• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.197-207
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• 2004

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term therapeutic efficacy and durability of lamivudine in Korean children with chronic hepatitis B. Methods: A total of 48 children (31 male and 17 female; age, 1~18 years, mean, 8 years) with chronic hepatitis B who received lamivudine for at least six months from March 1999 to September 2004 were followed for a mean period of 29 months (8~66 months) at Department of Pediatrics, Kyungpook National University Hospital in Korea. Response to treatment was defined as the normalization of ALT and HBV DNA levels, and HBeAg seroconversion after the initiation of treatment. Results: Twenty nine (60%) among the 48 children treated with lamivudine responded and nine (19%) children lost HBsAg during therapy. ALT and HBV DNA level had normalized in 94% one year after the initiation of treatment. Kaplan-Meier estimates of cumulative HBeAg seroconversion rates over the years were 13% (0.5 year), 34% (1 year), 50% (1.5 years), 68% (2 years), 79% (2.5 years) and 90% at 3 years respectively. Above all, among the 22 children treated before the age of seven, loss of HBsAg occurred in eight (36%), which showed superior rate of HBsAg loss (p=0.002 vs age >7). Conclusion: Long-term treatment of lamivudine improved the rate of HBeAg seroconversion in Korean children with chronic hepatitis B. After three years' observation, most of treated children have sustained HBeAg clearance. We believe that lamivudine should be tried as the first therapeutic option for children with chronic hepatitis B in immune clearance phase.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.95-110
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• 2020

Comparisons between two different surface temperatures from high-resolution ECMWF ReAnalysis 5 (ERA5) and Automated Synoptic Observing System (ASOS) observations were performed to investigate the reliability of the new reanalysis data over South Korea. As ERA5 has been recently produced and provided to the public, it will be highly used in various research fields. The analysis period in this study is limited to 1999-2018 because regularly recorded hourly data have been provided for 61 ASOS stations since 1999. Topographic characteristics of the 61 ASOS locations are classified as inland, coastal, and mountain based on Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data. The spatial distributions of whole period time-averaged temperatures for ASOS and ERA5 were similar without significant differences in their values. Scatter plots between ASOS and ERA5 for three different periods of yearlong, summer, and winter confirmed the characteristics of seasonal variability, also shown in the time-series of monthly error probability density functions (PDFs). Statistical indices NMB, RMSE, R, and IOA were adopted to quantify the temperature differences, which showed no significant differences in all indices, as R and IOA were all close to 0.99. In particular, the daily mean temperature differences based on 1-hour-averaged temperature had a smaller error than the classical daily mean temperature differences, showing a higher correlation between the two data. To check if the complex topography inside one ERA5 grid cell is related to the temperature differences, the kurtosis and skewness values of 90-m DEM PDFs in a ERA5 grid cell were compared to the one-year period amplitude among those of the power spectrum in the time-series of monthly temperature error PDFs at each station, showing positive correlations. The results account for the topographic effect as one of the largest possible drivers of the difference between ASOS and ERA5.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.303-312
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• 2017

The central goal of Gamma Knife radiosurgery(GKRS) is to maximize the conformity of the prescription isodose surface, and to minimize the radiation effect of the normal tissue surrounding the target volume. There are the various kinds of indices related with the quality of treatment plans such as conformity index, coverage, selectivity, beam-on time, gradient index(GI), and conformity/gradient index(CGI). As the best treatment plan evaluation tool, we must check by all means conformity index, GI, and CGI among them. Specially, GI and CGI related with complication of healthy normal tissue is more indispensible than conformity index. Then author calculated and statistically analysed CGI, the newly defined conformity/gradient index as well as GI being applied widely using the treatment planning system Leksell GammaPlan(LGP) and the verification method Variable Ellipsoid Modeling Technique(VEMT). In the study 10 patients with intracranial lesion treated by GKRS were included. Author computed the indices from LGP and VEMT requiring only four parameters: the prescribed isodose volume, the volume with dose > 30%, the target volume, and the volume of half the prescription isodose. All data were analyzed by paired t-test, which is statistical method used to compare two different measurement techniques. No statistical significance in GI at 10 cases was observed between LGP and VEMT. Differences in GI ranged from -0.14 to 0.01. The newly defined gradient index calculated by two methods LGP and VEMT was not statistically significant either. Author did not find out the statistical difference for the prescribed isodose volume between LGP and VEMT. CGI as the evaluation index for determining the best treatment plan is not significant statistically also. Differences in CGI ranged from -4 to 3. Similarly newly defined Conformity/Gradient index for GKRS was also estimated as the metric for the evaluation of the treatment plans through statistical analysis. Statistical analyses demonstrated that VEMT was in excellent agreement with LGP when considering GI, new gradient index, CGI, and new CGI for evaluating the best plans of GKRS. Due to the application of the fast and easy evaluation tool through LGP and VEMT author hopes CGI and newly defined CGI as well as gradient indices will be widely used.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.413-425
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• 2017

This manuscript describes the relationship between climate change and forest growth, forest species, carbon stocks, and tree mortality. 1) In the aspect of forest growth, the growth of major coniferous species, including Pinus densiflora, had a negative correlation with temperature. On the other hand, major deciduous oak species, including Quercus variabilis and Quercus mongolica, had a positive correlation with temperature. 2) When considered in the aspect of the forest species distribution, various models commonly showed a decrease in the distribution of coniferous species and an increase in oak species due to climate change in the medium to long term. 3) From the carbon stock perspective, there was a difference in the estimation according to the status of forest management. Most of Korean forests will mature to become over-matured forest after year 2030 and are estimated to produce approximately 410 million ton forest biomass until 2090 with the current cutting regulations for sustainable forest management announced by the Korean Forest Service. 4) In the forest mortality, the mortality rate of the major coniferous species showed a clear tendency to increase higher temperatures while it decreased for the oak species with no verification of statistical significance. Moreover, the mortality of the subalpine coniferous species was projected to progress rapidly. considering the overall impacts described above, there should be a management strategy for coniferous species that are relatively vulnerable to climate change. Moreover, a sustainable forest plan in the aspect of ecosystem services, carbon sequestration and storage, which is linked to global issues such as Sustainable Development Goals, ecosystem services and negative emission.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.320-330
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• 2018

This study was performed to investigate the antioxidative activity of solvent (water, 50% ethanol, and 100% ethanol) extracts from five kinds of medicinal herbs Cutellaria baicalensis Georgi; SB, Paeonia lactiflora Pall.; PA, Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge; SM, Phellinus linteus; PH, Morus alba L.; MA). The total content of phenolic compounds was highest in the 50% ethanol extract from PH (280.05 mg/g), the 100% ethanol extract from PH (308.88 mg/g), and the water extract from SM (80.27 mg/g). The total content of flavonoids was highest in the 50% ethanol extract from SB (62.71 mg/ml), the 100% ethanol extract from SB (64.59 mg/ml), and the water extract from SM (35.85 mg/ml). ACE inhibitory activity only occurred in the water extracts, and it was highest in the water extract from SB (45.33%). Cholesterol adsorption activity was higher in the SB and PA extracts than in the other extracts. In water extracts, SM showed the highest antioxidative activity. Among the 50% and 100% ethanol extracts, DPPH radical scavenging activity and FRAP were highest in the PH extract, and ABTS radical scavenging activity was significantly higher in the PA extracts. Seven types of compositions were prepared with different mixing ratios of 0.2 to 2.0 from relatively high-activity medicinal herbs, such as PH, SM and PA. The total phenolic and flavonoid compound contents of the compositions were 50.53-61.96 and 16.91-33.81 mg/ml, respectively. Cholesterol adsorption activity was 46.27-70.03%.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.407-410
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• 2018

As the operating frequency of an electromagnetic wave increases, the maximum output and wavelength of the wave decreases, so that the size of the circuit cannot be reduced. As a result, the fabrication of a circuit with high power (of the order of or greater than kW range) and terahertz wave frequency band is limited, due to the problem of circuit size, to the order of ${\mu}m$ to mm. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose a source design technique for 0.1 THz~0.3 GW level with cylindrical shape (diameter ~2.4 cm). Modeling and computational simulations were performed to optimize the design of the high-power electromagnetic sources based on Cherenkov radiation generation technology using the principle of plasma wakefield acceleration with ponderomotive force and artificial dielectrics. An effective design guideline has been proposed to facilitate the fabrication of high-power terahertz wave vacuum devices of large diameter that are less restricted in circuit size through objective verification.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.46 no.8
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• pp.1012-1017
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• 2017

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum (Family: Aizoaceae) is an annual plant consisting of ice crystal-shaped bladder cells, which is responsible for its common name ice plant. This study investigated biological activities according to general components and extraction solvent in order to examine the functionality of ice plant. The total content of free amino acids was 32.57 mg/g, including 4.64 mg/g of L-alanine as the most abundant and 2.60 mg/g of ${\gamma}$-aminobutyric acid. Regarding angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitory activities of solvent fractions of ice plant, ethyl acetate fraction and chloroform fraction showed activities of $33.17{\pm}3.20{\sim}88.19{\pm}3.20%$ and $23.72{\pm}2.89{\sim}86.78{\pm}2.24%$, respectively, similar to $Captopril^{(R)}$ ($19.51{\pm}3.44{\sim}84.72{\pm}1.06%$) and $Enalapril^{(R)}$ ($24.93{\pm}1.12{\sim}91.32{\pm}3.62%$) as positive control groups. Regarding inhibition of lipid droplet production in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes by ice plant, anti-adipogenic activities were $53.00{\pm}0.45{\sim}65.75{\pm}0.31%$ and $44.16{\pm}0.29{\sim}63.32{\pm}0.36%$ in the ethyl acetate fraction and butanol fraction, respectively, showing the lowest lipid droplet production. The chloroform fraction and hexane fraction showed activities of $38.33{\pm}0.09{\sim}56.55{\pm}0.50%$ and $31.17{\pm}0.50{\sim}55.10{\pm}1.93%$, respectively, whereas the water fraction showed activity of $26.32{\pm}2.27{\sim}49.48{\pm}0.05%$. Therefore, all solvent fractions inhibited fat accumulation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes according to treatment concentration. According to the results above, it would be possible to utilize ice plant as a new health functional material.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.46 no.8
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• pp.944-951
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• 2017

This study aimed to determine and examine the contents of vitamins $B_1$, $B_2$, and $B_3$ using the high-performance liquid chromatography method in traditional holiday foods in Korea. All analyses were under the quality control chart of vitamins $B_1$, $B_2$, and $B_3$. The z-scores for vitamins $B_1$, $B_2$, and $B_3$ were 1.3, 0.0, and 0.6, respectively, in food analysis performance assessment scheme proficiency tests assuring reliability of analytical performance. Vitamin $B_1$, $B_2$, and $B_3$ contents were analyzed in a total of 31 samples. Vitamin $B_1$, $B_2$, and $B_3$ contents ranged from 0.000 to 0.973 mg/100 g, from 0.037 to 0.264 mg/100 g, and from 0.000 to 1.223 mg/100 g in Korean traditional holiday foods, respectively. The highest contents of vitamins $B_1$, $B_2$, and $B_3$ were 0.973 mg/100 g in Yukwon-jeon, 0.264 mg/100 g in Dongtae-jeon, and 1.223 mg/100 g in Yukwon-jeon sample, respectively. However, compared to vitamins $B_2$ and $B_3$, vitamin $B_1$ was not detected, generally. Therefore, these results can be used as basic data for a food composition table and improvement of national health for Koreans.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.226-233
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the adaptation of lithium disilicate crowns fabricated by CAD-CAM (computer aided design-computer aided manufacturing) and heat-press technique to compare two different measurement methods in assessing fit of the ceramic crowns: micro CT and cross-section technique. Materials and methods: A prepared typodont mandibular molar for ceramic crown was duplicated and ten dies were produced by milling the PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) resin. Ten vinyl polysiloxane impressions were made and stone casts were produced. Five dies were used for IPS e.max Press crowns with heat-press technique. The other five dies were used for IPS e.max CAD crowns with CAD-CAM technique. Ten lithium disilicate crowns were cemented on the resin dies using zinc phosphate cement with finger pressure. The marginal and internal fits in central buccolingual plane were evaluated using a micro CT. Then the specimens were embedded and cross-sectioned and the marginal and internal fits were measured using scanning electronic microscope. The two measurement methods and two manufacturing methods were compared using Mann-Whitney U test (SPSS 22.0). Results: The marginal and internal fit values using micro CT and cross-section technique were similar, showing no significant differences. There were no significant differences in adaptation between lithium disilicate crowns fabricated with CAD-CAM and heat-press technique. Conclusion: Both micro CT and cross-section technique were acceptable methods in the evaluation of marginal and internal fit of lithium disilicate crown. There was no difference in adaptation between lithium disilicate crowns fabricated with CAD-CAM and heat-press technique except occlusal fit.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.48 no.7
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• pp.553-566
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• 2015

Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers(ADCPs) have capability to concurrently capitalize three-dimensional velocity vector and bathymetry with highly efficient and rapid manner, and thereby enabling ADCPs to document the hydrodynamic and morphologic data in very high spatial and temporal resolution better than other contemporary instruments. However, ADCPs are also limited in terms of the inevitable unmeasured regions near bottom, surface, and edges of a given cross-section. The velocity in those unmeasured regions are usually extrapolated or assumed for calculating flow discharge, which definitely affects the accuracy in the discharge assessment. This study aimed at scrutinizing a conventional extrapolation method(i.e., the 1/6 power law) for estimating the unmeasured regions to figure out the accuracy in ADCP discharge measurements. For the comparative analysis, we collected spatially dense velocity data using ADV as well as stationary ADCP in a real-scale straight river channel, and applied the 1/6 power law for testing its applicability in conjunction with the logarithmic law which is another representative velocity law. As results, the logarithmic law fitted better with actual velocity measurement than the 1/6 power law. In particular, the 1/6 power law showed a tendency to underestimate the velocity in the near surface region and overestimate in the near bottom region. This finding indicated that the 1/6 power law could be unsatisfactory to follow actual flow regime, thus that resulted discharge estimates in both unmeasured top and bottom region can give rise to discharge bias. Therefore, the logarithmic law should be considered as an alternative especially for the stationary ADCP discharge measurement. In addition, it was found that ADCP should be operated in at least more than 0.6 m of water depth in the left and right edges for better estimate edge discharges. In the future, similar comparative analysis might be required for the moving boat ADCP discharge measurement method, which has been more widely used in the field.