• Title/Summary/Keyword: statistical

Search Result 33,357, Processing Time 0.057 seconds

An Appreciation of Functional Role of Macrophage in the Acute Lung Injury in the Neutropenic Rat. (호중구 감소증을 보이는 백서의 급성폐손상에서 대식세포의 기능적 역할)

  • Kim, Yong-Hoon;Ki, Sin-Young;Im, Keon-Il;Moon, Seung-Hyug;Cheong, Seung-Whan;Kim, Hyeon-Tae;Uh, Soo-Taek;Park, Choon-Sik;Jin, Byung-Won
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
    • /
    • v.44 no.2
    • /
    • pp.379-390
    • /
    • 1997
  • Background : It has long been suggested that neutrophils and their products are implicated as the central mediators of the acute lung injuries. Contrary to the dominant role of neutrophils in ARDS, many cases of ARDS has occurred in the setting of severe neutropenia without pulmonary neutrophil infiltration. Therefore it is certain that effector cell(s) other than neutrophil play an important role in the pathogenesis of ARDS. This experiment was performed to define the mechanism of ARDS in the setting of neutropenia, 1) by comparing the severity of endotoxin-induced lung injury, 2) by measurement of hydrogen peroxide production and cytokine concentration in the bronchoalveolar lavage cells and fluids obtained from different rats with and without cyclophosphamide-pretreatment. Method : The male Sprague-Dawleys were divided into the normal control (NC)-, endotoxin (ETX)-, and cyclophosphamide (CPA)-group in which neutropenia was induced by injecting cyclophosphamide intraperitoneally. Acute lung injury was evoked by injecting lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into a tail vein. The bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed at 3 and 6 hour after administration of LPS to measure the change of cell counts and concentrations of protein and cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Hydrogen peroxide (HPO) production from BAL cells was measured at 6 hour after LPS administration by phenol red microassay with and without zymosan stimulation. Results : The results were as follows. A change of leukocyte counts in the peripheral blood after treatment with CPA : More than 95% of total leukocytes and neutrophils were reduced after CPA administration, resulting in severe neutropenia. A change of BAL cells : In the ETX-group, the number of total cells (p < 0.01) and of macrophage and neutrophil (p < 0.05) were increased at 3 and 6 hour after LPS administration compared to those of NC-group. In the CPA-group, the number of total leukocyte and macrophage were not changed after LPS administration, but neutrophil counts were significantly reduced and it took part in less than 0.1% of total BAL cells (p < 0.01 vs NC-group). BAL cells in this group were almost all macrophages (99.7%). A change of protein concentration in the BALF : In the ETX-group, protein concentration was increased at 3 hour and was more increased at 6 hour after LPS administration (p < 0.05 and < 0.01 vs NC-group, respectively). In the CPA-group, it was also significantly elevated at 3 hour after LPS administration (p < 0.05 vs NC-group), but the value was statistically not different from that of ETX-group. The value measured at 6 hour after LPS administration in the CPA-group became lower than that of ETX-group (p < 0.05), but showed still a higher value compared to that of NC-group (p < 0.05). A change of cytokine concentration in the BALF : TNF -alpha and IL-6 were elevated in the ETX - and CPA-group compared to those of NC-group at both time intervals. There was no statistical difference in the values of both cytokines between the ETX- and CPA-groups. Measurement of hydrogen peroxide production from BAL cells : There was no intergroup difference of HPO production from resting cells. HPO production after incubation with opsonized zymosan was significantly elevated in all groups. The percent increment of HPO production was highest in the ETX-group (89.0%, p < 0.0008 vs NC-group), and was 42.85 in the CPA-group (p = 0.003 vs NC-group ). Conclusion : Acute lung injury in the setting of neutropenia might be caused by functional activation of resident alveolar macrophages.

  • PDF

Pulmonary Resection in the Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (다제 내성 폐결핵환자의 폐절제술에 관한 연구)

  • Kwon, Eun-Soo;Ha, Hyun-Cheol;Hwang, Su-Hee;Lee, Hung-Yol;Park, Seung-Kyu;Song, Sun-Dae
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
    • /
    • v.45 no.6
    • /
    • pp.1143-1153
    • /
    • 1998
  • Background : Recent outbreaks of pulmonary disease due to drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis have resulted in significant morbidity and mortality in patients worldwide. We reviewed our experience to evaluate the effects of pulmonary resection on the management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Method : A retrospective review was performed of 41 patients undergoing pulmonary resection for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis between January 1993 and December 1997. We divided these into 3 groups according to the radiologic findings : (1) patients who have reasonably localized lesion (Localized Lesion Group ; LLG) (2) patients who have cavitary lesions after pulmonary resection on chest roentgenogram (Remained Cavity Group : RCG) (3) patients who have Remained infiltrative lesions postoperatively (Remained infiltrative group : RIG). We evaluated the negative conversion rate after resection and overall response rate of the groups. Then they were compared with the results of the chemotherapy on the multi drug-resistant tuberculosis which has been outcome by Goble et al. Goble et al reported that negative conversion rate was 65% and overall response rate, 56% over a mean period of 5.1 months. Results : Seventy five point six percent were men and 24.4% women with a median age of 31 years (range, 16 to 60 years). Although the patients were treated preoperatively with multidrug regimens in an effort to reduce the mycobacterial burden, 22 of 41 were still sputum culture positive at the time of surgery. 20 of 22 patients(90.9%, p<0.01) responded which is defined as negative sputum cultures within 2 months postoperative. Of 26 patients with the sufficient follow up data, 19 have Remained sputum culture negative for a mean duration of 25.7 months (73.1%, p<0.05). The bulk of the disease was manifest in one lung, but lesser amounts of contralateral disease were demonstrated in 15, consisted of 8 in RIG and 7 in RCG, of 41. 12 of 12 patients (100%, p<0.01) who were sputum positive at the time of surgery in LLG converted successfully. 14 of 15 patients (93.3%, p<0.05) with the follow up have completed treatment and not relapsed for a mean period of 25. 7 months. The mean length of postoperative drug therapy of LLG was 12.2 months. In RIG, postoperative negative conversion rate was 83.3% which was not significant statistically. There was a statistical significance in overall response rate (100%, p<0.05) of RIG for a mean period of 24.4 months with a mean length of postoperative chemotherapy, 11.8 months. In RCG a statistically lower overall response rate (14.3%, p<0.01) has been revealed for a mean duration of follow up, 24.2 months. A negative conversion rate of RCG was 75% which was not significant statistically. Conclusion : Surgery plays an important role in the management of patients with multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Aggressive pulmonary resection should be performed for resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection to avoid treatment failure or relapse. Especially all cavitary lesions on preoperative chest roentgenogram should be resected completely. If all of them could not be resected perfectly, you should not open the thorax.

  • PDF

Prospective Study on Preoperative Evaluation for the Prediction of Mortality and Morbidity after Lung Cancer Resection (폐암절제술후 발생하는 사망 및 합병증의 예측인자 평가에 관한 전향적 연구)

  • Park, Jeong-Woong;Suh, Gee-Young;Kim, Ho-Cheol;Cheon, Eun-Mee;Chung, Man-Pyo;Kim, Ho-Joong;Kwon, O-Jung;Kim, Kwan-Min;Kim, Jin-Kook;Shim, Young-Mok;Rhee, Chong-H.;Han, Yong-Chol
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
    • /
    • v.45 no.1
    • /
    • pp.57-67
    • /
    • 1998
  • Purpose : This study was undertaken to determine the preoperative predictors of mortality and morbidity after lung cancer resection. Method: During the period from October 1, 1995 to August 31, 1996, a prospective study was conducted in 92 lung resection candidates diagnosed as lung cancer. For preoperative predictors of nonpulmonary factors, we considered age, sex, weight loss, hematocrit, serum albumin, EKG and concomitant illness, and for those of pulmonary factors, smoking history, presence of pneumonia, dyspnea scale(1 to 4), arterial blood gas analysis with room air breathing, routine pulmonary function test. And predicted postoperative(ppo) pulmonary factors such as PPO-$FEV_1$, ppo-diffusing capacity(DLco), predicted postoperative product(PPP) of ppo-$FEV_1%{\times}ppo$-DLco% and ppo-maximal $O_2$ uptake($VO_2$max) were also considered. Results: There were 78 men and 14 women with a median age of 62 years(range 42 to 82) and a mean $FEV_1$ of $2.37\pm0.06L$. Twenty nine patients had a decreased $FEV_1$ less than 2.0L. Pneumonectomy was performed in 26 patients, bilobectomy in 12, lobectomy in 54. Pulmonary complications developed in 10 patients, cardiac complications in 9, other complications(empyema, air leak, bleeding) in 11, and 16 patients were managed in intensive care unit for more than 48hours. Three patients died within 30 days after operation. The ppo-$VO_2$max was less than 10ml/kg/min in these three patients, but its statistical significance could not be determined due to small number of patients. In multivariate analysis, the predictor related to postoperative death was weight loss(p<0.05), and as for pulmonary complications, weight loss, dyspnea scale, ppo-DLco and extent of resection(p<0.05). Conclusions: Based on this study, preoperative nonpulmonary factors such as weight loss and dyspnea scale are more important than the pulmonary factors in the prediction of postoperative mortality and/or morbodity in lung resection candidates, but exercise pulmonary fuction test may be useful Our study suggests that ppo-$VO_2$max value less than 10ml/kg/min is associated with death after lung cancer resection but further studies are needed to validate this result.

  • PDF

Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty of Mobile Communication Industry in China (중국이동통신산업중적복무질량(中国移动通信产业中的服务质量), 고객만의도화고객충성도(顾客满意度和顾客忠诚度))

  • Zhang, Ruijin;Li, Xiangyang;Zhang, Yunchang
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
    • /
    • v.20 no.3
    • /
    • pp.269-277
    • /
    • 2010
  • Previous studies have shown that the most important factor affecting customer loyalty in the service industry is service quality. However, on the subject of whether service quality has a direct or indirect effect on customer loyalty, scholars' views apparently vary. Some studies suggest that service quality has a direct and fundamental influence on customer loyalty (Bai and Liu, 2002). However, others have shown that service quality not only directly affects customer loyalty, it also has an indirect impact on customer loyalty by influencing customer satisfaction and perceived value (Cronin, Brady, and Hult, 2000). Currently, there are few domestic articles that specifically address the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in the mobile communication industry. Moreover, research has studied customer loyalty as a whole variable, rather than breaking it down further into multiple dimensions. Based on this analysis, this paper summarizes previous study results, establishes an effect mechanism model among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in the mobile communication industry, and presents a statistical test on model assumptions by using customer investigation data from Heilongjiang Mobile Company. It provides theoretical guidance for mobile service management based on the discussion of the hypothesis test results. For data collection, the sample comprised mobile users in Harbin city, and the survey was taken by random sampling. Out of a total of 300 questionnaires, 276 (92.9%) were recovered. After excluding invalid questionnaires, 249 remained, for an effective rate of 82.6 percent for the study. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ coefficient was adapted to assess the scale reliability, and validity testing was conducted on the questionnaire from three aspects: content validity, construct validity. and convergent validity. The study tested for goodness of fit mainly from the absolute and relative fit indexes. From the hypothesis testing results, overall, four assumptions have not been supported. The ultimate affective relationship of service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty is demonstrated in Figure 2. On the whole, the service quality of the communication industry not only has a direct positive significant effect on customer loyalty, it also has an indirect positive significant effect on customer loyalty through service quality; the affective mechanism and extent of customer loyalty are different, and are influenced by each dimension of service quality. This study used the questionnaires of existing literature from home and abroad and tested them in empirical research, with all questions adapted to seven-point Likert scales. With the SERVQUAL scale of Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988), or PZB, as a reference point, service quality was divided into five dimensions-tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy-and the questions were simplified down to nineteen. The measurement of customer satisfaction was based mainly on Fornell (1992) and Wang and Han (2003), ending up with four questions. Based on the study’s three indicators of price tolerance, first choice, and complaint reaction were used to measure attitudinal loyalty, while repurchase intention, recommendation, and reputation measured behavioral loyalty. The collection and collation of literature data produced a model of the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in mobile communications, and China Mobile in the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province was used for conducting an empirical test of the model and obtaining some useful conclusions. First, service quality in mobile communication is formed by the five factors mentioned earlier: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. On the basis of PZB SERVQUAL, the study designed a measurement scale of service quality for the mobile communications industry, and obtained these five factors through exploratory factor analysis. The factors fit basically with the five elements, indicating the concept of five elements of service quality for the mobile communications industry. Second, service quality in mobile communications has both direct and indirect positive effects on attitudinal loyalty, with the indirect effect being produced through the intermediary variable, customer satisfaction. There are also both direct and indirect positive effects on behavioral loyalty, with the indirect effect produced through two intermediary variables: customer satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty. This shows that better service quality and higher customer satisfaction will activate the attitudinal to service providers more active and show loyalty to service providers much easier. In addition, the effect mechanism of all dimensions of service quality on all dimensions of customer loyalty is different. Third, customer satisfaction plays a significant intermediary role among service quality and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, indicating that improving service quality can boost customer satisfaction and make it easier for satisfied customers to become loyal customers. Moreover, attitudinal loyalty plays a significant intermediary role between service quality and behavioral loyalty, indicating that only attitudinally and behaviorally loyal customers are truly loyal customers. The research conclusions have some indications for Chinese telecom operators and others to upgrade their service quality. Two limitations to the study are also mentioned. First, all data were collected in the Heilongjiang area, so there might be a common method bias that skews the results. Second, the discussion addresses the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty, setting customer satisfaction as mediator, but does not consider other factors, like customer value and consumer features, This research will be continued in the future.

An Analysis on the Curricula and Recognitions of the Home Economics Teachers who were the Participants of the First-Grade Home Economics Regular Teacher Qualification Program (중등 가정과 1급 정교사 자격 연수 프로그램 운영 실태 분석 및 연수 참여자의 인식)

  • Lim, Il-Young;Kweon, Li-Ra;Lee, Hye-Suk;Park, Mi-Jin;Ryu, Sang-Hee
    • Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
    • /
    • v.19 no.4
    • /
    • pp.37-56
    • /
    • 2007
  • The purpose of this study is to provide basic resources to the first-grade Home Economics Regular Teacher Qualification Program (FGHERTQP) in order to improve its operation plans. For the study, the three methods were carried out: an analysis on the curricula of FGHERTQP over six years since 2000, a questionnaire asking their satisfaction degrees and needs on the programs which was answered by the home economics teachers who were the participants of FGHERTQP, and several statistical analyses such as a descriptive-test, a $X^2$-test, a t-test, and one way ANOVA by using SPSS Win ver 10.0. The results of the study were as follows; Firstly, FGHERTQP has been operated ten times by five training centers during resent six years. Subject matters ($1{\sim}7$), whole numbers of lectures ($11{\sim}29$), and their allotted working hours ($111{\sim}136$) vary with individual training centers and operation years. Secondly, when using 5 point likert scales, Contents and Methods of evaluation marked 3.08 which were the lowest scores, and Qualification Training in General marked 3.72 which was the highest score among five fields of Qualification Training in General, Contents, Organizations, Methods and Evaluation. The overall scores were low. Thirdly, in needs analysis on offering subject matters, the participants wanted to study the field of home economics education more than that of subject contents. Looking about the highest needs classified by domains, Food Principles & Meal Management showed the highest in Foods. And Consumer Issues in Clothing & Textiles in Textiles, Upcoming Housing Cultures in Housing, Family Relationship in Child Development & Family Relationship, Juveniles and their daily life as a consumer in Family & Consumer Resources Management. Fourthly, training centers' lectures available had a significant influence on the satisfaction degrees according to general characteristic variations of the participants. That is, as a training center offers more lectures in the field of subject education than those of subject contents, the participants showed higher satisfaction degrees (p<.05).

  • PDF

Application of Support Vector Regression for Improving the Performance of the Emotion Prediction Model (감정예측모형의 성과개선을 위한 Support Vector Regression 응용)

  • Kim, Seongjin;Ryoo, Eunchung;Jung, Min Kyu;Kim, Jae Kyeong;Ahn, Hyunchul
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
    • /
    • v.18 no.3
    • /
    • pp.185-202
    • /
    • 2012
  • .Since the value of information has been realized in the information society, the usage and collection of information has become important. A facial expression that contains thousands of information as an artistic painting can be described in thousands of words. Followed by the idea, there has recently been a number of attempts to provide customers and companies with an intelligent service, which enables the perception of human emotions through one's facial expressions. For example, MIT Media Lab, the leading organization in this research area, has developed the human emotion prediction model, and has applied their studies to the commercial business. In the academic area, a number of the conventional methods such as Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) or Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have been applied to predict human emotion in prior studies. However, MRA is generally criticized because of its low prediction accuracy. This is inevitable since MRA can only explain the linear relationship between the dependent variables and the independent variable. To mitigate the limitations of MRA, some studies like Jung and Kim (2012) have used ANN as the alternative, and they reported that ANN generated more accurate prediction than the statistical methods like MRA. However, it has also been criticized due to over fitting and the difficulty of the network design (e.g. setting the number of the layers and the number of the nodes in the hidden layers). Under this background, we propose a novel model using Support Vector Regression (SVR) in order to increase the prediction accuracy. SVR is an extensive version of Support Vector Machine (SVM) designated to solve the regression problems. The model produced by SVR only depends on a subset of the training data, because the cost function for building the model ignores any training data that is close (within a threshold ${\varepsilon}$) to the model prediction. Using SVR, we tried to build a model that can measure the level of arousal and valence from the facial features. To validate the usefulness of the proposed model, we collected the data of facial reactions when providing appropriate visual stimulating contents, and extracted the features from the data. Next, the steps of the preprocessing were taken to choose statistically significant variables. In total, 297 cases were used for the experiment. As the comparative models, we also applied MRA and ANN to the same data set. For SVR, we adopted '${\varepsilon}$-insensitive loss function', and 'grid search' technique to find the optimal values of the parameters like C, d, ${\sigma}^2$, and ${\varepsilon}$. In the case of ANN, we adopted a standard three-layer backpropagation network, which has a single hidden layer. The learning rate and momentum rate of ANN were set to 10%, and we used sigmoid function as the transfer function of hidden and output nodes. We performed the experiments repeatedly by varying the number of nodes in the hidden layer to n/2, n, 3n/2, and 2n, where n is the number of the input variables. The stopping condition for ANN was set to 50,000 learning events. And, we used MAE (Mean Absolute Error) as the measure for performance comparison. From the experiment, we found that SVR achieved the highest prediction accuracy for the hold-out data set compared to MRA and ANN. Regardless of the target variables (the level of arousal, or the level of positive / negative valence), SVR showed the best performance for the hold-out data set. ANN also outperformed MRA, however, it showed the considerably lower prediction accuracy than SVR for both target variables. The findings of our research are expected to be useful to the researchers or practitioners who are willing to build the models for recognizing human emotions.

Design of Client-Server Model For Effective Processing and Utilization of Bigdata (빅데이터의 효과적인 처리 및 활용을 위한 클라이언트-서버 모델 설계)

  • Park, Dae Seo;Kim, Hwa Jong
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
    • /
    • v.22 no.4
    • /
    • pp.109-122
    • /
    • 2016
  • Recently, big data analysis has developed into a field of interest to individuals and non-experts as well as companies and professionals. Accordingly, it is utilized for marketing and social problem solving by analyzing the data currently opened or collected directly. In Korea, various companies and individuals are challenging big data analysis, but it is difficult from the initial stage of analysis due to limitation of big data disclosure and collection difficulties. Nowadays, the system improvement for big data activation and big data disclosure services are variously carried out in Korea and abroad, and services for opening public data such as domestic government 3.0 (data.go.kr) are mainly implemented. In addition to the efforts made by the government, services that share data held by corporations or individuals are running, but it is difficult to find useful data because of the lack of shared data. In addition, big data traffic problems can occur because it is necessary to download and examine the entire data in order to grasp the attributes and simple information about the shared data. Therefore, We need for a new system for big data processing and utilization. First, big data pre-analysis technology is needed as a way to solve big data sharing problem. Pre-analysis is a concept proposed in this paper in order to solve the problem of sharing big data, and it means to provide users with the results generated by pre-analyzing the data in advance. Through preliminary analysis, it is possible to improve the usability of big data by providing information that can grasp the properties and characteristics of big data when the data user searches for big data. In addition, by sharing the summary data or sample data generated through the pre-analysis, it is possible to solve the security problem that may occur when the original data is disclosed, thereby enabling the big data sharing between the data provider and the data user. Second, it is necessary to quickly generate appropriate preprocessing results according to the level of disclosure or network status of raw data and to provide the results to users through big data distribution processing using spark. Third, in order to solve the problem of big traffic, the system monitors the traffic of the network in real time. When preprocessing the data requested by the user, preprocessing to a size available in the current network and transmitting it to the user is required so that no big traffic occurs. In this paper, we present various data sizes according to the level of disclosure through pre - analysis. This method is expected to show a low traffic volume when compared with the conventional method of sharing only raw data in a large number of systems. In this paper, we describe how to solve problems that occur when big data is released and used, and to help facilitate sharing and analysis. The client-server model uses SPARK for fast analysis and processing of user requests. Server Agent and a Client Agent, each of which is deployed on the Server and Client side. The Server Agent is a necessary agent for the data provider and performs preliminary analysis of big data to generate Data Descriptor with information of Sample Data, Summary Data, and Raw Data. In addition, it performs fast and efficient big data preprocessing through big data distribution processing and continuously monitors network traffic. The Client Agent is an agent placed on the data user side. It can search the big data through the Data Descriptor which is the result of the pre-analysis and can quickly search the data. The desired data can be requested from the server to download the big data according to the level of disclosure. It separates the Server Agent and the client agent when the data provider publishes the data for data to be used by the user. In particular, we focus on the Big Data Sharing, Distributed Big Data Processing, Big Traffic problem, and construct the detailed module of the client - server model and present the design method of each module. The system designed on the basis of the proposed model, the user who acquires the data analyzes the data in the desired direction or preprocesses the new data. By analyzing the newly processed data through the server agent, the data user changes its role as the data provider. The data provider can also obtain useful statistical information from the Data Descriptor of the data it discloses and become a data user to perform new analysis using the sample data. In this way, raw data is processed and processed big data is utilized by the user, thereby forming a natural shared environment. The role of data provider and data user is not distinguished, and provides an ideal shared service that enables everyone to be a provider and a user. The client-server model solves the problem of sharing big data and provides a free sharing environment to securely big data disclosure and provides an ideal shared service to easily find big data.

Effects of HapKok (LI-4) , SamUmGyo (SP-6) Acupuncture on Uterine Motility and Cyclooxygenase-2 Manifestation in Rats (합곡(合谷), 삼음교(三陰交) 자침(刺鍼)이 백서(白鼠) 자궁(子宮) 운동(運動) 및 Cyclooxygenase-2 발현(發現)에 미치는 영향(影響))

  • Lee, Byung-Chul;Lee, Ho-Sub;Kim, Kyung-Sik;Lee, Geon-Mok;Na, Chang-Soo;Kim, Jung-Sang;Hwang, Woo-Jun
    • Journal of Acupuncture Research
    • /
    • v.17 no.2
    • /
    • pp.187-208
    • /
    • 2000
  • By the activation of ovary hormone, many morphological changes occur in the epithelial cell lines and muscle cells in rat uterus. These two cells in uterus are important to the implantation of embryo, maintaining pregnancy and starting parturition. One important change associated with the morphological change of these two cells in uterus is the change on prostaglandin(PG) metabolism. Its presence and synthesis in endometriurn and myometrium in uterus affects estrous cycle and the start of embryo implantation in uterus. It also performs as an important modulator in parturition. So the abnormally weak expression of PG causes difficulty during labor and over-expression causes pre-term labor. PG biosynthesis starts from either free or liberated arachidonic acids from membrane phospholipid by phospholipase. Such arachidonic acids are converted into PG catalyzed by Cyclooxygenase. Under normal physiological condition, Cyclooxygenase-1(COX-1) having 602 units of amino acids controls the synthesis of PG. It acts as a local hormone regulating vasomodulation of blood flow, flexible muscle movement, increasing the blood permeability and contributing the protective role in preserving integrity of the stomach lining and Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is induced by the inflammation, pregnancy and increased its expression until parturition. Lipid metabolite like PG is located in uterine and expression of COX-2 increased with pregnancy. Increased expression of COX proteins in epithelial cells and myometrial cells are told to increase the muscle contractility in uterus but decreased right after the labor in rat. It is a good sign indicating that COX proteins are deeply related to the start of labor. Currently, Several studies report the use of PG and COX-2 inhibitor as medication for controlled abortion or to prevent pre-term labor but they entail various side-effects. Our study proposed to suggest use of acupuncture as an another mediator to control abortion or pre-term labor without causing unnecessary side-effects by those medicines. Two acupuncture sites, LI-4 & SP-6 were selected due to their known efficacy. From the immunohistochemical staining of COX-2, normal expression of COX-2 protein in nonpregnant SD rat's uterus revealed that COX-2 protein was primarily detected in the lumina epithelial lining and in the epithelial cell lining contacting the stromal cells. High resolution optical microscopic scanning revealed distinguishable staining in the myometrial mucosa. LI-4 acupuncture administered nonpregnant rat's uterus showed strong expression for COX-2 in endometrium contacted with lumina epithelial lining of rat uterus and in myometrial mucosa. Stromal cells showed more staining than untreated nonpregnant rat's uterus and stronger staining in stromal cells contacting myometrial layer compared to untreated nonpregnant rat's uterus. SP-6 acupuncture administered nonpregnant rat's uterus showed weak expression for COX-2 in myometrial layers and stromal cells but no staining was visible in lumina epitheliai and glandular epithelial cells. Few stromal cells and myometrial mucosa were positively stained for COX-2. Pregnant SD rat's uterus was also immunostained for COX-2 expression after 18 days of pregnancy. Unlike to untreated nonpregnant rat's uterus, luminal epithelial cells were not positively stained for COX-2 but stronger staining for COX-2 was revealed in stromal cells. LI-4 acupunctured SD rat's uterus had very strong expression of COX-2 in luminal epithelial lining. Few stromal cells showed stronger positive COX-2 staining and myometrial layers also showed more expression than untreated pregnant rat. SP-6 acupuncture administered pregnant SD rat's uterus showed positive expression of COX-2 in epithelial cells of luminal mucosa layer but weaker than that of LI-4 acupuncture treatment's case. However, strong positive staining was revealed in stromal mucosa and myometrial layers. Virgin SD rat's uterus motility index during LI-4 acupuncture was 66.52 % (Prob〉T = 0.0197) compared to its motility before the acupuncture treatment but the motility index was slighdy elevated up to 79.58 % (Prob〉T = 0.1175) after the acupuncture. During the SP-6 acupuncture treatment for 30 minutes, uterus motility index was 90.52 % (Prob〉T = 0.1832) showing lesser decrement but consequently reached similar motility index decreasal to 79.95 % (Prob〉T = 0.0215) after the acupuncture treatment as LI-4 showed. LI-4 acupuncture tend to be a quick treatment to reducing the uterus motility in a virgin rat but eventually both two acupuncture administration created very similar reduction of uterus motility seeing the index after the both acupunctures. The uterus movement monitored during the LI-4 acupuncture administered for 30 minutes, Pregnant SD rat showed decreased motility down to 77.90 % (Prob〉 T = 0.0076) compared to uterus motility before the acupuncture and it continuously decreased down to 71.81 %(Prob〉T = 0.0214) after the removal of needle. The statistical analysis using paired t-test showed significance difference for both two motility indexs at =0.05. SP-6 acupuncture administered to pregnant SD rat also had similar pattern of decreasing uterus motility index down to 74.70 % (Prob〉T = 0.1730) during the initial 30 minutes acupuncture administration and it was continuously lowered to 71.52 % (Prob〉T = 0.0155) after the acupuncture. The paired t-test resuit for SP-6 suggest prompt response of uterus motility index to the SP-6 acupuncture treatment but consequently reached same level of inducing the motility reduction as LI-4 at =0.05 level.

  • PDF

A STUDY ON THE RELATIONS OF VARIOUS PARTS OF THE PALATE FOR PRIMARY AND PERMANENT DENTITION (유치열과 영구치열의 구개 각부의 관계에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Yong-Hoon;Yang, Yeon-Mi;Lee, Yong-Hee;Kim, Sang-Hoon;Kim, Jae-Gon;Baik, Byeong-Ju
    • Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
    • /
    • v.31 no.4
    • /
    • pp.569-578
    • /
    • 2004
  • The purpose of this study was to clarify the palatal arch length, width and height in the primary and permanent dentition. Samples were consisted of normal occlusions both in the primary dentition(50 males and 50 females) and in the permanent dentition(50 males and 50 females). With their upper plaster casts were used and through 3-dimensional laser scanning(3D Scanner, DS4060, LDI, U.S.A.), cloud data, polygonization, section curve and loft surface, fit and horizontal plane were based to measure the palatal arch length, width and height(Surfacer 10.0, Imageware, U.S.A.). T-tests were applied for the statistical analyze of the data. The results were as follows : 1. In the measurement values, the values of the male were higher than those of the female except primary anterior palatal height. There were not only statistically significant differences in anterior palatal width(p<0.05) and posterior palatal width(p<0.01) in primary dentition but palatal width(p<0.05), anterior palatal length(p<0.01), middle and posterior palatal length(p<0.05) in permanent dentition between male and female. 2. In the indices of palate, there were statistically significant differences in height-length index(p<0.05) and width-length index(p<0.01) between male and female in primary dentition. In permanent dentition, there was statistically difference between male and female. 3. In the measurement values, posterior palatal width was increased most greatly. Posterior palatal height, anterior palatal width and anterior palatal length were followed by descending order. On the other hand, anterior palatal height and posterior palatal length were decreased. 4. In the indices of palate, the height-length index, the width-length index and posterior height-width index were increased, but the others were decreased.

  • PDF

Importance-Performance Analysis of Quality Attributes of Coffee Shops and a Comparison of Coffee Shop Visits between Koreans and Mongolians (한국인과 몽골인의 커피전문점 품질 속성에 대한 중요도-수행도 분석 및 커피전문점 이용 현황 비교)

  • Jo, Mi-Na;Purevsuren, Bolorerdene
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
    • /
    • v.42 no.9
    • /
    • pp.1499-1512
    • /
    • 2013
  • The purpose of this study was to compare the coffee shop visits of Koreans and Mongolians, and to determine the quality attributes that should be managed by Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). The survey was conducted in Seoul and the Gyeonggi Province of Korea, and at Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia from April to May 2012. The questionnaire was distributed to 380 Koreans and 380 Mongolians, with 253 and 250 responses from the Koreans and Mongolians, respectively, used for statistical analyses. From the results, Koreans visited coffee shops more frequently than Mongolians, with both groups mainly visiting a coffee shop with friends. Koreans also spent more time in a coffee shop than Mongolians. In addition, they generally used a coffee shop, regardless of time. In terms of coffee preference, Koreans preferred Americano and Mongolians preferred Espresso. The most frequently stated purpose of Koreans for visiting a coffee shop was to rest, while Mongolians typically visited to drink coffee. The general price range respondents spent on coffee was less than 4~8 thousand won for the Koreans and 2~4 thousand won for the Mongolians. Both Koreans and Mongolians obtained information about coffee shops from recommendations. According to the IPA results of 20 quality attributes of coffee shops, the selection attributes with high importance but low satisfaction were quality, price, and kindness for Koreans, but none of the attributes was found for Mongolians.