• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.247-268
• /
• 1996

It has been known for a long time that gonadotropins and steroid hormones play a pivotal role in a series of reproductive biological phenomena including the maturation of ovarian follicles and oocytes, ovulation and implantation, maintenance of pregnancy and fetal growth & development, parturition and mammary development and lactation. Recent investigations, however, have elucidated that in addition to these classic hormones, multiple growth factors also are involved in these phenomena. Most growth factors in reproductive organs mediate the actions of gonadotropins and steroid hormones or synergize with them in an autocrine/paracrine manner. The insulin-like growth factor(IGF) system, which is one of the most actively investigated areas lately in the reproductive organs, has been found to have important roles in a wide gamut of reproductive phenomena. In the present communication, published literature pertaining to the intrauterine IGF system will be reviewed preceded by general information of the IGF system. The IGF family comprises of IGF-I & IGF-II ligands, two types of IGF receptors and six classes of IGF-binding proteins(IGFBPs) that are known to date. IGF-I and IGF-II peptides, which are structurally homologous to proinsulin, possess the insulin-like activity including the stimulatory effect of glucose and amino acid transport. Besides, IGFs as mitogens stimulate cell division, and also play a role in cellular differentiation and functions in a variety of cell lines. IGFs are expressed mainly in the liver and messenchymal cells, and act on almost all types of tissues in an autocrine/paracrine as well as endocrine mode. There are two types of IGF receptors. Type I IGF receptors, which are tyrosine kinase receptors having high-affinity for IGF-I and IGF-II, mediate almost all the IGF actions that are described above. Type II IGF receptors or IGF-II/mannose-6-phosphate receptors have two distinct binding sites; the IGF-II binding site exhibits a high affinity only for IGF-II. The principal role of the type II IGF receptor is to destroy IGF-II by targeting the ligand to the lysosome. IGFs in biological fluids are mostly bound to IGFBP. IGFBPs, in general, are IGF storage/carrier proteins or modulators of IGF actions; however, as for distinct roles for individual IGFBPs, only limited information is available. IGFBPs inhibit IGF actions under most in vitro situations, seemingly because affinities of IGFBPs for IGFs are greater than those of IGF receptors. How IGF is released from IGFBP to reach IGF receptors is not known; however, various IGFBP protease activities that are present in blood and interstitial fluids are believed to play an important role in the process of IGF release from the IGFBP. According to latest reports, there is evidence that under certain in vitro circumstances, IGFBP-1, -3, -5 have their own biological activities independent of the IGF. This may add another dimension of complexity of the already complicated IGF system. Messenger ribonucleic acids and proteins of the IGF family members are expressed in the uterine tissue and conceptus of the primates, rodents and farm animals to play important roles in growth and development of the uterus and fetus. Expression of the uterine IGF system is regulated by gonadal hormones and local regulatory substances with temporal and spatial specificities. Locally expressed IGFs and IGFBPs act on the uterine tissue in an autocrine/paracrine manner, or are secreted into the uterine lumen to participate in conceptus growth and development. Conceptus also expresses the IGF system beginning from the peri-implantation period. When an IGF family member is expressed in the conceptus, however, is determined by the presence or absence of maternally inherited mRNAs, genetic programming of the conceptus itself and an interaction with the maternal tissue. The site of IGF action also follows temporal (physiological status) and spatial specificities. These facts that expression of the IGF system is temporally and spatially regulated support indirectly a hypothesis that IGFs play a role in conceptus growth and development. Uterine and conceptus-derived IGFs stimulate cell division and differentiation, glucose and amino acid transport, general protein synthesis and the biosynthesis of mammotropic hormones including placental lactogen and prolactin, and also play a role in steroidogenesis. The suggested role for IGFs in conceptus growth and development has been proven by the result of IGF-I, IGF-II or IGF receptor gene disruption(targeting) of murine embryos by the homologous recombination technique. Mice carrying a null mutation for IGF-I and/or IGF-II or type I IGF receptor undergo delayed prenatal and postnatal growth and development with 30-60% normal weights at birth. Moreover, mice lacking the type I IGF receptor or IGF-I plus IGF-II die soon after birth. Intrauterine IGFBPs generally are believed to sequester IGF ligands within the uterus or to play a role of negative regulators of IGF actions by inhibiting IGF binding to cognate receptors. However, when it is taken into account that IGFBP-1 is expressed and secreted in primate uteri in amounts assessedly far exceeding those of local IGFs and that IGFBP-1 is one of the major secretory proteins of the primate decidua, the possibility that this IGFBP may have its own biological activity independent of IGF cannot be excluded. Evidently, elucidating the exact role of each IGFBP is an essential step into understanding the whole IGF system. As such, further research in this area is awaited with a lot of anticipation and attention.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.846-860
• /
• 1998

Background: Endotoxin (LPS : lipopolysaccharide), a potent activator of immune system, can induce acute and chronic inflammation through the production of cytokines by a variety of cells, such as monocytes, endothelial cells, lymphocytes, eosinophils, neutrophils and fibroblasts. LPS stimulate the mononucelar cells by two different pathway, the CD14 dependent and independent way, of which the former has been well documented, but not the latter. LPS binds to the LPS-binding protein (LBP), in serum, to make the LPS-LBP complex which interacts with CD14 molecules on the mononuclear cell surface in peripheral blood or is transported to the tissues. In case of high concentration of LPS, LPS can stimulate directly the macrophages without LBP. We investigated to detect the generation of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-6 and TNF-$\alpha$ and fibrogenic cytokine, TGF-$\beta$, by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) after LPS stimulation under serum-free conditions, which lacks LBPs. Methods : PBMC were obtained by centrifugation on Ficoll Hypaque solution of peripheral venous bloods from healthy normal subjects, then stimulated in the presence of LPS (0.1 ${\mu}g/mL$ to 100 ${\mu}g/mL$ ). The activities of IL-1, IL-6, TNF, and TGF-$\beta$ were measured by bioassaies using cytokines - dependent proliferating or inhibiting cell lines. The cellular sources producing the cytokines was investigated by immunohistochemical stains and in situ hybridization. Results : PBMC started to produce IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ in 1 hr, 4 hrs and 8hrs, respectively, after LPS stimulation. The production of IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ continuously increased 96 hrs after stimulation of LPS. The amount of production was 19.8 ng/ml of IL-6 by $10^5$ PBMC, 4.1 ng/mL of TNF by $10^6$ PBMC and 34.4 pg/mL of TGF-$\beta$ by $2{\times}10^6$ PBMC. The immunoreactivity to IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ were detected on monocytes in LPS-stimulated PBMC. Some of lymphocytes showed positive immunoreactivity to TGF-$\beta$. Double immunohistochemical stain showed that IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ expression was not associated with CD14 postivity on monocytes. IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$mRNA expression were same as observed in immunoreactivity for each cytokines. Conclusion: When monocytes are stimulated with LPS under serum-free conditions, IL-6 and TNF-$\alpha$ are secreted in early stage of inflammation. In contrast, the secretion of TGF-$\beta$ arise in the late stages and that is maintained after 96 hrs. The main cells releasing IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ are monocytes, but also lymphocytes can secret TGF-$\beta$.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.5-19
• /
• 1998

Introduction: Direct histologic and bacteriologic examination of a representative specimen of lung tissue is the only certain method of providing an accurate diagnosis in various pulmonary diseases including diffuse pulmonary diseases. The purpose of national survey was to define the indication, incidence, effectiveness, safety and complication of open and thoracoscopic lung biopsy in korea. Methods: A multicenter registry of 37 university or general hospitals equipped more than 400 patient's bed were retrospectively collected and analyzed for 3 years from the January 1994 to December 1996 using the same registry protocol. Results: 1) There were 511 cases from the 37 hospitals during 3 years. The mean age was 50.2 years(${\pm}15.1$ years) and men was more prevalent than women(54.9% vs 45.9%). 2) The open lung biopsy was performed in 313 cases(62%) and thoracoscopic lung biopsy was performed in 192 cases(38%). The incidence of lung biopsy was more higher in diffuse lung disease(305 cases, 59.7%) than in localized lung disease(206 cases, 40.3%) 3) The duration after abnormalities was found in chest X-ray until lung biopsy was 82.4 days(open lung biopsy: 72.8 days, thoracoscopic lung biopsy: 99.4 days). The bronchoscopy was performed in 272 cases(53.2%), bronchoalveolar lavage was performed in 123 cases(24.1%) and percutaneous lung biopsy was performed in 72 cases(14.1%) before open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy. 4) There were 230 cases(45.0%) of interstitial lung disease, 133 cases(26.0%) of thoracic malignancies, 118 cases(23.1%) of infectious lung disease including tuberculosis and 30 cases (5.9 %) of other lung diseases including congenital anomalies. No significant differences were noted in diagnostic rate and disease characteristics between open lung biopsy and thoracoscopic lung biopsy. 5) The final diagnosis through an open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy was as same as the presumptive diagnosis before the biopsy in 302 cases(59.2%). The identical diagnostic rate was 66.5% in interstitial lung diseases, 58.7% in thoracic malignancies, 32.7% in lung infections, 55.1 % in pulmonary tuberculosis, 62.5% in other lung diseases including congenital anomalies. 6) One days after lung biopsy, $PaCO_2$ was increased from the prebiopsy level of $38.9{\pm}5.8mmHg$ to the $40.2{\pm}7.1mmHg$(P<0.05) and $PaO_2/FiO_2$ was decreased from the prebiopsy level of $380.3{\pm}109.3mmHg$ to the $339.2{\pm}138.2mmHg$(P=0.01). 7) There was a 10.1 % of complication after lung biopsy. The complication rate in open lung biopsy was much higher than in thoracoscopic lung biopsy(12.4% vs 5.8%, P<0.05). The incidence of complication was pneumothorax(23 cases, 4.6%), hemothorax(7 cases, 1.4%), death(6 cases, 1.2%) and others(15 cases, 2.9%). 8) The 5 cases of death due to lung biopsy were associated with open lung biopsy and one fatal case did not describe the method of lung biopsy. The underlying disease was 3 cases of thoracic malignancies(2 cases of bronchoalveolar cell cancer and one malignant mesothelioma), 2 cases of metastatic lung cancer, and one interstitial lung disease. The duration between open lung biopsy and death was $15.5{\pm}9.9$ days. 9) Despite the lung biopsy, 19 cases (3.7%) could not diagnosed. These findings were caused by biopsy was taken other than target lesion(5 cases), too small size to interpretate(3 cases), pathologic inability(11 cases). 10) The contribution of open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy to the final diagnosis was defininitely helpful(334 cases, 66.5%), moderately helpful(140 cases, 27.9%), not helpful or impossible to judge(28 cases, 5.6%). Overall, open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy were helpful to diagnose the lung lesion in 94.4 % of total cases. Conclusions: The open or thoracoscopic lung biopsy were relatively safe and reliable diagnostic method of lung lesion which could not diagnosed by other diagnostic approaches such as bronchoscopy. We recommend the thoracoscopic lung biopsy when the patients were in critical condition because the thoracoscopic biopsy was more safe and have equal diagnostic results compared with the open lung biopsy.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.69-95
• /
• 1979

The study was conducted to search developmental process of plant protection science from review of forty-three hundreds literatures presented since 1900 in Korea and to forecast future statues of the science to be done. About 80 percent of literatures related to plant protection science such as plant pathology, applied entomology, weed science and agricultural pharmacology were collected from publications of agricultural and forestry reseach organizations attached to Office of Rural Development and Office of Forestry. The rest of literatures were mainly collected from Korean Journal of Plant Protection Society and small number of literatures were also collected from publications of the other journals of crop science and thesis collection of agricultural colleges. In Korea, research organizations of plant protection science are divided into two main groups such as exclusive agricultural research organizations and agricultural colleges. It is pointed out that the former contributions to plant protection science are very great compared to those of the latter since 1900. From periodical consideration of developmental process of the science since 1900, the history or the science are divided into three eras such as introduction and sprout of modern plant protection science during the first forty years, distress of the science during the following twenty years including the Second World War and the Korean War and rapid growth of the science after 1961. In spite of long time distress of the science during the Second World War and the Korean War, the researches on plant protection science in post-war have been done twice as many as pre-war. From consideration of the subject plants in researches of plant protection, it is shown that a great many researches on protection of rice plant have been done and occupy 37 percent of plant protection researches since 1900. And also researches on protection of fruit-trees and cash-crops are not so many as those of rice plant but have been done in noticeable numbers. In fact, researches on protection of fruit-trees and cashcrops were the most important subjects of plant protection researches in pre-war while those of rice plant were the most important subjects after 1930, particulary in post-war. From consideration of contents of plant protection researches, it is said that more fundamental researches than applied ones such as practical control methods of diseases, insect pests and weeds were done in pre-war while more applied researches than fundamental ones were done in post-war, Among applied researches, those of chemical control were the most important subjects. Researches on disease and insect-pest resistance have been done in both pre-war and post-war while researches on forecasting of disease and insect-pest and race of plant pathogens have been done in post-war. And also researches on weed control mainly have been done after 1960. Researches on agricultural chemicals for control of diseases, insect pests and weeds still belong to a new field which must be expected in future, and there is nothing to notice with the exception of practical application of agricultural chemicals introduced from foreign countries. Some of important researches on diseases and insect pests were discussed in relation to developmental process of plant protection science in Korea since 1900. In future, researches on plant protection will be develop to the direction supporting importance of integrated control for plant protection. Therefore, it is pointed out that security of highly educated and trained scientists with enlargement of reseach fields of plant protection science are necessary and role of agricultural colleges for future development of the science must be emphasized.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.119-150
• /
• 1999

In spite of recent remarkable recent development in both western and oriental medical sciences, there is still only a shallow understanding of individual differences for various prognoses of incurable diseases and immunopathy diseases. Nevertheless, the care, cure and prevention methods of Sasang Constitutional Medicine are broadly used as an effective treatment of incurable diseases like immunopathy diseases and stress-related diseases and diseases due to aging. In this sense, the establishment of classification norms is urgent and essential for the worldwide application of Sasang Constitutional Medicine(SCM). This study began with the confirmation process of whether Sasang Constitutional types exist in Americans. To accomodate for cultural differences, the distinguishing tool was readjusted so that Sasang Constitutional Types in Americans could be determined. Hence, the selected tool is the new QSCCII+, which is a newly revised English version of the QSCCII. QSCCII was made and standardized by Dept. of SCM in Kyung Hee Medical Center and Dr. Kim7). The evaluation methods of the old version were improved in the new QSCCII+ through necessary statistical manipulation. The original QSCCII was officially authorized by the Korean Society of Sasang Constitutional Medicine as the only computerized version of Sasang diagnostics. This study is the first attempt to design a new diagnostic tool for the classification of Sasang Constitutional types in North Americans with the revision of QSCCII. The subjects of this study were selected from the cooperative people among the students and staffs of the University of Bridgeport and the patients who visited the Clinic in the Health Science Center. This study takes for about 1 year from 1998. 8 to 1999. 8 The conclusions of the study can be summarized as follows: 1. Sasang constitutional types also exist in Americans. It can also naturally be inferred that Sasang Constitutional types exist in all human beings, for there are many different human races in America. 2. There are more So-Yang In's than any other types in American white people. This result confirms the hypothesis that there also exist Sasang Constitutional types in westerners. 3. The result of repetitive tests suggests that the new QSCCII+ is an effective diagnostic tool for westerners when we consider the constant diagnostic results of the QSCCII+. 4. Sasang Constitutional types exit in the sample group regardless of racial difference. 5. The question items that were not often checked by Americans need to be modified into more understandable expressions. 6. The standardization of diagnosis for Americans should be established by use of the QSCCII+ 7. It can be guessed that there are many Tae-yang In's among the 71 persons who could not be clearly classified by the QSCCII+. Due to the scarcity of Tae-yang-In in general, it is important to improve upon the discernability of the QSCC II+. 8. The results of the Sasang Constitutional distribution in North Americans are as follows: The percentage of So-yang In distribution in the sample group is 36.25%(87persons), that of Tae-eum In is 13.75%(33persons), and that of So-eum In is 20.41%(49persons).

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.453-473
• /
• 1992

Background: National survey was performed to estimate the incidence of sarcoidosis in Korea. The clinical data of confirmed cases were analysed for the practice of primary care physicians and pulmonary specialists. Methods: The period of study was from January 1991 to December 1992. Data were retrospectively collected by correspondence with physicians in departments of internal medicine, dermatology, ophthalmology and neurology of the hospitals having more than 100 beds using returning postcards. In confirmed and suspicious cases of sardoidosis, case record chart for clinical and laboratory findings were obtained in detail. Results: 1) Postcards were sent to 523 departments in 213 hospitals. Internal medicine composed 41%, dermatology 20%, ophthalmology 20% and neurology 19%. 2) Postcards were returned from 241 departments (replying rates was 48%). 3) There were 113 confirmed cases from 50 departments and 10 cases. The cases were composed from internal medicine (81%), dermatology (13%), ophthalmology (3%) and neurology (3%). 78 confirmed cases were analysed, which were composed from department of internal medicine (92%), dermatology (5%), and neurology (3%). 4) The time span for analysed cases was 1980 to 1992. one case was analysed in 1980 and the number gradually increased to 18 cases in 1991. 5) The majority of patients (84.4%) were in the age group of 20 to 49 years. 6) The ratio of male to female was 1 : 1.5. 7) The most common chief complains were respiratory symptoms, dermatologic symptoms, generalized discomforts, visual changes, arthralgia, abdominal pains, and swallowing difficulties in order. 16% of the patients were asymptomatic. 8) Mean duration between symptom onset and diagnosis was 2 months. 9) The most common symptoms were respiratory, general, dermatologic, ophthalmologic, neurologic and cardiac origin in order. 10) Hemoglobin, hematocrits and platelet were in normal range. 58% of the patients had lymphopenia measuring less than 30% of white cell count. The ratio of CD4 to CD8 lymphocytes was $1.73{\pm}1.16$ with range of 0.43 to 4.62. ESR was elevated in 43% of the cases. 11) Blood chemistry was normal in most cases. Serum angiotensin converting enzyme (S-ACE) was $66.8{\pm}58.6\;U/L$ with the range of 8.79 to 265 U /L. Proteinuria of more than 150 mg was found in 42. 9% of the patients. 12) Serum IgG was elevated in 43.5%, IgA in 45.5%, IgM in 59.1% and IgE in 46.7%. The levels of complement C3 and C4 were in the normal range. Anti-nuclear antibody was detected in 11% of the cases. Kweim test was performed in 3 cases, and in all cases the result was positive. 13) FVC was decreased in 17.3%, FEV1 in 11.5%, FEV1/FVC in 10%, TLC in 15.2%, and DLco in 64.7%. 14) PaO2 was decreased below 90 mmHg in 48.6% and PaCO2 was increased above 45 mmHg in 5.7%. 15) The percentage of macrophages in BAL fluid was $51.4{\pm}19.2%$, lymphocytes $44.4{\pm}21.1%$, and the ratio of CD4 to CD8 lymphocytes was $3.41{\pm}2.07$. 16) There was no difference in laboratory findings between male and female. 17) Hilar enlargement on chest PA was present in 87.9% (bilaterally in 78.8% and unilaterally in 9.1%). 18) According to Siltzbach's classification, stage 0 was 5%, stage 158.3%, stage 228.3%, and stage 38.3%. 19) Hilart enlargement on chest CT was present in 92.6% (bilaterally 76.4% and unilaterally in 16.2%). 20) HRCT was done in 16 cases. The most common findings were nodules, interlobular thickening, focal patchy infiltrations in order. Two cases was normal finding. 21) Other radiologic examinations showed bone change in one case and splenomegaly in two cases. 22) Gallium scan was done in 12 cases. Radioactivity was increased in hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes in 8 cases and in parenchyme in 2 cases. 23) The pathologic diagnosis was commonly performed by transbrochial lung biopsy (TBLB, 47.3%), skin and mediastinal lymph nodes biopsy (34.5%), peripheral lymph nodes biopsy (23.6%), open lung biopsy (18.2%) and bronchial biopsy in order. 24) The most common findings in pathology were non·caseating granuloma (100%), multi-nucleated giant cell (47.3%), hyalinized acellular scar (34.5%), reticulin fibrin network (20%), inclusion body (10.9%), necrosis (9.1%), and lymphangitic distribution of granuloma (1.8%) in order. Conclusion: Clinical, laboratory, radiologic and pathologic findings were summarized. This collected data will assist in finding a test for detection and staging of sarcoidosis in Korea in near future.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.30-46
• /
• 1992

Korea's first exploratory tuna fishing was done with a used longliner in 1957. Then the commercial fishing has been made steady headway since the 1960's and grown up to one of major tuna fishing countries in 1970's. The tuna fishing aimed primarily at acquiring foreign currency, then tuna was exported directly from the overseas fishing base. Tuna, however, has been gradually favored by Koreans as high-proteined foods according to the growth of GNP since the 1970's. In 1980, the canned tuna began to be produced and sold at home. And so the demand of raw tuna for cannaries has steeply increased not only for home but also for abroad, and stimulated the development of tuna purse seine fishery. The author carried out a study on the development of tuna purse seine fishery in Korea and countries concerned-the United States and Japan-because it is recognized to be significant for the further development of this fishery. Just as purse seining was originated in the United States, so tuna purse seining was also pioneered by Californian fishermen in the west coastal waters of the United States (Eastern Pacific Ocean). They started to produce the canned tuna in the early 1900's, and the demand for raw tuna began to be increased rapidly. In those days, tuna was mostly caught by pole-and-line, but the catch amount was far away from the demand. To satisfy this demand, they began to try out fishing tuna by the use of purse seine which had been born in the eastern waters in the 1820's and applied to catch white fishes in the western waters of the United States in those days. Even though their trial was technically successful through severe trial and error, a new problem was raised on the management of tuna resource and the preservation of porpoise which was occassionally caught with tuna. Then the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) was established by countries neighboring to the United States in 1950 and they set up the Commission's Yellowfin Regulatory Area (CYRA) and regulated the annual quota for yellowfin. Then, American owners tried to send their seiners to the Western African waters to expand the fishing ground in 1967 and to the Centeral-Western Pacfic in 1974, and the fishing ground was widely expanded. The number of the United States' purse seiners amounted to about 150 in 1980, but the enthusiasm was gradually cooled thereafter and the number of seiner was decreased to 67 in 1986. The landing of tuna by purse seiners in the United States after 1980 maintains 200 thousands M/T or so with a little increase despite the decreasing of domestic seiners. This shows that the landing by foreign seiners are increasing, compared with the landing by domestic seiners are decreasing. In Japan, even though purse seining was introduced in 1880, they had fished tuna by longline and pole-and -line until the tuna purse seining was introduced from the United States again. In the 1960's, Japanese tuna seiners made the exploratory fishing in the South-western Pacific and West African waters with a limited success. In 1971, the government-funded research center "JARMRAC" conducted the exploratory fishing which extended to the Central American waters, the Asia-Pacific Region and the South-western Pacific. It had also much difficulties, till they improved the fishing gear adaptable to the new fishing condition in the South-western Pacific. Japanese government has begun to licence 32 single seiners and 7 group seiners since 1980 and their standard has lasted up to now. The catch in the Pacific Islands Region amounted to 160 thousands M/T in 1986. Korea's tuna purse seine fishery was originated in 1971 by Jedong Industrial Co., Ltd. with three used tuna purse seiners purchased from the United States, and they began to fish in the Eastern Pacific, but failed owing to the superannuation of vessel and the infancy of fishing technique. The second challenge was done by Dongwon Industrial Co., Ltd. in 1979, with one used seiner purchased from the United States, and started to fish in the Eastern Pacific. Even though the first trial was almost unsuccessful but they could obtain the noticeable success by removing the vessel to the South-western Pacific in 1980. This success stimulated the Korean entherprisers to take part in this fishery, and the number of Korean tuna purse seiners has been increased rapidly in accordance with the increased demand for raw tuna. The number of vessels actually at work amounted to 36 in 1990 and they operate in the South-western Pacific. The annual catch of tuna by purse seiners amounted to 170 thousands M/T in 1990 and ranked to one of the major tuna purse seining countries in the world.

• Proceedings of the KOR-BRONCHOESO Conference
• /
• 1981.05a
• /
• pp.38.1-38
• /
• 1981

Currently in the otologic field, there are various methods of special audiometric examinations, such as, tone decay, SISI, and impedance audiometry and only a few studies has been done in these fields sporadically in Korea. The purpose of this paper is to establish norms of various special audiometric tests, so we have performed the special audiometric tests on 100 male medical students in good physical condition and the follow results were obtained. 1. All cases showed over 90% of PB scores. The mean and its 2 S.D. were 98$\pm$4.9% in the right ear and 97$\pm$5.6% in the left ear. 2. The mean and its 2 S.D. of MCL(most comfortable level) were 45$\pm$15.4 dB in the right ear and 46$\pm$17.9 dB in the left ear, and its range was 12$\pm$12.2 dB in the right ear and 13$\pm$12.6 dB in the left ear. 3. The mean and its 2 S.D. of UCL (uncomfortable level) were 102$\pm$7.9 dB in the right ear and 102$\pm$7.9 dB in the left ear and about an half in cases showed over 106 dB of UCL. 4. In 95% of cases, SISIs(short increment sensitivity index) at 1, 000 Hz and 4000 Hz was below 45% in the right ear in both frequencies and below 55% and 75% in the left ear, respectively. 5. In 95% of cases, tone decays at 2, 000 Hz and 4, 000 Hz was below 10 dB in both ears. 6. The difference between SRT and PTA (speech reception threshold minus pure tone average) was 4$\pm$9.2 dB in the right ear and 4$\pm$10.0 dB in the left ear. 7. The dynamic range(uncomfortable level minus speech reception threshold) was 98$\pm$13.5 dB in the right ear and 99$\pm$13.5 dB in the left ear. We had trouble in estimating the dynamic range in about an half in cases, in which we couldn't estimate the UCL with our conventional audiometry. 8. The results of impedance audiometric tests were as follow: A. In the tympanogram, all cases were of A type with one exception of B type in the left ear. The mean and its 2 S.D. of its peak level were 22.8$\pm$32.94mm $H_2O$ in the right ear and 23.9$\pm$29. 81mm $H_2O$ in the left ear. B. The mean and its 2 S.D. of the compliance were 0.6$\pm$0.54cc in the right ear and 0.6$\pm$0.53cc in the left ear. C. The results of stapedial reflex: a. The mean and its 2 S.D. of the controlateral stapedial reflex at 500Hz, 1, 000Hz, 2, 000Hz, 4, 000Hz were 99$\pm$17.7 dB, 87$\pm$14.4 dB, 79$\pm$13.7 dB, 77$\pm$20.0 dB in the right ear and 99$\pm$15.9 dB, 88$\pm$13.9 dB, 79$\pm$13.7 dB, 77$\pm$21.3 dB in the left ear. Depending on the tested frequencies, the stapedial reflex wasn't generated in 6 cases in the right ear and 11 cases in the left ear. b. The mean and its 2 S.D. of the ipsilateral stapedial reflex at 1, 000Hz, and 2, 000Hz were 89$\pm$16.3 dB, 82$\pm$15.9 dB in the right ear and 89$\pm$18.0 dB, 83$\pm$18.9 dB in the left ear. Depending on the tested frequencies, the stapedial reflex wans't generated in 1 case in the right ear and 2 cases in the left ear. 9. Eustachian tube function using with impedance audiometry was malfunctioned in21 cases depending on the tested pressure and the range of peak level of tympanogram was 14$\pm$26.9mm $H_2O$(tested pressure:+250mm $H_2O$), 8$\pm$21.9mm $H_2O$ (tested pressure:-250mm $H_2O$) in the right ear and 11 cases depending on the tested pressure and the range of the peak level of tympanogram was 12$\pm$22.5mm $H_2O$ (tested pressure: +250 mm $H_2O$, 9$\pm$17.3mm $H_2O$(tested pressure: -250mm $H_2O$) in the left ear.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.1-23
• /
• 2013

To discover significant social issues such as unemployment, economy crisis, social welfare etc. that are urgent issues to be solved in a modern society, in the existing approach, researchers usually collect opinions from professional experts and scholars through either online or offline surveys. However, such a method does not seem to be effective from time to time. As usual, due to the problem of expense, a large number of survey replies are seldom gathered. In some cases, it is also hard to find out professional persons dealing with specific social issues. Thus, the sample set is often small and may have some bias. Furthermore, regarding a social issue, several experts may make totally different conclusions because each expert has his subjective point of view and different background. In this case, it is considerably hard to figure out what current social issues are and which social issues are really important. To surmount the shortcomings of the current approach, in this paper, we develop a prototype system that semi-automatically detects social issue keywords representing social issues and problems from about 1.3 million news articles issued by about 10 major domestic presses in Korea from June 2009 until July 2012. Our proposed system consists of (1) collecting and extracting texts from the collected news articles, (2) identifying only news articles related to social issues, (3) analyzing the lexical items of Korean sentences, (4) finding a set of topics regarding social keywords over time based on probabilistic topic modeling, (5) matching relevant paragraphs to a given topic, and (6) visualizing social keywords for easy understanding. In particular, we propose a novel matching algorithm relying on generative models. The goal of our proposed matching algorithm is to best match paragraphs to each topic. Technically, using a topic model such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), we can obtain a set of topics, each of which has relevant terms and their probability values. In our problem, given a set of text documents (e.g., news articles), LDA shows a set of topic clusters, and then each topic cluster is labeled by human annotators, where each topic label stands for a social keyword. For example, suppose there is a topic (e.g., Topic1 = {(unemployment, 0.4), (layoff, 0.3), (business, 0.3)}) and then a human annotator labels "Unemployment Problem" on Topic1. In this example, it is non-trivial to understand what happened to the unemployment problem in our society. In other words, taking a look at only social keywords, we have no idea of the detailed events occurring in our society. To tackle this matter, we develop the matching algorithm that computes the probability value of a paragraph given a topic, relying on (i) topic terms and (ii) their probability values. For instance, given a set of text documents, we segment each text document to paragraphs. In the meantime, using LDA, we can extract a set of topics from the text documents. Based on our matching process, each paragraph is assigned to a topic, indicating that the paragraph best matches the topic. Finally, each topic has several best matched paragraphs. Furthermore, assuming there are a topic (e.g., Unemployment Problem) and the best matched paragraph (e.g., Up to 300 workers lost their jobs in XXX company at Seoul). In this case, we can grasp the detailed information of the social keyword such as "300 workers", "unemployment", "XXX company", and "Seoul". In addition, our system visualizes social keywords over time. Therefore, through our matching process and keyword visualization, most researchers will be able to detect social issues easily and quickly. Through this prototype system, we have detected various social issues appearing in our society and also showed effectiveness of our proposed methods according to our experimental results. Note that you can also use our proof-of-concept system in http://dslab.snu.ac.kr/demo.html.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.1-20
• /
• 2013

Nowadays, social network is a huge communication platform for providing people to connect with one another and to bring users together to share common interests, experiences, and their daily activities. Users spend hours per day in maintaining personal information and interacting with other people via posting, commenting, messaging, games, social events, and applications. Due to the growth of user's distributed information in social network, there is a great potential to utilize the social data to enhance the quality of recommender system. There are some researches focusing on social network analysis that investigate how social network can be used in recommendation domain. Among these researches, we are interested in taking advantages of the interaction between a user and others in social network that can be determined and known as social relationship. Furthermore, mostly user's decisions before purchasing some products depend on suggestion of people who have either the same preferences or closer relationship. For this reason, we believe that user's relationship in social network can provide an effective way to increase the quality in prediction user's interests of recommender system. Therefore, social relationship between users encountered from social network is a common factor to improve the way of predicting user's preferences in the conventional approach. Recommender system is dramatically increasing in popularity and currently being used by many e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com, Last.fm, eBay.com, etc. Collaborative filtering (CF) method is one of the essential and powerful techniques in recommender system for suggesting the appropriate items to user by learning user's preferences. CF method focuses on user data and generates automatic prediction about user's interests by gathering information from users who share similar background and preferences. Specifically, the intension of CF method is to find users who have similar preferences and to suggest target user items that were mostly preferred by those nearest neighbor users. There are two basic units that need to be considered by CF method, the user and the item. Each user needs to provide his rating value on items i.e. movies, products, books, etc to indicate their interests on those items. In addition, CF uses the user-rating matrix to find a group of users who have similar rating with target user. Then, it predicts unknown rating value for items that target user has not rated. Currently, CF has been successfully implemented in both information filtering and e-commerce applications. However, it remains some important challenges such as cold start, data sparsity, and scalability reflected on quality and accuracy of prediction. In order to overcome these challenges, many researchers have proposed various kinds of CF method such as hybrid CF, trust-based CF, social network-based CF, etc. In the purpose of improving the recommendation performance and prediction accuracy of standard CF, in this paper we propose a method which integrates traditional CF technique with social relationship between users discovered from user's behavior in social network i.e. Facebook. We identify user's relationship from behavior of user such as posts and comments interacted with friends in Facebook. We believe that social relationship implicitly inferred from user's behavior can be likely applied to compensate the limitation of conventional approach. Therefore, we extract posts and comments of each user by using Facebook Graph API and calculate feature score among each term to obtain feature vector for computing similarity of user. Then, we combine the result with similarity value computed using traditional CF technique. Finally, our system provides a list of recommended items according to neighbor users who have the biggest total similarity value to the target user. In order to verify and evaluate our proposed method we have performed an experiment on data collected from our Movies Rating System. Prediction accuracy evaluation is conducted to demonstrate how much our algorithm gives the correctness of recommendation to user in terms of MAE. Then, the evaluation of performance is made to show the effectiveness of our method in terms of precision, recall, and F1-measure. Evaluation on coverage is also included in our experiment to see the ability of generating recommendation. The experimental results show that our proposed method outperform and more accurate in suggesting items to users with better performance. The effectiveness of user's behavior in social network particularly shows the significant improvement by up to 6% on recommendation accuracy. Moreover, experiment of recommendation performance shows that incorporating social relationship observed from user's behavior into CF is beneficial and useful to generate recommendation with 7% improvement of performance compared with benchmark methods. Finally, we confirm that interaction between users in social network is able to enhance the accuracy and give better recommendation in conventional approach.