• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2000

In order to predict the propagation of road traffic noise over level terrain, this paper presents the model of the simple monopole and dipole source. Excess attenuations by ground acoustic impedance with continuity are investigated by outdoor experiments. In this results, the propagation of road traffic noise is affected by the acoustic impedance properties of the ground surface over which the noise travels, particularly when the receiver position is close to the surface. These results are then used to derive sound pressure level contours for the attenuation with distance of the equivalent energy level received from passing vehicle. The percentage of deep sleep and the number of wakings are studied for continuous traffic noise. The hearing loss and sensitivity threshold shift is investigated by changing the various parameters such as the effects of aging and noise exposure. Evaluation of the response of human to traffic noise is discribed. It is shown that exposure to excessive noise can cause temporary loss of hearing that may become permanent if the exposure is prolonged or intense.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.118-123
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• 2005

Background: A nerve ligation injury may produce a tactile allodynia. The effects of intrathecally delivered lamotrigine on allodynia induced due to fifth and sixth lumbar spinal nerves ligation in rats, using lumbar intrathecal catheters were examined. Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats (body weight 160-180 g) were prepared by tightly ligating the fifth and sixth left lumbar spinal nerves, with the implantation of a chronic intrathecal catheter for drug administration. Mechanical allodynia and allodynic threshold were measured using von Frey filaments and the updown method, respectively. After the baseline hind paw withdrawal thresholds had been obtained, lamotrigine (10, 30, 100 and $300{\mu}g$) was administered intrathecally. Thereafter, the dose-response curves and 50% effective dose ($ED_{50}$) were obtained. Motor dysfunction was assessed by observing the righting/stepping reflex responses and abnormal weight bearing. Results: Intrathecal administration of lamotrigine produced a dose-dependent antiallodynic action ($ED_{50}=61.7{\mu}g$). Mild motor weakness was observed with $300{\mu}g$ lamotrigine, but no severe motor impairment was found. Conclusions: It is suggested that intrathecal lamotrigine could produce moderate antagonism of mechanical allodynia at the spinal level in a rat neuropathic pain model with minimal motor weakness.

• Proceedings of the KSAR Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.78-78
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• 2003

Embryonic stem (ES) cells, derived from preimplantation embryo, are able to differentiate into various types of cells consisting the whole body, or pluripotency. In contrast, terminally differentiated cells do not usually alter their nature but frequently die or transform if they are exposed to inappropriate external stimulations. In addition to the plasticity, ES cells are expected to be different from terminally differentiated cells in very many ways, such as patterns of gene expressions, ability and response of the cells in confronting environmental stimulations, metabolism, and growth rate. As a model system to differentiate these two types of cells, human ES cells (MB03) and terminally differentiated cells (HeLa), we examined the ability of these two types of cells in confronting a severe oxidative insult, that is $H_2O$$_2$. Approximately 1$\times$10$^4$ cells were plated in 96 well plate and serum starved for overnight. The conditioned cells were exposed to a various concentration of $H_2O$$_2$ fur 24 hrs and loaded with neutral red (50$\mu\textrm{g}$/ml) for 4 hrs, washed with PBS for 2 min three times, and entrapped dye was dissolved out using acetic ethanol. Cytotoxicity was determined by reading the amount of dye in the medium using microplate reader. equipped with 575 nm filter. Relative amount of the dye entrapped within MB03 or HeLa were not significantly different when cells were exposed up to 0.4 mM $H_2O$$_2$. However, this sharply decreased down to 0.12% in HeLa cells when the cells were exposed to 0.8 mM $H_2O$$_2$, while it was approximately 54% in MB03 suggesting that this concentration of $H_2O$$_2$ is the defensive threshold for HeLa cells. The resistance to oxidative stimulation reversed, however, when cells were co-treated with BSO (L-buthionine- 〔S, R〕-sulfoximine) which chelates intracellular GSH. This result suggests that cellular GSH is the major defensive mechanism of human ES cells. Induction of enzymes involved in GSH metabolism and type of cell death is currently being studied.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 2006

This study was initiated to evaluate the inhibitory effect of selected heavy metals on the growth of Acinetobacter sp. Down as one of the phosphorus accumulating microorganisms (PAO) involved in the enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) process of the wastewater treatment plant. Acinetobacter sp. was initially selected as a starting model microorganism and was grown under aerobic condition for this experiment. The heavy metals selected and investigated in this study were cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn). Median $(IC_{50})$ and threshold $(IC_{10})$ inhibitory concentrations for Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni, and Zn were 2.95 and 1.45, 4.92 and 2.53, 0.03 and 0.02, 1.12 and 0.43, 14.84 and 5.46 mg $L^{-1}$, respectively. We demonstrated that most of heavy metals tested in the experiment inhibited the growth of Acinetobacter sp. in the range of predetermined concentrations. Based on the data obtained from the experiment, Hg was the most sensitive to Acinetobacter sp., then Ni, Cd, Cu, and Zn in order.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2018

Aggression among pigs adversely affects economic returns and animal welfare in intensive pigsties. Recently, some studies have applied information technology to a livestock management system to minimize the damage resulting from such anomalies. Nonetheless, detecting each pig in a crowed pigsty is still challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a new Kinect camera and deep learning-based monitoring system for the detection of the individual pigs. The proposed system is characterized as follows. 1) The background subtraction method and depth-threshold are used to detect only standing-pigs in the Kinect-depth image. 2) The standing-pigs are detected by using YOLO (You Only Look Once) which is the fastest and most accurate model in deep learning algorithms. Our experimental results show that this method is effective for detecting individual pigs in real time in terms of both cost-effectiveness (using a low-cost Kinect depth sensor) and accuracy (average 99.40% detection accuracies).

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.523-528
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• 2020

A lateral type MEMS inertial switch was designed on the same principle as spring-mass system. The MEMS switch is used for arming mechanism of the arm-fire device by sensing the applied acceleration. We analyzed the switching capability of the MEMS switch under various acceleration conditions via performance model. Simulation results showed that the MEMS switch works very well at 10 g when the applied acceleration slope does not exceed 10 g/msec. On the other hand, the threshold operating acceleration level simulation exceeded the requirement (10±2 g) due to the width and length of the spring by considering 10% tolerance of the design values. Design modification of doubling the width of the spring, which is difficult to reduce less than 10% tolerance in fabrication process, was proposed after confirming the simulation results comply the requirement.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2017

The prevalence of obesity has noticeably increased worldwide over several decades with various complication. Even though anti-obesity drug treatments have been spotlighted by resulting in effective mean weight losses, its adverse effects cannot be overlooked. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of multi-frequency whole body vibration, one of the mechanical stimulus, as a countermeasure against obesity. Thirty-two-6-week-old C57BL/6J male mice were equally assigned to four groups: the Control group (CON, n = 8), the Sham group (Sham, n = 8), the sham with single frequency whole body vibration (S+V, n = 8), and the sham with multi frequency whole body vibration (S+MV, n = 8). After 4 weeks, morphologic changes in the adipose tissue were evaluated from three-dimensional images using in vivo micro-computed tomography. At 4 weeks, the volume of the abdominal adipose tissue, which had the highest value in Sham group, noticeably reduced in S+MV group compared to it in S+V group. These results implied that the accumulation of abdominal adipose tissue can be effectively reduced through applying multi-frequency whole body vibration.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2317-2322
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• 2015

Background: Despite the increasing number of screening examinations performed for cervical cancer utilizing the Papanicolaou smear test (Pap test), few studies have examined whether this strategy is cost-effective in Korea. Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer screening strategies incorporating the Pap test based on age at the start and end of screening as well as screening interval. Materials and Methods: We designed four alternative screening strategies based on patient age when screening was started (20 or 30 years) and discontinued (lifetime, 79 years). Each strategy was assessed at screening intervals of 1, 2, 3, or 5 years. A Markov model was developed to determine the cost-effectiveness of the 16 possible cervical cancer screening strategies, and this was evaluated from a societal perspective. The main outcome measures were average lifetime cost, incremental quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Results: Compared with various strategies comprising younger starting age, discontinuation age, and longer screening intervals, strategies employing annual screening for cervical cancer starting at a target age of 30 years and above were the most cost-effective, with an ICER of 21,012.98 dollars per QALY gained (with a Korean threshold of 30,000,000 KRW or US$27,272). Conclusions: We found that annual screening for cervical cancer beginning at a target age of 30 years and above is most cost-effective screening strategy. Considering the potential economic advantages, more intense screening policies for cervical cancer might be favorable among countries with high rates of cervical cancer and relatively low screening costs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2721-2728
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• 2012

Background: There are limited data evaluating the cost-effectiveness of gastric cancer screening using endoscopy or upper gastrointestinal x-ray in the general population. Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of population-based screening for gastric cancer in South Korea by decision analysis. Methods: A time-dependent Markov model for gastric cancer was constructed for healthy adults 30 years of age and older, and a deterministic sensitivity analysis was performed. Cost-utility analysis with multiple strategies was conducted to compare the costs and effects of 13 different screening alternatives with respect to the following eligibility criteria: age at the beginning of screening, screening interval, and screening method. The main outcome measurement was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. Results: The results revealed that annual endoscopic screening from ages 50-80 was the most cost-effective for the male population. In the females, biennial endoscopy screening from ages 50-80 was calculated as the most cost-effective strategy among the 12 screening alternatives. The most cost-effective screening strategy may be adjustable according to the screening costs and the distribution of cancer stage at screening. The limitation was that effectiveness data were obtained from published sources. Conclusions: Using the threshold of $19,162 per quality-adjusted life year on the basis of the Korean gross domestic product (2008), as suggested by the World Health Organization, endoscopic gastric cancer screening starting at the age of 50 years was highly cost-effective in the Korean population. The national recommendation for gastric cancer screening should consider the starting age of screening, the screening interval, and the screening modality.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1034-1041
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• 2011

Generally, In distributed online game server system, game maps are processed separately by means of dividing into several unit blocks. But the keeping normal distribution of user in game map is very difficult because preferences of game users are not same according to individual user's private character. For this reason, if the huge number of users concentrate on particular region of same game map at once, the game server exceed their threshold so that the system can be getting down. Conversely, the efficiency of system goes down considerably because the game server must perform map processing continuously even under user_empty situation. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose a Map management method to control relatively normal distribution of users in game maps using Map Balance Server. In suggested model, we can reduce the load of game servers by means of turn off the game map processing temporary when a server is under user_empty situation. we also can maximize server performance by means of redistribution of map processing load among servers.