(pH 9) characteristic in feed substrate. Stripping of $CO_2$ by air did not increase the struvite precipitation rate but it led to increased ammonia removal. In the second experiment using the fermentation effluent, the optimal dosage of magnesium salt for struvite precipitation was 0.86 g Mg $g^{-1}$ P, similar to the mass ratio of the struvite. The optimal dosage of waste lime was 0.3 g $L^{-1}$, resulting in 80% of $NH_4-N$ and 41% of $PO_4-P$ removal, at about 3 hrs of retention time. In the microscopic analysis, amorphous crystals were mainly observed in the settled solids with waste lime but prism-like crystals were observed with magnesium salt. Based on mass balance analysis for an integrated sludge treatment process(fermenter followed by crystallization reactor) for full-scale application(treatment capacity Q=158,880 $m^3\;d^{-1}$), nutrient recycle loading from the crystallization reactor effluent to the main liquid stream would be significantly reduced(0.13 g N and 0.19 g P per $m^3$ of wastewater, respectively). The results of the experiment reveal therefore that the reuse of waste lime, already an industrial waste, in a nutrient recovery system has various advantages such as higher economical benefits and sustainable treatment of the industrial waste.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.8B
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• pp.691-700
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• 2006

Based on the destination IP address of incoming packets, the Internet routers determine next hops and forward packets toward final destinations through If address lookup. The bandwidth of communication links increases exponentially fast as well as the routing table size grows significant as the number of single host networks attached to the Internet increases. Since packets should be processed at wire-speed, the increased link speed reduces the processing time of a packet in routers, and hence more efficient and fast IP address lookup algorithms and architectures are required in the next generation routers. Most of the previous IP lookup schemes compare routing prefixes of shorter length first with a given input IP address. Since IP address lookup needs to find the most specific route of the given input, search continues until the longest matched prefix is found while it keeps remembering the current test matching prefix. In this paper, based on binary search on prefix length, we proposed a new IP address lookup algorithm which compares longer prefixes first. The proposed scheme is consisted of multiple tries with prefixes on leaves only. The trie composed of the longest prefixes is primarily searched whether there is a match with the given input. This processing is repeated for the trio of the next longer prefixes until there finds a match. Hence the proposed algorithm provides the fast search speed. The proposed algorithm also provides the incremental update of prefixes while the previous binary search on length scheme does not provide the incremental update because of pre-processing requirement. In this paper, we performed extensive simulations and showed the performance comparisons with related works.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.107-114
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• 2014

Purpose : The purpose of this study is evaluation for the applicability of O-MAR(Metal artifact Reduction for Orthopedic Implants)(ver. 3.6.0, Philips, Netherlands) in head & neck radiation treatment planning CT with metal artifact created by dental implant. Materials and Methods : All of the in this study's CT images were scanned by Brilliance Big Bore CT(Philips, Netherlands) at 120kVp, 2mm sliced and Metal artifact reduced by O-MAR. To compare the original and reconstructed CT images worked on RTPS(Eclipse ver 10.0.42, Varian, USA). In order to test the basic performance of the O-MAR, The phantom was made to create metal artifact by dental implant and other phantoms used for without artifact images. To measure a difference of HU in with artifact images and without artifact images, homogeneous phantom and inhomogeneous phantoms were used with cerrobend rods. Each of images were compared a difference of HU in ROIs. And also, 1 case of patient's original CT image applied O-MAR and density corrected CT were evaluated for dose distributions with SNC Patient(Sun Nuclear Co., USA). Results : In cases of head&neck phantom, the difference of dose distibution is appeared 99.8% gamma passing rate(criteria 2 mm / 2%) between original and CT images applied O-MAR. And 98.5% appeared in patient case, among original CT, O-MAR and density corrected CT. The difference of total dose distribution is less than 2% that appeared both phantom and patient case study. Though the dose deviations are little, there are still matters to discuss that the dose deviations are concentrated so locally. In this study, The quality of all images applied O-MAR was improved. Unexpectedly, Increase of max. HU was founded in air cavity of the O-MAR images compare to cavity of the original images and wrong corrections were appeared, too. Conclusion : The result of study assuming restrained case of O-MAR adapted to near skin and low density area, it appeared image distortion and artifact correction simultaneously. In O-MAR CT, air cavity area even turned tissue HU by wrong correction was founded, too. Consequentially, It seems O-MAR algorithm is not perfect to distinguish air cavity and photon starvation artifact. Nevertheless, the differences of HU and dose distribution are not a huge that is not suitable for clinical use. And there are more advantages in clinic for improved quality of CT images and DRRs, precision of contouring OARs or tumors and correcting artifact area. So original and O-MAR CT must be used together in clinic for more accurate treatment plan.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.40-50
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• 2004

Background : Radiation pneumonitis(RP) is the major serious complication of thoracic irradiation treatment. In this study, we attempted to retrospectively evaluate the long-term prognosis of patients who experienced acute RP and to identify factor that might allow prediction of RP. Methods : Of the 114 lung cancer patients who underwent thoracic radiotherapy between December 2000 and December 2002, We performed analysis using a database of 90 patients who were capable of being evaluated. Results : Of the 44 patients(48.9%) who experienced clinical RP in this study, the RP was mild in 33(36.6%) and severe in 11(12.3%). All of severe RP were treated with corticosteroids. The median starting corticosteroids dose was 34 mg(30~40) and median treatment duration was 68 days(8~97). The median survival time of the 11 patients who experienced severe RP was significantly poorer than the mild RP group. (p=0.046) The higher total radiation dose(${\geq}60Gy$) was significantly associated with developing in RP.(p=0.001) The incidence of RP did not correlate with any of the ECOG performance, pulmonary function test, age, cell type, history of smoking, radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy, once-daily radiotherapy dose fraction. Also, serum albumin level, uric acid level at onset of RP did not influence the risk of severe RP in our study. Conclusion : Only the higher total radiation dose(${\geq}60Gy$) was a significant risk factor predictive of RP. Also severe RP was an adverse prognostic factor.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.839-845
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• 2003

Background: Even today when chemotherapy has been established as a treatment for tuberculosis and the prevalence of tuberculosis is gradually decreasing, multi-drug resistance tuberculosis still results in poor treatment performance and lowered survival periods. This research sought to analyze the surgery of multi-drug resistance tuberculosis, and determine the usefulness and danger of surgery in connection with this disease. Material and Method: Starting from February 1990 to February 2002, retrospective surveys were conducted targeted at 21 cases involving 20 patients who underwent surgery due to multi-drug resistance tuberculosis. The survey included 14 males cases and 6 females cases with the age averaging 42.8$\pm$12.1 years. 10.3$\pm$7.6 years on average passed after patients were initially diagnosed with tuberculosis. 13 patients (65%) tested positive in the pre-operative sputum AFB test, and all showed resistance against an average of 3.5 anti-tuberculosis agents including INH and RFP. Pre-operative radiologic examinations revealed cavitary lesions in 15 patients (75%), and three patients had lesions in the both lung fields, with the major lesions existing in the unilateral area. 13 patients (75%) failed negative conversion with medical treatment, while two patients (10%) with recurrent hemoptysis and five patients (25%) with lesions involving high recurrence-rate received the operation. Operations included nine cases (40%) of pneumonectomy, nine cases (45%) of lobectomy, and three cases of lobectomy with segmentectomy. The average follow-up period of patients stood at 23 months. Result: There was no post-operative death, and found were a total of eleven cases involving complications were found: three cases of long-term air leakage, three cases of bleeding requiring re-operation, two cases of empyemas due to broncho-pleural fistula, and one case of atelectasis, wound infection and chest wall fistula each. Eleven cases (85%) of negative conversion were completed immediately after the operation, and two cases failed negative conversion. Eleven months after the operation, the disease recurred in one case of negative conversion patients, and the patient was cured by completion pneumonectomy. Conclusion: If patients' lung function was sufficient and appropriate resection was possible, multi-drug resistance tuberculosis could achieve high-rate negative conversion and cure using combination of surgical and medical treatment, and also there were not many serious complications.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was to identify the role of general hospice palliative nurse through job analysis (duties, task, and task elements). Methods: The sample consisted of 136 nurses or professors who were performing duties related to hospice care areas in Korea. A survey method was used, and the questionnaire included frequencies, criticality, and difficulties of task elements in job description by the DACUM method. Descriptive statistics were performed by using SPSS WIN 17.0. Results: The job description of general hospice palliative nurse was identified 8 duties, 36 tasks, and 137 task elements. As for the 8 duties, the average scores of frequency, criticality, and difficulty were 2.94, 3.66, and 2.80, respectively. The role of ‘pain assessment’ was the most important task element among frequency and criticality. The lowest score at the frequency and criticality were ‘manage public finance’ and ‘collect datum through diagnostic test & lab', respectively. Furthermore, the role of 'identify spiritual needs of patients and family' was the most difficult task, whereas the role of 'manage documents and information' was the least. Conclusion: In this study, we could recognize the reality of general hospice palliative nurse's performances. For general hospice palliative nurse, therefore, concrete practice guide lines of psychosocial and spiritual care, communication skills, and bereavement care with qualifying system are critically needed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.137-155
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• 2009

The purpose of the present study was to analyse the effectiveness of a gifted education program. To analyse the effectiveness of an education program for the gifted affiliated with a university, the study carried out a quasi-experimental design to compare the 153 gifted students who enrolled in an education center for the gifted and the 131 potentially gifted students who were nominated by teachers for their high achievements and interests in science but without any education services for the gifted. These two groups of students were compared in the aspects of problem finding ability in science, motivation, self regulation, science-related attitudes, and science anxiety through the pre- and post-treatment settings. The results indicated that the gifted group showed a significant improvement in originality and elaboration of problem-finding ability, but the potentially gifted group showed significant decrease in most variables of problem finding. Related to motivation and self-regulated learning, gifted students showed an increase in cognitive strategy use and decrease in intrinsic value, but the potentially gifted students showed significant decreases in most variables related to motivation and self-regulation, except intrinsic value. Related to the scientific attitudes and science anxiety, there were no significant changes between pre- and post-tests in the gifted group, but significant decreases in most variables were found in the potentially gifted group. The results of paired t-test and Ancova indicate that significant differences between the gifted and the potentially gifted groups are mainly due to the significantly lowered performance in post tests in the potentially gifted group, rather than a significant increase in gifted group.