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The Variation of Natural Population of Pinus densiflora S. et Z. in Korea (V) -Characteristics of Needle and Wood of Injye, Jeongsun, Samchuk Populations- (소나무 천연집단(天然集團)의 변이(變異)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究)(V) -인제(麟蹄), 정선(旌善), 삼척집단(三陟集團)의 침엽(針葉) 및 재질형질(材質形質)-)

  • Yim, Kyong Bin;Kwon, Ki Won;Lee, Kyong Jae
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.9-25
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    • 1977
  • As a successive work of the variation studies of natural Pinus densiflora stands, some characteristics of individual trees of the three natural populations selected from the Kwang-won Province, the middle-east part of Korean peninsula, as shown in the location map, were investigated. And the statiscal differences between individuals within population, and between populations were analysed. Twenty trees from each population were selected for this study purpose. Doing this, those trees lagged in growth, usually showing poorer form, were eliminated. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. Though the average population ages had the ranage between 50 and 63, the growth of height or diameter was similar. Population No.9 is, however, considered to have better tree forms at glance. Population No.8 showed the heighest value not only in the clear-stem-length ratio. 0.53 but also in the crown-index 0.91. The higher value can be result from those trees having long lateral branches and relatively short crown height, meaning undesirable crown shape. In regard to the fine branchedness and the acuteness of branching angle, the population No.9. is considered to be a better one, whereas there was almost no difference in crown height among populations. 2. Checking the frequency distributions of the ratio of the clear-stem-height to the total height and the crown-indices, some difference between populations are considered. These might be attributed to the previous way of stand mangement which alters the density. 3. In the serration density, the average number of 54 per 1cm needle length, the significant differences exist between individual trees within population but not between populations. A few trees which extremly high serration density were observed. As in serration, so tendencies were in the number of stomata row and resin duct. 4. The population 8 had the resin duct index value of 0.074 as the highest which was twice or triple of the other ones. 5. The patterns of increasing process of the average 10-year-ring-segment were not similar till the 30 years of age, but beyond this, the tendency lines were aggregated. 6. Regading the average summer wood ratio, no diffrence between populations, but in the ranges, i.e. 23 to 30 in population No.8. and 16 to 36 in population No.9., with regad to the specific gravity of wood, there were hardly observed any difference between populations even in the ranges values. As the increase of tree ages, the increase of specific gravity was followed but the increasing patterns were not similar between populations. 7. No significant differences between populations in the average tracheid length and the range were detected. However, the length was increased according to the age increase. The increasing pattern was same between populations.

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Assessment of Estimated Daily Intakes of Artificial Sweeteners from Non-alcoholic Beverages in Children and Adolescents (어린이와 청소년의 비알콜성음료 섭취에 따른 인공감미료 섭취량 평가)

  • Kim, Sung-Dan;Moon, Hyun-Kyung;Lee, Jib-Ho;Chang, Min-Su;Shin, Young;Jung, Sun-Ok;Yun, Eun-Sun;Jo, Han-Bin;Kim, Jung-Hun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.43 no.8
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    • pp.1304-1316
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    • 2014
  • The aims of this study were to estimate daily intakes of artificial sweeteners from beverages and liquid teas as well as evaluate their potential health risks in Korean children and adolescents (1 to 19 years old). Dietary intake assessment was conducted using actual levels of aspartame, acesulfame-K, and sucralose in non-alcoholic beverages (651 beverages and 87 liquid teas), and food consumption amounts were drawn from "The Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007~2009)". To estimate dietary intake of non-alcoholic beverages, a total of 6,082 children and adolescents (Scenario I) were compared to 1,704 non-alcoholic beverage consumption subjects (Scenario II). The estimated daily intake of artificial sweeteners was calculated based on point estimates and probabilistic estimates. The values of probabilistic artificial sweeteners intakes were presented by a Monte Carlo approach considering probabilistic density functions of variables. The level of safety for artificial sweeteners was evaluated by comparisons with acceptable daily intakes (ADI) of aspartame (0~40 mg/kg bw/day), acesulfame-K (0~15 mg/kg bw/day), and sucralose (0~15 mg/kg bw/day) set by the World Health Organization. For total children and adolescents (Scenario I), mean daily intakes of aspartame, acesulfame-K, and sucralose estimated by probabilistic estimates using Monte Carlo simulation were 0.09, 0.01, and 0.04 mg/kg bw/day, respectively, and 95th percentile daily intakes were 0.30, 0.02, and 0.13 mg/kg bw/day, respectively. For consumers-only (Scenario II), mean daily intakes of aspartame, acesulfame-K, and sucralose estimated by probabilistic estimates using Monte Carlo simulation were 0.52, 0.03, and 0.22 mg/kg bw/day, respectively, and 95th percentile daily intakes were 1.80, 0.12, and 0.75 mg/kg bw/day, respectively. For scenarios I and II, neither aspartame, acesulfame-K, nor sucralose had a mean and 95th percentile intake that exceeded 5.06% of ADI.

A Study on Improvement on National Legislation for Sustainable Progress of Space Development Project (우주개발사업의 지속발전을 위한 국내입법의 개선방향에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Kang-Bin
    • The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.97-158
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    • 2010
  • The purpose of this paper is to research on the contents and improvement of national legislations relating to space development in Korea to make the sustainable progress of space development project in Korea. Korea has launched its first satellite KITST-1 in 1992. The National Space Committee has established "The Space Development Promotion Basic Plan" in 2007. The plan addressed the development of total 13 satellites by 2010 and the space launch vehicle by 2020, and the launch of moon exploration spaceship by 2021. Korea has built the space center at Oinarodo, Goheng Province in June 2009. In Korea the first small launch vehicle KSLV-1 was launched at the Naro Space Center in August 2009, and its second launch was made in June 2010. The United Nations has adopted five treaties relating to the development of outer space as follows : The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the Rescue and Return Agreement of 1968, the Liability Convention of 1972, the Registration Convention of 1974, and the Moon Treaty of 1979. All five treaties has come into force. Korea has ratified the Outer Space Treaty, the Rescue and Return Agreement, the Liability Convention and the Registration Convention excepting the Moon Treaty. Most of development countries have enacted the national legislation relating to the development of our space as follows : The National Aeronautic and Space Act of 1958 and the Commercial Space Act of 1998 in the United States, Outer Space Act of 1986 in England, Establishment Act of National Space Center of 1961 in France, Canadian Space Agency Act of 1990 in Canada, Space Basic Act of 2008 in Japan, and Law on Space Activity of 1993 in Russia. There are currently three national legislations relating to space development in Korea as follows : Aerospace Industry Development Promotion Act of 1987, Outer Space Development Promotion Act of 2005, Outer Space Damage Compensation Act of 2008. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea has announced the Full Amendment Draft of Aerospace Industry Development Promotion Act in December 2009, and it's main contents are as follows : (1) Changing the title of Act into Aerospace Industry Promotion Act, (2) Newly regulating the definition of air flight test place, etc., (3) Establishment of aerospace industry basic plan, establishment of aerospace industry committee, (4) Project for promoting aerospace industry, (5) Exploration development, international joint development, (6) Cooperative research development, (7) Mutual benefit project, (8) Project for furthering basis of aerospace industry, (9) Activating cluster of aerospace industry, (10) Designation of air flight test place, etc., (11) Abolishing the designation and assistance of specific enterprise, (12) Abolishing the inspection of performance and quality. The Outer Space Development Promotion Act should be revised with regard to the following matters : (1) Overlapping problem in legal system between the Outer Space Development Promotion Act and the Aerospace industry Development promotion Act, (2) Distribution and adjustment problem of the national research development budget for space development between National Space Committee and National Science Technology Committee, (3) Consideration and preservation of environment in space development, (4) Taking the legal action and maintaining the legal system for policy and regulation relating to space development. The Outer Space Damage Compensation Act should be revised with regard to the following matters : (1) Definition of space damage and indirect damage, (2) Currency unit of limit of compensation liability, (3) Joint liability and compensation claim right of launching person of space object, (4) Establishment of Space Damage Compensation Council. In Korea, it will be possible to make a space tourism in 2013, and it is planned to introduce and operate a manned spaceship in 2013. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the policy relating to the promotion of commercial space transportation industry. Also it is necessary to make the proper maintenance of the current Aviation Law and space development-related laws and regulations for the promotion of space transportation industry in Korea.

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A Study on Differences of Contents and Tones of Arguments among Newspapers Using Text Mining Analysis (텍스트 마이닝을 활용한 신문사에 따른 내용 및 논조 차이점 분석)

  • Kam, Miah;Song, Min
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.53-77
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    • 2012
  • This study analyses the difference of contents and tones of arguments among three Korean major newspapers, the Kyunghyang Shinmoon, the HanKyoreh, and the Dong-A Ilbo. It is commonly accepted that newspapers in Korea explicitly deliver their own tone of arguments when they talk about some sensitive issues and topics. It could be controversial if readers of newspapers read the news without being aware of the type of tones of arguments because the contents and the tones of arguments can affect readers easily. Thus it is very desirable to have a new tool that can inform the readers of what tone of argument a newspaper has. This study presents the results of clustering and classification techniques as part of text mining analysis. We focus on six main subjects such as Culture, Politics, International, Editorial-opinion, Eco-business and National issues in newspapers, and attempt to identify differences and similarities among the newspapers. The basic unit of text mining analysis is a paragraph of news articles. This study uses a keyword-network analysis tool and visualizes relationships among keywords to make it easier to see the differences. Newspaper articles were gathered from KINDS, the Korean integrated news database system. KINDS preserves news articles of the Kyunghyang Shinmun, the HanKyoreh and the Dong-A Ilbo and these are open to the public. This study used these three Korean major newspapers from KINDS. About 3,030 articles from 2008 to 2012 were used. International, national issues and politics sections were gathered with some specific issues. The International section was collected with the keyword of 'Nuclear weapon of North Korea.' The National issues section was collected with the keyword of '4-major-river.' The Politics section was collected with the keyword of 'Tonghap-Jinbo Dang.' All of the articles from April 2012 to May 2012 of Eco-business, Culture and Editorial-opinion sections were also collected. All of the collected data were handled and edited into paragraphs. We got rid of stop-words using the Lucene Korean Module. We calculated keyword co-occurrence counts from the paired co-occurrence list of keywords in a paragraph. We made a co-occurrence matrix from the list. Once the co-occurrence matrix was built, we used the Cosine coefficient matrix as input for PFNet(Pathfinder Network). In order to analyze these three newspapers and find out the significant keywords in each paper, we analyzed the list of 10 highest frequency keywords and keyword-networks of 20 highest ranking frequency keywords to closely examine the relationships and show the detailed network map among keywords. We used NodeXL software to visualize the PFNet. After drawing all the networks, we compared the results with the classification results. Classification was firstly handled to identify how the tone of argument of a newspaper is different from others. Then, to analyze tones of arguments, all the paragraphs were divided into two types of tones, Positive tone and Negative tone. To identify and classify all of the tones of paragraphs and articles we had collected, supervised learning technique was used. The Na$\ddot{i}$ve Bayesian classifier algorithm provided in the MALLET package was used to classify all the paragraphs in articles. After classification, Precision, Recall and F-value were used to evaluate the results of classification. Based on the results of this study, three subjects such as Culture, Eco-business and Politics showed some differences in contents and tones of arguments among these three newspapers. In addition, for the National issues, tones of arguments on 4-major-rivers project were different from each other. It seems three newspapers have their own specific tone of argument in those sections. And keyword-networks showed different shapes with each other in the same period in the same section. It means that frequently appeared keywords in articles are different and their contents are comprised with different keywords. And the Positive-Negative classification showed the possibility of classifying newspapers' tones of arguments compared to others. These results indicate that the approach in this study is promising to be extended as a new tool to identify the different tones of arguments of newspapers.

Breeding and Development of the Tscherskia triton in Jeju Island (제주도 서식 비단털쥐(Tscherskia triton)의 번식과 발달)

  • Park, Jun-Ho;Oh, Hong-Shik
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.31 no.2
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    • pp.152-165
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    • 2017
  • The greater long-tail hamster, Tscherskia triton, is widely distributed in Northern China, Korea and adjacent areas of Russia. Except for its distribution, biological characteristics related to life history, behavior, and ecological influences for this species are rarely studied in Korea. This study was conducted to obtain biological information on breeding, growth and development that are basic to species-specific studies. The study adopted laboratory management of a breeding programme for T. triton collected in Jeju Island from March, 2015 to December, 2016. According to the study results, the conception rate was 31.67% and the mice in the large cages had a higher rate of conception than those in the small cages (56.7 vs. 6.7%). The gestation period was $22{\pm}1.6days$ (ranges from 21 to27 days), and litter size ranged from 2 to 7, with a mean of $4.26{\pm}1.37$ in the species. The minimum age for weaning was between $19.2{\pm}1.4days$ (range of 18-21 days). There were no significant differences by sex between mean body weight and external body measurements at birth. However, a significant sexual difference was found from the period of weaning (21 days old) in head and body length, as well as tail length (HBL-weaning, $106.50{\pm}6.02$ vs. $113.34{\pm}4.72mm$, p<0.05; HBL-4 months, $163.93{\pm}5.42$ vs. $182.83{\pm}4.32mm$, p<0.05; TL-4 months, $107.23{\pm}3.25$ vs. $93.95{\pm}2.15mm$, p<0.05). Gompertz and Logistic growth curves were fitted to data for body weight and lengths of head and body, tail, ear, and hind foot. In two types of growth curves, males exhibited greater asymptotic values ($164.840{\pm}7.453$ vs. $182.830{\pm}4.319mm$, p<0.0001; $163.936{\pm}5.415$ vs. $182.840{\pm}4.333mm$, p<0.0001), faster maximum growth rates ($1.351{\pm}0.065$ vs. $1.435{\pm}0.085$, p<0.05; $2.870{\pm}0.253$ vs. $3.211{\pm}0.635$, p<0.05), and a later age of maximum growth than females in head and body length ($5.121{\pm}0.318$ vs. $5.520{\pm}0.333$, p<0.05; $6.884{\pm}0.336$ vs. $7.503{\pm}0.453$, p<0.05). However, females exhibited greater asymptotic values ($105.695{\pm}5.938$ vs. $94.150{\pm}2.507mm$, p<0.001; $111.609{\pm}14.881$ vs. $93.960{\pm}2.150mm$, p<0.05) and longer length of inflection ($60.306{\pm}1.992$ vs. $67.859{\pm}1.330mm$, p<0.0001; $55.714{\pm}7.458$ vs. $46.975{\pm}1.074mm$, p<0.05) than males in tail length. These growth rate constants, viz. the morphological characters and weights of the males and females, were similar to each other in two types of growth curves. These results will be used as necessary data to study species specificity of T. triton with biological foundations.

Policy Direction for The Farmland Sizing Suitable to Regional Trait (지역특성을 반영한 영농규모화사업의 발전방향-충남지역을 중심으로-)

  • Shim, Jae-Sung
    • The Journal of Natural Sciences
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.83-121
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    • 2004
  • This study was carried out to examine how solid the production foundation of rice in Chung-Nam Province is, and, if not, to probe alternative measures through the size of farms specializing in rice, of which direction would be a pivot of rice industry-oriented policy. The results obtained can be summarized as follows : 1. The amount of rice production in Chung-Nam Province is highest in Korea and the size of paddy field area is the second largest : This implying that the probability that rice production in Chung-Nam Province would be severely influenced by a global trend of market conditions. The number of farms specializing in rice becoming the core group of rice farming account for 7.7 percent of the total number of farm household in Korea. Average field area financial support which had been input to farm household by Government had a noticeable effect on the improvement of the policy of farm-size program. 2. Farm-size program in Chung-Nam Province established from 1980 to 2002 in creased the cultivation size of paddy field to 19,484 hectares, and this program enhanced the buying and selling of farmland and the number of farmland bargain reached 6,431 household and 16,517 hectares, respectively, in 1995-2002. Meanwhile, long-term letting and hiring of farmland appeared so active that the bargain acreage reached 6,970 hectares, and farm involved was 7,059 households, however, the farm-exchange-and-unity program did not satisfy our expectation, because the retirement farm operators reluctantly participated to sell their farms. Another reason that had delayed the bargain of farms rested on the general category of social complication attendant upon the exchange and unity operation for scattered farm. Such difficulties would work negative effects out to carry on the target of farm-size work in general. 3. The following measures were presented to propel the farm-size promotion program : a. Occupation shift project, followed by the social security program for retirement and elderly farm operators, should be promptly established and also a number of types of incentives for promoting the letting and hiring work and farm-exchange-and-unity program would also be set up. b. To establish the effective key system of rice production, all the farm operators should increase the unit area yield of rice and lower the production cost. To do so, a great deal of production teams of rice equipped with managerial techniques and capabilities need to be organized. And, also, there should be appropriate arrays of facilities including information system. This plan is desirable to be in line with a diversity of the structural implement of regional integration based on farm system building. c. To extend the size of farm and to improve farm management, we have to devise the enlargement of individual size of farm for maximized management and the utilization of farm-size grouping method. In conclusion, it can be said that the farm-size project in Chung-Nam Province which has continued since the 1980s was satisfactorily achieved. However, we still have a lot of problems to be solved to break down the barrier for attainment of the desirable farm-size operation work.. Farm-size project has fairly close relation with farm specialization in rice and, thus, the positive support for farm household including the integrated program for both retirement farmers and off-farm operators should be considered to pursue the progressive development of the farm-size program, which is key means to successful achievement of rice farming enforcement in Chung-Nam Province.

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A Study on Relationship between Degree of Stress and Dyspepsia, Sleeping, Satisfaction of Adult Women in Rural Area (성인 여성들의 스트레스와 소화불량 및 수면장애와의 관련성)

  • Kim, Yeong-Hee;Cho, Soo-Yeul;Kang, Pock-Soo;Lee, Kyeong-Soo;Kim, Seok-Beom;Kim, Sang-Kyu;Kang, Young-Ah;Hwang, Young-Lork
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.25 no.1
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    • pp.51-63
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    • 2000
  • Ten Dongs were selected according to the systematic cluster sampling in Koryong Gun, and the survey was conducted on 571 women in the age between 30-69 years. The first survey was performed for 6 days between August 27 to September 1, 1999 with the investigation rate of 60.3%, and the second survey was performed in November with the investigation rate of 91.8%. The contents of survey included demographic characteristics, health behaviors, dyspepsia symptom score, sleeping induction time and the degree of sleep satisfaction, and degree of stress in the subjects. The dyspepsia symptom score was in the average 13.4 points out of a total 44 points and was the highest in the 50-59 year-old age group with 13.9 points. The sleep induction time was in the average of 35 minutes and was the highest in the 50-59 year-old age group with 40.9 minutes; the degree of sleep satisfaction was in the average of 7.9 points and was the lowest in the 50-59 year-old age group with 7.5 points. The stress score was in the average of 18.3 points and was highest in those subjects in their 40's and 50's with 18.7 points. When the correlation among the stress score, the degree of sleep satisfaction and dyspepsia symptom score was analyzed, the results showed that he stress score and the degree of sleep satisfaction showed a significant negative correlation and that the stress score and dyspepsia symptom score showed a significant positive correlation. Also, a significant negative correlation was found between the degree of sleep satisfaction and dyspepsia symptom score. According to each age group, a significant correlation was revealed among the stress score, dyspepsia symptom score and the degree of sleep satisfaction in those subjects over 40 years of age compared to those subjects who were younger than 40 years of age. As for educational level, the correlation among the stress score, the degree of sleep satisfaction and dyspepsia symptom score was higher in those subjects with less than middle school education compared to those subjects with more than high school education. When those factors that effects on the dyspepsia symptom score were analyzed with multiple regression, the results showed that the level of stress and chronic diseases were selected as significant variables. When those factors that affected on the degree of sleep satisfaction were analyzed, the sleep induction time and presence of chronic diseases and stress were selected as significant variables. Those women in their 50's who live in rural areas showed the highest level of stress, lowest the degree of sleep satisfaction, and highest level of dyspepsia, indicating that they need stress management. Also, since stress was showed to be a significant variable effecting on dyspepsia or the degree of sleep satisfaction, it is concluded that health promotion is possible through stress management. More studies are needed in the future on coping resources that would strengthen coping against stress, and by conducting studies on stress and related factors on community people, the measures of mental health promotion need to be developed.

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Crystal Structures of Dehydrated Partially $Sr^{2+}$-Exchanged Zeolite X, $Sr_{31}K_{30}Si_{100}A1_{92}O_{384}\;and\;Sr_{8.5}TI_{75}Si_{100}AI_{92}O_{384}$ (부분적으로 스트론튬이온으로 교환되고 탈수된, 제올라이트 X의 결정구조)

  • Kim Mi Jung;Kim Yang;Seff Karl
    • Korean Journal of Crystallography
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.6-14
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    • 1997
  • The crystal structures of $Sr_{31}K_{30}-X\;(Sr_{31}K_{30}Si_{100}A1_{92}O_{384};\;a=25.169(5) {\AA}$) and $Sr_{8.5}Tl_{75}-X (Sr_{8.5}Tl_{75}Si_{100}A1_{92}O_{384};\;a=25.041(5) {\AA}$) have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques in the cubic space group $\=F{d3}\;at\;21(1)^{\circ}C$. Each crystal was prepared by ion exchange in a flowing stream of aqueous $Sr(ClO_4)_2\;and\;(K\;or\;T1)NO_3$ whose mole ratio was 1 : 5 for five days. Vacuum dehydration was done at $360^{\circ}C$ for 2d. Their structures were refined to the final error indices $R_1=0.072\;and\;R_w=0.057$ with 293 reflections, and $R_1= 0.058\;and\;R_w=0.044$ with 351 reflections, for which $I>2{\sigma}(I)$, respectively. In dehydrated $Sr_{31}K_{30}-X,\;all\;Sr^{2+}$ ions and $K^+$ ions are located at five different crystallographic sites. Six-teen $Sr^{2+}$ ions per unit cell are at the centers of the double six-rings (site I), filling that position. The remaining 15 $Sr^{2+}$ ions and 17 $K^+$ ions fill site II in the supercage. These $Sr^{2+}$ and $K^+$ ions are recessed ca $0.45{\AA}\;and\;1.06{\AA}$ into the supercage, respectively, from the plane of three oxygens to which each is bound. ($Sr-O=2.45(1){\AA}\;and\;K-O=2.64(1){\AA}$) Eight $K^+$ ons occupy site III'($K-O=3.09(7){\AA}\;and\;3.11(10){\AA}$) and the remaining five $K^+$ ions occupy another site III'($K-O=2.88(7){\AA}\;and\;2.76(7){\AA}$). In $Sr_{8.5}Tl_{75}-X,\;Sr^{2+}\;and\;Tl^+$ ions also occupy five different crystallographic sites. About 8.5 $Sr^{2+}$ ions are at site I. Fifteen $Tl^+$ ions are at site I' in the sodalite cavities on threefold axes opposite double six-rings: each is $1.68{\AA}$ from the plane of its three oxygens ($T1-O=2.70(2){\AA}$). Together these fill the double six-rings. Another 32 $Tl^+$ ions fill site II opposite single six-rings in the supercage, each being $1.48{\AA}$ from the plane of three oxygens ($T1-O=2.70(1){\AA}$). About 18 $Tl^+$ ions occupy site III in the supercage ($T1-O=2.86(2){\AA}$), and the remaining 10 are found at site III' in the supercage ($T1-O=2.96(4){\AA}$).

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Plasma Activity of Lysosomal Enzymes in Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis (활동성 폐결핵 환자에서 혈중 리소솜 효소의 활성도)

  • Koh, Youn-Suck;Choi, Jeong-Eun;Kim, Mi-Kyung;Lim, Chae-Man;Kim, Woo-Sung;Chi, Hyun-Sook;Kim, Won-Dong
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.42 no.5
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    • pp.646-653
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    • 1995
  • Background: The confirmative diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis(Tb) can be made by the isolation of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis(MTb) in the culture of the sputum, respiratory secretions or tissues of the patients, but positive result could not always be obtained in pulmonary Tb cases. Although there are many indirect ways of the diagnosis of Tb, clinicians still experience the difficulty in the diagnosis of Tb because each method has its own limitation. Therefore development of a new diagnostic tool is clinically urgent. It was reported that silica cause some lysosomal enzymes to be released from macrophages in vitro and one of these enzymes is elevated in workers exposed to silica dust and in silicotic subjects. In pulmonary Tb, alveolar macrophages are known to be activated after ingestion of MTb. Activated macrophages can kill MTb through oxygen free radical species and digestive enzymes of lysosome. But if macrophages allow the bacilli to grow intracellularly, the macrophages will die finally and local lesion will enlarge. Then it is assumed that the lysosomal enzymes would be released from the dead macrophages. The goal of this investigation was to determine if there are differences in the plasma activities of lysosomal enzymes, ($\beta$-glucuronidase(GLU) and $\beta$-N-acetyl glucosaminidase(NAG), among the groups of active and inactive pulmonary Tb and healthy control, and to see if there is any possibility that the plasma activity of GLU and NAG can be used as diagnostic indicies of active pulmonary Tb. Methods: The plasma were obtained from 20 patients with bacteriologically proven active pulmonary Tb, 15 persons with inactive Tb and 20 normal controls. In 10 patients with active pulmonary Tb, serial samples after 2 months of anti-Tb medications were obtained. Plasma GLU and NAG activities were measured by the fluorometric methods using 4-methylumbelliferyl substrates. All data are expressed as the mean $\pm$ the standard error of the mean. Results: The activites of GLU and NAG in plasma of the patients with active Tb were $21.52{\pm}3.01$ and $325.4{\pm}23.37$(nmol product/h/ml of plasma), respectively. Those of inactive pulmonary Tb were $24.87{\pm}3.78$, $362.36{\pm}33.92$ and those of healthy control were $25.45{\pm}4.05$, $324.44{\pm}28.66$(nmol product/h/ml of plasma), respectively. There were no significant differences in the plasma activities of both enzymes among 3 groups. The plasma activities of GLU at 2 months after anti-Tb medications were increased($42.18{\pm}5.94$ nmol product/h/ml of plasma) in the patients with active pulmonary Tb compared with that at the diagnosis of Tb(P-value <0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present investigation suggest that the measurement of the plasma activities of GLU and NAG in the patients with active pulmonary Tb could not be a useful method for the diagnosis of active Tb. Further investigation is necessary to define the reasons why the plasma activities of the GLU was increased in the patients with active pulmonary Tb after Tb therapy.

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Perspective of Bronchial Responsiveness According to an Inhaled Anti-inflammatory Treatment in Cough Asthma (기침형 천식에서 향염증 흡입제 치료 경과에 따른 기도과민성 변화에 대한 고찰)

  • Moon, Seung-Hyug;Ki, Shin-Young;Kim, Yong-Hoon;Park, Choon-Sik
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.45 no.5
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    • pp.1012-1021
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    • 1998
  • Background : It is known that airway inflammation is present in most patients with asthma, but the relationship between symptoms and the severity and nature of airway inflammation has not been established. Cough variant asthma is defined as an asthma in which the dominant symptom is cough, and the condition can be successfully treated with inhaled steroids. This study was performed to evaluate the time course of bronchial responsiveness according to an inhaled anti-inflammatory therapy and the factors which affect the resolution of bronchial responsiveness, and an efficacy of nedocromil to cough asthma. Method: A prospective study for the investigation of bronchial responsiveness according to an inhaled anti-inflammatory treatment in sixty-one cough asthmatics was performed. Twenty-three entered budesonide ($400{\mu}g{\times}2/day$), twenty-two entered nedocromil ($4mg{\times}2/day$) and sixteen patients entered combined group. The bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) was estimated by methacholine challenge test using counted breath method. The symptom was estimated by 'symptom score'. Reevaluation of BHR and symptom was performed at 2 month after treatment, and if BHR was not resoluted at this time, regarded as a non-responder, and then follow-up of BHR and symptom was performed at 4- and/or 6 month after treatment. Results: The improvement of BHR and symptom was significant in 2 month (p<0.05), but there was no change of them during follow-up period of 4- and/or 6 month in non-responders. In comparison of allergic markers such as serum total IgE, peripheral eosinophil count and skin test reactivity between responders and non-responders, there was no difference in each other. However, in comparison of other factors such as cumulative pack-years, symptom duration, age, gender, and the initial degree of PC20, there was a significant difference in each other(p<0.05). The percent of patients with the resolution of BHR in 2 month was not different in each group(p=0.95). There was no significant difference in the degree of improvement of BHR and symptom in each group. Conclusion: Bronchial responsiveness and symptom was not significantly improved in non-responders during follow-up period of 4- and/or 6 month. The effect of inhaled nedocromil was equivalent to that of inhaled steroid in cough asthmatics, and the response to combined treatment is not superior to that achieved by either of these agents used alone.

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