• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2008

Purpose: Pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (PPG), which retains pyloric ring and gastric function, has been accepted as a function-preserving procedure for early gastric cancer for the prevention of postgastrectomy syndrome. This study was compared laparoscopy-assisted pylorus-preerving gastrectomy (LAPPG) with laparoscopy-assisted distal gastrectomy with Billroth-I reconstruction (LADGB I). Materials and Methods: Between November 2006 and September 2007, 39 patients with early gastric cancer underwent laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy in the Department of Surgery at Korea Cancer Center Hospital. 9 of these patients underwent LAPPG and 18 underwent LADGBI. When LAPPG was underwent, we preserved the pyloric branch, hepatic branch, and celiac branch of the vagus nerve, the infrapyloric artery, and the right gastric artery and performed D1+$\beta$ lymphadenectomy to the exclusion of suprapyloric lymph node dissection. The distal stomach was resected while retaining a $2.5{\sim}3.0\;cm$ pyloric cuff and maintaining a $3.0{\sim}4.0\;cm$ distal margin for the resection. Results: The mean age for patients who underwent LAPPG and LADGBI were $59.9{\pm}9.4$ year-old and $64.1{\pm}10.0$ year-old, respectively. The sex ratio was 1.3 : 1.0 (male 5, female 4) in the LAPPG group and 2.6 : 1.0 (male 13, female 5) in the LADGBI group. Mean total number of dissected lymph nodes ($28.3{\pm}11.9$ versus $28.1{\pm}8.9$), operation time ($269.0{\pm}34.4$ versus $236.3{\pm}39.6$ minutes), estimated blood loss ($191.1{\pm}85.7$ versus $218.3{\pm}150.6\;ml$), time to first flatus ($3.6{\pm}0.9$ versus $3.5{\pm}0.8$ days), time to start of diet ($5.1{\pm}0.9$ versus $5.1{\pm}1.7$ days), and postoperative hospital stay ($10.1{\pm}4.0$ versus $9.2{\pm}3.0$ days) were not found significant differences (P>0.05). The postoperative complications were 1 patient with gastric stasis and 1 patient with wound seroma in LAPPG group and 1 patient with left lateral segment infarct of liver in the LADGB I group. Conclusion: Patients treated by LAPPG showed a comparable quality of surgical operation compared with those treated by LADGBI. LAPPG has an important role in the surgical management of early gastric cancer in terms of quality of postoperative life. Randomized controlled studies should be undertaken to analyze the optimal survival and long-term outcomes of this operative procedure.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.85-109
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• 2018

Recommender system recommends the items expected to be purchased by a customer in the future according to his or her previous purchase behaviors. It has been served as a tool for realizing one-to-one personalization for an e-commerce service company. Traditional recommender systems, especially the recommender systems based on collaborative filtering (CF), which is the most popular recommendation algorithm in both academy and industry, are designed to generate the items list for recommendation by using 'overall rating' - a single criterion. However, it has critical limitations in understanding the customers' preferences in detail. Recently, to mitigate these limitations, some leading e-commerce companies have begun to get feedback from their customers in a form of 'multicritera ratings'. Multicriteria ratings enable the companies to understand their customers' preferences from the multidimensional viewpoints. Moreover, it is easy to handle and analyze the multidimensional ratings because they are quantitative. But, the recommendation using multicritera ratings also has limitation that it may omit detail information on a user's preference because it only considers three-to-five predetermined criteria in most cases. Under this background, this study proposes a novel hybrid recommendation system, which selectively uses the results from 'traditional CF' and 'CF using multicriteria ratings'. Our proposed system is based on the premise that some people have holistic preference scheme, whereas others have composite preference scheme. Thus, our system is designed to use traditional CF using overall rating for the users with holistic preference, and to use CF using multicriteria ratings for the users with composite preference. To validate the usefulness of the proposed system, we applied it to a real-world dataset regarding the recommendation for POI (point-of-interests). Providing personalized POI recommendation is getting more attentions as the popularity of the location-based services such as Yelp and Foursquare increases. The dataset was collected from university students via a Web-based online survey system. Using the survey system, we collected the overall ratings as well as the ratings for each criterion for 48 POIs that are located near K university in Seoul, South Korea. The criteria include 'food or taste', 'price' and 'service or mood'. As a result, we obtain 2,878 valid ratings from 112 users. Among 48 items, 38 items (80%) are used as training dataset, and the remaining 10 items (20%) are used as validation dataset. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed system (i.e. hybrid selective model), we compared its performance to the performances of two comparison models - the traditional CF and the CF with multicriteria ratings. The performances of recommender systems were evaluated by using two metrics - average MAE(mean absolute error) and precision-in-top-N. Precision-in-top-N represents the percentage of truly high overall ratings among those that the model predicted would be the N most relevant items for each user. The experimental system was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). The experimental results showed that our proposed system (avg. MAE = 0.584) outperformed traditional CF (avg. MAE = 0.591) as well as multicriteria CF (avg. AVE = 0.608). We also found that multicriteria CF showed worse performance compared to traditional CF in our data set, which is contradictory to the results in the most previous studies. This result supports the premise of our study that people have two different types of preference schemes - holistic and composite. Besides MAE, the proposed system outperformed all the comparison models in precision-in-top-3, precision-in-top-5, and precision-in-top-7. The results from the paired samples t-test presented that our proposed system outperformed traditional CF with 10% statistical significance level, and multicriteria CF with 1% statistical significance level from the perspective of average MAE. The proposed system sheds light on how to understand and utilize user's preference schemes in recommender systems domain.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.162-166
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• 2012

Purpose : Vitamin $B_{12}$ and Folate are for anemia work-up which is well known for its sensitivity of light; the screening manual also specifies to be careful with light conditions. According to this, our laboratory minimized the exposure of light when inspecting the Vitamin $B_{12}$ and Folate, but the exposure cannot be wholly blocked due to other various factors such as when conducting specimen segregation. Thus, this inspection is to identify to what extent light can influence and whether the exclusion of light is mandatory during the Vitamin $B_{12}$/Folate test. Materials and Methods : We have conducted two experiments of identifying the extent of light's influence when conducting the Vitamin $B_{12}$/Folate test and also when specimens are under preservation. These experiments were progressed with various concentrations of patients' specimens which were requested to our hospital in March 2012. The first experiment is to verify the results on Vitamin $B_{12}$/Folate dependent on light exposure during the experiment. In the process, we have compared the results of light exposure/exclusion during the incubation process after the reagent division. The second experiment is about the impact of light exposure on the results on Vitamin $B_{12}$/Folate during the preservation. For 1, 2, 7 days the light on the specimen were wholly blocked and were preserved under $-15^{\circ}C$ temperature refrigeration. Then, we compared the results of light-excluded specimen and the exposed one. Results : When conducting first experiment, there were no noticeable changes in the Standard and specimen's cpm, but for Vitamin $B_{12}$, the average result of specimen exposed to light increased 7.8% compare to that of excluded one's. Furthermore, in the significant level 0.05, the significance probability or the p-value was 0.251 which means it has no impact. For Folate, the result being exposed to light decreased 5.4%, the significance probability was 0.033 which means it has little impact. For the second preservation, the result was dependent on the light exposure. The first day of preservation of Vitamin $B_{12}$, the clinical material exposed to light was 11.6%, second day clinical material exposed to light was 10.8%, seventh day clinical material exposed to light increased 3.8%, the significance probability of the $1^{st}$, $2^{nd}$, $7^{th}$ day is 0.372, 0.033, 0.144 respectively, and which indicates that the $1^{st}$ and $7^{th}$ day seems to have no impact. For Folate's case, the clinical material exposed to light has increased 1.4% but hardly had impact, $2^{nd}$ day clinical material being exposed to light was 6.1%, $7^{Th}$ day clinical material being exposed to light decreased 5.2%. The significance probability of Folate on the $1^{st}$, $2^{nd}$, $7^{th}$ day is 0.378, 0.037, 0.217 respectively, and the $1^{st}$ day and the $7^{th}$ day seems to have no impact. Conclusion : After scrutinizing the impact of light exposure/exclusion, Vitamin $B_{12}$ has no impact, while Folate seems to have no noticeable influence but light exclusion is recommended due to its significance probability of 0.033 when conducting experiment. During the preservation, the $2^{nd}$ day result depend on the light exclusion seems to have impact or influence. However, to consider the complication of the experimental process, the experiment including technical errors is predictable. Hence, it is likely to have no impact of light. Nevertheless, it is recommendable to exclude the light during the long preservation as per the significance probability (p-value) of $1^{st}$ and $7^{th}$ day has been diminished.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2013

This study was carried out to analyze distribution situation of alien plants and to propose management plan in the 3 Folk village in Gyeongsangbuk-do which is Cultural property designated by the State; Hahoe, Yangdong and Hangae. This research is for improve of sincerity of historical site and provide basic information which use about administration of preservation. The results are as follows. 1. Overall flora and alien plants appearance The total flora in the 3 folk villages were listed total 752 taxa including 127 families, 430 genera, 614 species, 5 subspecies, 100 varieties and 33 forms. Among them, woody plants take 263 taxa(35.0%) and herbaceous plants take 489 taxa (65.0%). Flora in the Hahoe, Yangdong and Hangae village were total 534, 479 taxa and 408 taxa and exotic plant index was 30.1%, 38.2% and 37.0% respectively. In types of exotic plants, ornamental exotic plants were 135 taxa, deciduous exotic plants were 21 taxa, cultivating exotic plants were 64 taxa, and naturalized exotic plants were 80 taxa and those result lead that the ornamental exotic plants is the highest ratio. According to the villages, Hahoe village had 161 taxa(30.1%), Yangdong Village had 183 taxa(38.2%), and Hangae village had 151 taxa(37.0%) that Yangdong village showed the most number of exotic plants. 2. Planting of landscape exotic plants in the unit cultural assets Meanwhile, Ornamental exotic plants in old house's gardens in Andong Hahoe village which is designated as a unit assets, those are total 30 taxa; followed by the Okyeon house(8 taxa) is highest and the Yangjindang(7), the Hadong house(6) and the Chunghyodang(5). Magnolia denudata appears the most as for 4 times and Campsis grandiflora etc. each took 2 times. Based on the Yangdong village, Gyeongju, that are found total 51 taxa; followed by the Dugok house(16 taxa) the Sujoldang(14), the Mucheondang(13), and the Sangchunheon (12). High appearance rate of ornamental exotic plants were Viburnum opulus for. hydrangeoides, Lycoris squamigera, Caragagna sinica and Magnolia denudata etc. Based on the Hangae village, Seongju, that are designated total 62 taxa; followed by the Jinsa house(35 taxa), the Gyori house(25), the Hanju head family house(20), and the Hahoe house(16). Taxa with high appearance rates were Caragana sinica, Juniperus chinensis var. horizontalis, Magnolia denudata, Viburnum opulus for. hydrangeoides, Chaenomeles speciosa etc. 3. Problems of exotic plant landscapes in the outer spaces of the folk villages Problems of exotic plant landscapes in the outer spaces of the Hahoe village are as follows. In lower of the Mansongjeong forest, Ambrosia artemisifolia, which are ecosystem disturbance plants designated by the Ministry of Environment, live with high dominance value. This should be have a remove with Sicyos angulatus immediately. In the Nakdong river bed around the Mansongjeong forest is covered with a riparian vegetation forest belt of Robinia pseudoacacia L. forest, Populus nigra var. italic community, and Populus x tomentiglandulosa community colony. Based on the Yangdong village, the planted or naturally distributed Ailanthus altissima colony, sporadically distributed Robinia pseudoacacia as well as Amorpha fruticosa are detected all over the village and ecotones. Based on the Hangae village, Ailanthus altissima and Robinia pseudoacacia are sporadically distributed around the village and there is a sign of spreading. similarity of exotic plantsis 47.0% to 48.6% and a reason why this happened is all of research site in Gyeongsanbuk-do and that is why growth norm of plant is similar, exotic plant which is sales for ornamental and it infer to require related countermeasure of each villages and joint related countermeasure.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.217-227
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• 2006

Micronutrient status in soils and crops of plastic film house and their relationship were investigated. Total 203 plastic film houses were selected (red pepper, 66; cucumber, 63; tomato, 74) in Yeongnam region and soil and leaf samples were collected. Hot-water extractable B and 0.1 N HCl extractable Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn in soil samples and total micronutrients in leaf samples were analyzed. Contents Zn, Fe, and Mn in most of the investigated soils were higher than the upper limits of optimum level for general crop cultivation. Contents of Cu in most soils of cucumber and tomato cultivation were higher than the upper limit of optimum level, but Cu contents in about 30% of red pepper cultivation soils were below the sufficient level. Contents of B in most soils of cucumber and tomato were above the sufficient level but in 48% of red pepper cultivation soils B were found to be deficient. Micronutrient contents in leaf of investigated crops were much variable. Contents of B, Fe, and Mn were mostly within the sufficient levels, while in 71% of red pepper samples Cu was under deficient level and in 44% of cucumber samples Cu contents were higher than the upper limit of sufficient level. Contents of Zn in red pepper and cucumber samples were mostly within the sufficient level but in 62% of tomato samples Zn contents were under deficient condition. However, any visible deficiency or toxicity symptoms of micronutrients were not found in the crops. No consistent relationships were found between micronutrient contents in soil and leaf, and this indicates that growth and absorption activity of root and interactions among the nutrients in soil might be important factors in overall micronutrient uptake of crops. For best management of micronutrients in plastic film house, much attention should be focused on the management of soil and plant characteristics which control the micronutrient uptake of crops.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 1996

Purpose: The traditional approach with surgery and/or radiotherapy(RT) for advanced head and neck cancer Provides anticipated cure rates of $10-65\%$ depending on stages and sites. Recently, combined modality with chemotherapy have been extensively investigated in attempts to improve survival and local control. We retrospectively analysed our experience of 31 patients with advanced head and neck cancer. Materials and Methods : November 1983 to October 1994. 31 Patients with Stage III and IV squamous cell head and neck cancer were treated with RT. Sixteen patients were treated with RT alone, and IS patients were treated with combined RT plus chemotherapy. All patients were treated with 4-MV LINAC and radiation dose ranged from 5000 cGy to 7760 cGy (median 7010 cGy). In combined group, 7 patients were treated with cisplatin plus 5-FU 2 patients were treated with methotrexate plus leucovorin plus 5-FU plus cisplatin or carboplatin, and 6 patients were treated with cisplatin as a radiosensitizer. Results : Median follow up period was 16 months (range 4-134 months). The major responses (CR+PR) were noted in 10 patient ($66.6\%$) of the RT alone group and 14 patient ($93.3\%$) of the chemoradiation group. There was no statistical difference in CR rate between the two groups The overall survival rates at 5 years were $23.4\%$ in the radiation alone group, $23.5\%$ in the chemoradiation group Disease-free survival rates at 3 years were $44.5\%$ in the radiation alone group, $40\%$ in the chemoradiation group. There was no statistical differences in overall survival rates and disease-free survival rates between the two groups. Local recurrences occurred in $71.5\%$ of the radiation alone group, $72.7\%$ of the chemoradiation group and distant metastasis occurred in $14.4\%$ of radiation alone group, $9.1\%$ of the chemoradiation group. The frequencies of complications were comparable in both groups except hematologic toxicity Conclusion : Total response rates in the combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy was relatively higher than radiotherapy alone. But our result failed to show any survival benefit of the combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The accrual of large number of patients and long term follow-un may be necessary to confirm the present result of combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 1999

The optimum sampling area which can be applied to the benthic community study is estimated from large survey data in the Songdo tidal flat and subtidal zone of Youngil Bay, Korea. A total of 250 samples by 0.02 $m^2$ box corer for the benthic fauna in Songdo tidal flat and 50 samples by 0.1 $m^2$ van Veen grab in Youngil Bay were taken from the total sampling area of 5 $m^2$. It was assumed that the sampling area could contain sufficient information on sediment fauna, if cumulative number of species, ecological indices, and similarity index by cluster analysis reflect the similarity level of 75% to those found at total sampling area (5 $m^2$). A total of 56 and 60 species occurred from Songdo tidal flat and Youngil Bay, respectively. The cumulative curve of the species number ($N_{sp}$) as a function of the sampling area (A in $m^2$ ) was fitted as $N_{sp}=37.379A^{0.257}$ ($r^2=0.99$) for intertidal fauna and $N_{sp}=40.895A^{0.257}$ ($r^2=0.98$) for subtidal fauna. Based on these curves and 75% of similarity to the total sampling area (5 $m^2$), the optimum sampling area was proposed as 1.6 $m^2$ for the intertidal and 1.5 $m^2$ for the subtidal fauna. Ecological indices (species diversity, richness, evenness and dominance indices) were again calculated on the basis of species composition in differently simulated sample sizes. Changes in ecological indices with these sample sizes indicated that samplings could be done by collecting fauna from < 0.5 $m^2$-1.5 $m^2$ on the Songdo tidal flat and from < 0.5 $m^2$-1.2 $m^2$ in Youngil Bay. Changes in similarity level of all units of each simulated sample size showed that sampling area of 0.3 $m^2$ (Songdo tidal flat) and 0.6 $m^2$ (Youngil Bay) should be taken to obtain a similarity level of 75%. In conclusion, sampling area which was determined by cumulative number of species, ecological indices and similarity index by cluster analysis could be determined as 1.5 $m^2$ (0.02 $m^2$ box corer, n=75) for Songdo tidal flat and 1.2 $m^2$ (0.1 $m^2$ van Veen grab, n=12) for Youngil Bay. If these sampling areas could be covered in the field survey, population densities of seven dominant species comprising 68% of the total faunal abundance occurring on Songdo tidal flat and six species comprising 90% in Youngil Bay can be estimated at the precision level of P=0.2.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.153-168
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• 1998

Background: The existing data indicate that obstructive sleep apnea syndrome contributes to the development of cardiovascular dysfunction such as systemic hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias, and the cardiovascular dysfunction has a major effect on high long-term mortality rate in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome patients. To a large extent the various studies have helped to clarify the pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea, but many basic questions still remain unanswered. Methods: In this study, the influence of obstructive sleep apnea on systemic blood pressure, cardiac rhythm and urinary catecholamines concentration was evaluated. Over-night polysomnography, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure and ECG monitoring, and measurement of urinary catecholamines, norepinephrine (UNE) and epinephrine (UEP), during waking and sleep were undertaken in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome patients group (OSAS, n=29) and control group (Control, n=25). Results: 1) In OSAS and Control, UNE and UEP concentrations during sleep were significantly lower than during waking (P<0.01). In UNE concentrations during sleep, OSAS showed higher levels compare to Control (P<0.05). 2) In OSAS, there was a increasing tendency of the number of non-dipper of nocturnal blood pressure compare to Control (P=0.089). 3) In both group (n=54), mean systolic blood pressure during waking and sleep showed significant correlation with polysomnographic data including apnea index (AI), apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), arterial oxygen saturation nadir ($SaO_2$ nadir) and degree of oxygen desaturation (DOD). And UNE concentrations during sleep were correlated with AI, AHI, $SaO_2$ nadir, DOD and mean diastolic blood pressure during sleep. 4) In OSAS with AI>20 (n==14), there was a significant difference of heart rates before, during and after apneic events (P<0.01), and these changes of heart rates were correlated with the duration of apnea (P<0.01). The difference of heart rates between apneic and postapneic period (${\Delta}HR$) was significantly correlated with the difference of arterial oxygen saturation between before and after apneic event (${\Delta}SaO_2$) (r=0.223, P<0.001). 5) There was no significant difference in the incidence of cardiac arrhythmias between OSAS and Control In Control, the incidence of ventricular ectopy during sleep was significantly lower than during waking. But in OSAS, there was no difference between during waking and sleep. Conclusion : These results suggested that recurrent hypoxia and arousals from sleep in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome may increase sympathetic nervous system activity, and recurrent hypoxia and increased sympathetic nervous system activity could contribute to the development of cardiovascular dysfunction including the changes of systemic blood pressure and cardiac function.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1296-1307
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• 1997

Background : Erdosteine is a thiol derivative developed for the treatement of chronic obstructive bronchitis, including acute infective exacerbation of chronic bronchitis. Erdosteine has mucomodulating and antioxidant properties and especially exhibits excellent gastrointestinal tolerability. Methods : The study was conducted as a prospective evaluation, with 2 comparative groups orally treated with erdosteine 300mg (bid.) or ambroxol 30mg (b.i.d.) for 7 days and the design of trial was double-blind. The treatments have been assigned randomly to patients (n=80) with acute or chronic bronchitis. The primary end-point used to determine efficacy in this study was subjective symptoms including expectorating frequence, expectoration volume, expectorating difficulty, expectoration viscosity, cough intensity and dyspnea. The secondary end-points of efficacy was the result of arterial blood gas analysis and pulmonary function test. Safety was evaluated with adverse drug reactions and laboratory tests monitoring. 61 patients was included in the efficacy analysis, due to the fact that 19 patients drop-out for different reasons. The obtained values have been analyzed with paired Hest., ANOVA test., multivariate $t^2$-test, repeated measures analysis of covariance, two sample t-test, loglinear-logit model analysis, Fisher's exact test. Results : 1) There was no significant difference on demographic data and vital signs between erdosteine and ambroxol treated groups. 2) The comparison between erdosteine and ambroxol treated groups showed no significant difference in improvement of each symptom in spite of the more favorable efficacy obtained with erdosteine. No difference on the contrary was observed for arterial blood gas analysis and pulmonary function test. 3) As safety is concerned, no clinical significant changes in laboratory test and symptom were induced in erdosteine and ambroxol treated group and two patients in ambroxol treated group drop-out for adverse reactions in symptom. 4) In the evaluation of final clinical efficacy, erdosteine improved more effectively patient's overall symptoms {very good effect (11/31), good effect (12/31), moderate effect (6/31), no effect (2/31), aggravation (0/31)} than ambroxol {very good effect (6/30), good effect (14/30), moderate effect (5/30), no effect (4/30), aggravation (2/30)}. And the probability of symptomatic improvement by erdosteine compared to ambroxol was 2.5 times. (p<0.05). Conclusion : This study showed that erdosteine was clinically effective and safe drug for treatment of acute and chronic bronchitis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.590-599
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• 2005

Object : Cigarette smoking is a major cause of mucus hypersecretion, which is a pathophysiological feature of many inflammatory airway diseases. Mucins, which are an important part of the airway mucus, are synthesized from the Muc gene in airway epithelial cells. However, the signaling pathways for cigarette smoke-induced mucin synthesis are unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the signal pathway for smoking induced Muc5ac gene expression. Methods : A549 cells were cultured and transiently transfected with the Muc5ac promoter fragment. These cells were stimulated with 5% cigarette smoke extract (CSE) alone or with CSE after a pretreatment with various signal transduction pathway inhibitors (AG1478, PD98059 and SB203580). The Muc5ac promoter activity was examined using the luciferase reporter system, and the level of phosphorylated EGFR, ERK1/2, p38 MAPK and JNK were all examined using Western blot analysis. Muc5ac mRNA expression was also examined using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR). Results : 1. The peak level of luciferase activity of the Muc5ac promoter was observed at 5% concentration and after 3 hours of incubation with the CSE. The level of EGFR phosphorylation and the luciferase activity of the transfected cells caused by the CSE were significantly suppressed by AG1478 or PD98059 (P<0.01). 2. CSE phosphorylated ERK1/2 or p38 MAPK but not JNK. The Muc5ac mRNA expression level was increased by the CSE but that was suppressed by PD98059 or AG1478. 3. The CSE-induced phosphorylation of ERK1/2 was blocked by PD98059 and that of p38 MAPK was blocked by either PD98059 or SB203580. Either PD98059 or SB203580 suppressed the luciferase activity of the transfected cells (P<0.0001). Conclusion : The Muc5ac mRNA expression level was increased by the CSE. The increased CSE-induced transcriptional activity was mediated via EGF receptor activation, which led to ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK phosphorylation.