• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.64-68
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• 2005

Purpose : Renal abscess is very rare in children and its diagnosis is difficult because symptoms are often nonspecific. In previous studies, on]y 15% to 25% of patients were reported to be diagnosed at the time of admission. Early diagnosis and treatment are important be cause mortality rate correlates positively with the time of diagnosis. The purpose of this study is to clarify the clinical features of children with renal abscess and to investigate the possible indicators of this disease for early diagnosis and Proper treatment. Methods : Twelve children diagnosed with renal abscess from Jan. 1996 to Jul. 2004 were included. The age of patients ranged from S months to 15 years. We retrospectively analyzed the demographics of patients, their symptoms, predisposing factors, diagnostic methods and causative organisms and the treatment modalities. Results : Fever was the most common manifestation, Five children(42%) had vesicoureteral reflux. Renal ultrasonography and computerized tornography were the most frequently used imaging tools to detect renal abscess. Gram negative bacteria were isolated in 7 patients and Staphylococcus aureus grew in 2 patients. All patients received intravenous antibiotics and 4 patients underwent aspiration or drainage of renal abscess. The average admission duration was 30 days. Conclusion : Renal abscess should be included in the differential diagnosis of prolonged fever in children, especially when flank pain is combined. For early diagnosis and a better prognosis, patients should be promptly investigated with ultrasonography or computerized tomography.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.1317-1324
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• 2013

High-molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) have been shown to play a crucial role in determining the processing properties of the wheat grain. We have produced marker-free transgenic rice plants containing a wheat Glu-1Bx7 gene encoding the HMG-GS from the Korean wheat cultivar 'Jokyeong' using the Agrobacterium-mediated co-transformation method. The Glu-1Bx7-own promoter was inserted into a binary vector for seed-specific expression of the Glu-1Bx7 gene. Two expression cassettes comprised of separate DNA fragments containing only Glu-1Bx7 and hygromycin phosphotransferase II (HPTII) resistance genes were introduced separately to the Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA105 strain for co-infection. Each EHA105 strain harboring Glu-1Bx7 or HPTII was infected to rice calli at a 3:1 ratio of Glu-1Bx7 and HPTII, respectively. Then, among 216 hygromycin-resistant $T_0$ plants, we obtained 24 transgenic lines with both Glu-1Bx7 and HPTII genes inserted into the rice genome. We reconfirmed integration of the Glu-1Bx7 gene into the rice genome by Southern blot analysis. Transcripts and proteins of the wheat Glu-1Bx7 were stably expressed in the rice $T_1$ seeds. Finally, the marker-free plants harboring only the Glu-1Bx7 gene were successfully screened at the $T_1$ generation.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2007

Purpose : Menkes disease is an X-linked recessively inherited disorder caused by the mutation of the ATP7A gene encoding copper-transporting P-type AT Pase. The phenotypic features are progressive neurological degeneration, mental retardation, loose skin, and vascular complications. Early diagnosis and treatment are very important for the prognosis of Menkes disease. Here, we describe nov el mutations of the ATP7A gene and prenatal diagnosis by mutation analysis. Methods : Five unrelated Korean Menkes patients were included in this study. They presented with depigmented wool-like hair, progressive neurologic deterioration, and hypotonia in infancy. Serum copper and ceruloplasmin levels w ere decreased. Brain magnetic resonance imaging revealed tortuous intracranial vessels. Mutation analysis has been carried out using cDNA from cultured skin fibroblasts or genomic DNA from peripheral leukocytes. Prenatal diagnosis was performed in two cases using chorionic villi samples or amniocytes. Results : Four novel mutations have been identified from four different families; c.3511+1G>A (p.E1099_N1171delinsMfsX 18), c.4005+5 G>A (p.V1268_R1335del), c.1870_2172del (p.S624_Q724del), and c.3352 G>A (p.G1118S). T he remaining one was previously reported (c.1933 C>T (p.V 1268_R1335del)). On prenatal DNA analysis, one w as diagnosed as normal, while the other turned out to be a female heterozygote with p.S624_Q724del mutation of the ATP7A gene. Conclusion : We identified 4 novel mutations of the ATP7A gene. Prenatal diagnosis in families at risk is critical in order to choose preventiv e options including an early treatment with copper-histidine therapy or therapeutic termination. Most mutations of the ATP7A gene were frame-shift mutations and prenatal diagnosis has been successfully carried out.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.64-71
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• 2007

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of rapid detection of Down syndrome and Edward syndrome by Interphase Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization (FISH) analysis. Methods : Aretrospective study in 309 cases of amniotic fluid samples, analysed by interphase FISH with DNA probes specific to chromosome 18 and 21, was performed. All FISH results w ere compared with conventional cytogenetic karyotypings. Results : The results were considered as informative and they were obtained within 48 hrs. A case of Down syndrome and a case of Edward syndrome were diagnosed by FISH and confirmed by subsequent cytogenetic analysis. In 12 cases with normal FISH results, the cytogenetic analysis showed a case of partial trisomy 22, three cases of sex chromosomal aneuploidy, two cases of mosaicism, two cases of microdeletion, and four cases of structural rearrangement. Conclusion : FISH is a rapid and effective diagnostic method, which can be used as an adjunctive test to cytogenetic analysis, for prenatal identification of chromosome aneuploidies. For the more genome-wide screening with variety of probes, the technique of FISH is both expensive and labor-intensive.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.21-39
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• 2013

As the utilization of information technology and the turbulence of technological change increase in organizations, the adoption of IT outsourcing also grows to manage IT resource more effectively and efficiently. In this new way of IT management technique, service level management(SLM) process becomes critical to derive success from the outsourcing in the view of end users in organization. Even though much of the research on service level management or agreement have been done during last decades, the performance of the service level management process have not been evaluated in terms of final objectives of the management efforts or success from the view of end-users. This study explores the relationship between SLM maturity and IT outsourcing success from the users' point of view by a analytical case study in four client organizations under an IT outsourcing vendor, which is a member company of a major Korean conglomerate. For setting up a model for the analysis, previous researches on service level management process maturity and information systems success are reviewed. In particular, information systems success from users' point of view are reviewed based the DeLone and McLean's study, which is argued and accepted as a comprehensively tested model of information systems success currently. The model proposed in this study argues that SLM process maturity influences information systems success, which is evaluated in terms of information quality, systems quality, service quality, and net effect proposed by DeLone and McLean. SLM process maturity can be measured in planning process, implementation process and operation and evaluation process. Instruments for measuring the factors in the proposed constructs of information systems success and SL management process maturity were collected from previous researches and evaluated for securing reliability and validity, utilizing appropriate statistical methods and pilot tests before exploring the case study. Four cases from four different companies under one vendor company were utilized for the analysis. All of the cases had been contracted in SLA(Service Level Agreement) and had implemented ITIL(IT Infrastructure Library), Six Sigma and BSC(Balanced Scored Card) methods since last several years, which means that all the client organizations pursued concerted efforts to acquire quality services from IT outsourcing from the organization and users' point of view. For comparing the differences among the four organizations in IT out-sourcing sucess, T-test and non-parametric analysis have been applied on the data set collected from the organization using survey instruments. The process maturities of planning and implementation phases of SLM are found not to influence on any dimensions of information systems success from users' point of view. It was found that the SLM maturity in the phase of operations and evaluation could influence systems quality only from users' view. This result seems to be quite against the arguments in IT outsourcing practices in the fields, which emphasize usually the importance of planning and implementation processes upfront in IT outsourcing projects. According to after-the-fact observation by an expert in an organization participating in the study, their needs and motivations for outsourcing contracts had been quite familiar already to the vendors as long-term partners under a same conglomerate, so that the maturity in the phases of planning and implementation seems not to be differentiating factors for the success of IT outsourcing. This study will be the foundation for the future research in the area of IT outsourcing management and success, in particular in the service level management. And also, it could guide managers in practice in IT outsourcing management to focus on service level management process in operation and evaluation stage especially for long-term outsourcing contracts under very unique context like Korean IT outsourcing projects. This study has some limitations in generalization because the sample size is small and the context itself is confined in an unique environment. For future exploration, survey based research could be designed and implemented.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.368-380
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• 1999

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the scintigraphic findings and diagnostic accuracy of double-phase Tc-99m sestamibi scan in primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism (HPT). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 16 cases of primary (18 lesions) and 11 cases of secondary HPT (44 lesions) who underwent Tc-99m-sestamibi scan before the surgical intervention. Scan was performed using LEM camera (Siemens, Germany) after the injection of 740MBq of Tc-99m sestamibi. Routine image consisted of baseline and 3-hour delayed images and each image was obtained using both parallel and pine hole collimator. The study population was 27 patients (male/female=5/22, age: $49.1{\pm}10.8$). Results: Eighteen lesions of primary HPT consisted of 13 adenomas and S hyperplasias, while all lesions of secondary HPT were hyperplasias. Among the case of primary HPT, we could detect all the lesions of 13 adenomas but only 2 lesions of 5 hyperplasias (40%) could be detected by double phase scintigraphy. Three cases of primary lesion showed decreased uptake in delayed images compared with baseline. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and accuracy of primary and secondary HPT were 58.8% (10/17), 83.3% (10/12), 83.3% (10/12), 75.9% (22/29), and 37.5% (15/40), 50% (2/4), 88.2% (15/17), 38.6% (17/44), respectively. Overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and accuracy were 43.9% (25/57), 75% (12/16), 86.2% (25/29), and 53.4% (39/73). There were no statistical difference between the weight of primary and secondary HPT lesion (p>0.05). Conclusion: Tc-99m sestamibi scan is fairly good modality to detect parathyroid lesion in patient with primary HPT before the surgical intervention. However, since some of cases may reveal decreased uptake in delayed image, a careful attention to the findings of baseline images may be helpful. Still the low accuracy of sestamibi scan in diagnosis of secondary HPT prohibits routine use of it for this disease.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2017

Pfiesteria piscicida is one of heterotrophic dinoflagellate having toxic metaboliges, and it is difficult to detect and quantify this dinoflagellate via light microscope due to small size and morphological similarity with Pfiesteria-like dinoflagellate (PLD) species. Alternatively, we developed quantitative real-time PCR assay based on EvaGreen and determined field accessibility throughout the investigation of distribution in the entire Korean coastal waters and population dynamics in Shihwa Lake. The P. piscicida-specific primers based on internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS 1) were designed and the specificity of primers was confirmed by PCR with other genomic DNAs which have genetic similarity with target species. Through real-time PCR assay, a standard curve which had a significant linear correlation between log cell number and $C_T$ value ($r^2{\geq}0.999$) and one informative melting peak ($88^{\circ}C$) were obtained. These results implies that developed real-time PCR can accurately detect and quantify P. piscicida. Throughout the field applications of real-time PCR assay, P. piscicida was distributed in western (Mokpo and Kimje) and easthern (Gangneng) Korean coastal water even though light microscopy failed to identify P. piscicida. In the investigation of population dynamics in Shihwa Lake, the density of P. piscicida was peaked in June, July and August 2007 at St. 1 where salinity (${\leq}15psu$) was lower than the other 2 sites. In this study, we successed to develop EvaGreen bassed real-time PCR for detection and quantification of P. piscicida in fields, so this developed assay will be useful for various ecological studies in the future.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.3 s.108
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• pp.332-343
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• 2004

This study was conducted to test a possibility of water quality improvement using a filter-feeding bivalve (Corbicula leana). In mesocosm scale (width ${\times}$ length ${\times}$ depth: 3 m ${\times}$ 3 m ${\times}$ 0.5 m), we investigated the changes of dissolved nutrient and particulate matter including both abiotic and biotic seston. Short term (16 days) mesocosm experiment was conducted in two stages: the first stage for 8 days and consecutive 8 days of the second stage. Both treatment and control mesocosm were switched over by translocating mussels from the treatment mesocosm to the control, at 8th days since the start of the experiment. This design made it possible to compare mussel effect on the water quality change more clearly. The high mortality of mussel was observed in the treatment of the first stage, but it decreased rapidly and stabilized on the 8th day to less than< 4 ind $day^{-1}$. Chl. a concentration in the treatment mesocosm of the first and second stage decreased to 71 and 88% of initial concentration, respectively, and suspended solids decreased to 70 and 77%. At those times, average filtering rate were 0.46 and 0.61 mL AFDW $mg^{-1}$ $hr^{-1}$, respectively. Both $NH_3-N$ and dissolved total phosphorus (DTP) concentrations increased with the mussel mortality. $NH_3-N$ concentration was positively correlated with the mussel mortality, while DTP concentration showed negative correlation with it. After translocating mussel from the treatment to the control, $NH_3-N$ concentration significantly increased compared with that of initial control. Although DTP concentration also increased, there was no significant difference relative to that of initial control. These results suggest that application of this filter-feeding bivalve in a eutrophic reservoir could be a potential tool to improve water quality if mussels could acclimatize successfully in early stage of the introduction.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of preschoolers' giftedness by their parents' perception. Total 3 groups of 148 subjects from age 30 months to 6 years 10 months old young gifted children's parents participated. The major findings were as follows : (1) There were critical characteristics of preschoolers' giftedness by parents' perception, which were 'good memory', 'high curiosity', 'read and understand of math', 'enjoy of learning and high motivation', 'high concentration', reading books', 'verbal ability', 'creativity', 'questions', and 'independency', (2) These characteristics of preschoolers' giftedness showed more strong and intense as they got older, and (3) Some characteristics revealed more, but the other characteristics revealed less as they got older. These findings suggested the consideration of child's age as the reliable identification process of young gifted children.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.93-105
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• 2015

This study was performed to analyze genetic relationships of the four major cucurbitaceous crops including watermelon, melon, cucumber, and squash/pumpkin. Among 120 EST-SSR primer sets selected from the International Cucurbit Genomics Initiative (ICuGI) database, PCR was successful for 51 (49.17%) primer sets and 49 (40.8%) primer sets showed polymorphisms among eight Cucurbitaceae accessions. A total of 382 allele-specific PCR bands were produced by 49 EST-SSR primers from 24 Cucurbitaceae accessions and used for analysis of pairwise similarity and dendrogram construction. Assessment of the genetic relationships resulted in similarity indexes ranging from 0.01 to 0.85. In the dendrogram, 24 Cucurbitaceae accessions were classified into two major groups (Clade I and II) and 8 subgroups. Clade I comprised two subgroups, Clade I-1 for watermelon accessions [I-1a and I-1b-2: three wild-type watermelons (Citrullus lanatus var. citroides Mats. & Nakai), I-1b-1: six watermelon cultivars (Citrullus lanatus var. vulgaris S chrad.)] a nd C lade I -2 for melon and cucumber accessions [I-2a-1 : 4 melon cultivars(Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis Naudin.), I-2a-2: oriental melon cultivars (Cucumis melo var. conomon Makino.), and I-2b: five cucumber cultivars (Cucumis sativus L.)]. Squash and pumpkin accessions composed Clade II {II-1: two squash/ pumpkin cultivars [Cucurbita moschata (Duch. ex Lam.)/Duch. & Poir. and Cucurbita maxima Duch.] and II-2: two squash/pumpkin cultivars, Cucurbita pepo L./Cucurbita ficifolia Bouche.}. These results were in accordance with previously reported classification of Cucurbitaceae species, indicating that watermelon EST-SSRs show a high level of marker transferability and should be useful for genetic study in other cucurbit crops.