• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.226-233
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• 2004

Background : Interferon-gamma (IFN-${\gamma}$) is a critical cytokine in the defense against a Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Even though IFN-${\gamma}$ has occasionally been used in the treatment of refractory multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) with some promising results, there is still some controversy regarding the therapeutic efficacy of IFN-${\gamma}$. This study was performed to examine the effect of subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ in the treatment of MDR-TB patients. Methods : Six patients with refractory MDR-TB were enrolled in this study. Two million IU of IFN-${\gamma}$ was administered subcutaneously three times a week with the concomitant administration of antituberculous drugs for at least for 28 weeks. During the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy, the sputum smear and culture, radiological and clinical evaluations were performed every 4 weeks throughout the study period. Results : The mean age of the 6 patients was 37 years (ranges, 15-61 years). The drug susceptibility test to standard antituberculous drugs revealed resistance to an average of 6.8 (${\pm}1.2$) agents including isoniazid and rifampicin. An average of 10.8 (${\pm}1.3$) antituberculous drugs were prescribed before IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy. The culture became negative in 2 patients (33%) after initiating IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy; one at 8 weeks, and the other at 24 weeks. Finally, after stopping the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy after 28 weeks, the culture became positive again in the two patients who were culture-negative. The other 4 patients who failed in the culture conversion are still on antituberculous treatment except for one who died of tuberculosis. Conclusion : Even though 28 weeks of subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy in combination with antituberculous drugs was successful in inducing the culture-negative conversion in some patients with refractory MDR-TB, the culture became positive again after stopping the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy. This suggests that subcutaneous IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy may have suppressive effect on tuberculosis only during the IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy period in some patients. Further studies will be needed to determine the optimum dose, the administration route, the duration of therapy, and the predicting factors of the response to adjuvant IFN-${\gamma}$ therapy.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.109-134
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• 2011

Drug-related crime has increased in spite of visible results of Uribe government's hard-line policies on drug eradication and illegally armed organizations which were pursued under U.S. support, without the accompaniment of quantity change in drug cultivation and trade. Military disputes of left-right illegally armed communities surrounding illegal crop cultivation rights were rather intensified, and the number of refugees was increased through enforced displaced people. The 2005 refugee registration committee RUPD reports that 3,316,862 people, 7.3% of total population, were refugees. In particular, the number of refugees presented a large increase rate of 624% when compared to the past year due to enforced displaced people. Main discharge areas of enforced displaced people are connected with drug crime and activities of illegally armed organizations, and are places of increased armed disputes in the process of occupied territory expansion of illegally armed communities and militia. Undiscriminated attacks were executed on farmers in the process of occupation of illegal crop cultivation sites by illegally armed organization and militia to emit enforced displaced people, who moved to border areas by crossing national borders. Enforced displaced people were restricted to certain areas before the appearance of Uribe administration. However, enforced displaced people not only presented quantitative expansion, but also showed tendency of nationwide expansion after national security policy was pursued. With the closing of the Amazon area, previously the main route of drug trade, activity base of illegally armed organizations was moved to the Pacific region, and Panama border area experienced refugee increase due to the new policy of enforced displaced people. This study aims to understand the actual condition and cause for the increase in refugees in Colombia based on border areas of Venezuela, which is the nation of highest dispersion of Columbian refugees, Panama, which has appeared as a new destination for refugees after the 90s, and Ecuador, which has experienced sudden refugee increase in 2000.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.1-21
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• 1997

The objective of this paper is to think about what structural reforms of the Korean government S&T development management system might be. Korean society is currently experiencing a drastic socio-economic transformation. The results of this transformation should be reflected on the determining process of the directions and breadths of structural reforms of government S&T development management system. Because the government system design will be based on the premises of socio-economic conditions under which administrative activities perform and also this socio-economic changes can influence on changes of the premises of government management system design. Moreover, S&T development management system is a subsystem of government system so that the directions of structural reform of those subsystems should be considered in the broad framework changes in the development management system of the government. For the last forty years, the Korean government S&T development management system has been based on the premises including transformation from an agrarian society to an industrial society, authoritarianism and centrally controlled institutions, and exteremely small portions of private investments for science and thechonology R & D of the total. Recently, however, the premises of Korean government S&T development management system have rapidly changed. the characteristics of these changes are including tranformation from an industrial society to a knowledge and information intensive society, globalization, localization, and relatively large portion of private investments for science and technology R & C of the total. The basis of government reforms in Korea was the realization of the performances and values through the enhancement of national competitive capacity, attainment of lean government, decentralization and autonomy. However, the Korean government has attached a symbolic value of strategic organizations representing strong policy intentions of government for the science and technology based development. Most problems associated with the Korean government S&T development management system have grown worse during 1990s. Many people perceive that considerable part of this problem was generated because the government could not properly adapt itself to new administrative environment and the paradigm shift in its role. First of all, the Korean government S&T development management system as a whole failed to develop an integrated vision under which processes in formulating science and thechology development goals and developing consistent government plans concerning science and technology development are guided. Second, most of the local governments have little organizational capacity and manpowers to handle localized activities to promote science and technology in their regions. Third, the measure to coordinate and set priorities to invest resources for the development of science and technology was not effective. Fourth, the Most has been losing its reputation as the symbol of ideological commitment of the top policy maker to promote science and technology. Various ideas to reform government S&T development management system have been suggested recently. Most frequently cited ideas are as follow : (ⅰ)strengthen the functions of MoST by supplementing the strong incentive and regulatory measures; (ⅱ)create a new Ministry of Education, Science & Technology and Research by merging the Ministry of Education and the MoST; (ⅲ)create a new Ministry of Science & Technology and Industry ; and(ⅳ)create a National Science and Technology Policy Council under the chairmanship of the President. Four alternatives suggested have been widely discussed among the interested parties and they each have merits as well as weaknesses. The first alternative could be seen as an alternative which cannot resolve current conflicts among various ministries concerning priority setting and resource allocation. However, this alternatives can be seen as a way of showing the top policymaker's strong intention to emphasize science and technology based development. Second alternative is giving a strategic to emphasize on the training and supplying qualified manpower to meet knowledge and information intensive future society. This alternative is considered to be consistent with the new administrative paradigm emphasizing lean government and decentralization. However, opponents are worrying about the linkages and cooperative research between university and industry could be weakening. The third alternative has been adopted mostly in nations which have strong basic science research but weak industrial innovation traditions. Main weakness of this alternative for Korea is that Korean science and technology development system has no strong basic science and technology research traditions. The fourth alternative is consistent with new administrative paradigms and government reform bases. However, opponents to this alternative are worried that the intensive development of science and technology because of Korea's low potential research capabilities in science and technology development. Considerning the present Korean socio-economic situation which demands highly qualified human resources and development strategies which emphasizes the accumulations of knowledge-based stocks, I would like to suggest the route of creating a new Ministry of Education, Science & Technology and Research by intergrating education administration functions and science & technology development function into one ministry.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.26-46
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• 2020

An irrigated-maize agroecosystem is viewed as an open thermodynamic system upon which solar radiation impresses a large gradient that moves the system away from equilibrium. Following the imperative of the second law of thermodynamics, such agroecosystem resists and reduces the externally applied gradient by using all means of this nature-human coupled system acting together as a nonequilibrium dissipative process. The ultimate purpose of our study is to test this hypothesis by examining the energetics of agroecosystem growth and development. As a first step toward this test, we employed the eddy covariance flux data from 2003 to 2014 at the AmeriFlux NE1 irrigated-maize site at Mead, Nebraska, USA, and analyzed the energetics of this agroecosystem by scrutinizing its radiation, energy and entropy exchange. Our results showed: (1) more energy capture during growing season than non-growing season, and increasing energy capture through growing season until senescence; (2) more energy flow activity within and through the system, providing greater potential for degradation; (3) higher efficiency in terms of carbon uptake and water use through growing season until senescence; and (4) the resulting energy degradation occurred at the expense of increasing net entropy accumulation within the system as well as net entropy transfer out to the surrounding environment. Under the drought conditions in 2012, the increased entropy production within the system was accompanied by the enhanced entropy transfer out of the system, resulting in insignificant net entropy change. Drought mitigation with more frequent irrigation shifted the main route of entropy transfer from sensible to latent heat fluxes, yielding the production and carbon uptake exceeding the 12-year mean values at the cost of less efficient use of water and light.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.478-485
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• 2018

With the total population of 3,356 worldwide as of 2016, the black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) is designated as "endangered (EN)" species by IUCN. About 70% of population breeds on the uninhabited islands near the west coast of Korea and wintering area is Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, etc. However, there is few detail research in Korea and East Asia on black-faced spoonbill's long range migration and its habitat when migrating southward. We studied black-faced spoonbill's migration route, distribution, stopover, wintering sites, and timing of migration movements using a wild-tracker (WT-200, GPS-Mobile phone based telemetry, KoEco). We caught the black-faced spoonbills in the breeding sites (Gugi island, Bi island, Sangyeobawi, Chilsan island) in Korea in late June 2014. We attached the wild-tracker to 10 juvenile black-faced spoonbills. The tracking showed that the black-faced spoonbills started southward migration between late October and early November. The traveling distance to wintering site was maximum at 1,820 km, minimum at 746 km, the average at 1,201km. The maximum daily traveling distance was 1,479 km with an average of 782 km. The average days it took from breeding site to wintering site was 10 days (SD=10.7). The shortest duration was 2 days, and the longest duration was 34 days. Most individuals used 2-3 stopover sites between the breeding sites to the wintering sites and stayed almost 1-2 days (maximum 31 days). Stopover sites were wetlands such as rivers, streams, reservoir, and mud flat. The wintering sites were coastal areas (five individuals) in China, inland (one individual) in China, Taiwan (three individuals), and Japan (one individual). In conclusion, it is necessary to preserve the stopover sites and wintering site of the black-faced spoonbills through consultation and protection policy between countries and establish the systematic preservation measures and activity plans through continued moniting and additional studies.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.55-59
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• 2010

Purpose: Renal excretion is the main route of FDG clearance in FDG PET/CT scan. Applying optimal method of renal excretion is very important for enhancing image quality and diagnostic accuracy. We evaluated several methods of renal excretion in FDG PET/CT scan. Materials and Methods: Thirty patients with normal renal function were prospectively included. Patients were divided into three group and undergone early and delayed FDG PET/CT scans. (1) Delay group; at 1 hour later of early scan, delayed scan was performed without additional hydration, (2) Hydration group; at 1 hour later of early scan, delayed scan was performed with additional oral hydration (700 mL of water), (3) Lasix group; lasix was administered at the end of early scan and dealyed scan was performed 30 min later. Early and delayed scans were compared to evaluate efficiency of renal excretion. Visual and quantitative analyses were performed by experienced physician and technologist of nuclear medicine. Results: On the visual analysis, renal excretion was the most evident in Lasix group followed by Hydration group. Delay group showed poor renal excretion. On the quantitative analysis, washout rates were $9.2{\pm}20.7%$, $28.1{\pm}22.8%$ and $29.5{\pm}23.1%$ for Delay, Hydration and Lasix groups, respectively. Conclusion: Administration of lasix was the best method for enhancing renal excretion. Delayed scan with hydration was also efficient method, but delayed scan without hydration was not adequate method.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.40 no.7 s.276
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• pp.492-498
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• 2007

Background: Malignant pleural effusion is a common condition in neoplastic patients and palliative therapy is the usual treatment. Talc has been generally accepted to be the most effective sclerosant for chemical pleurodesis, but the optimal route of administration remains controversy. We compared the results of video-assisted thoracoscopic talc poudrage (VTP) with administering a bedside talc slurry through a chest tube (BTS) for the treatment of malignant pleural effusion. Material and Method: From December 2004 to May 2006, 20 patients with malignant pleural effusion underwent chemical pleurodesis via VTP (group A, n=10), and BTS (group B, n=10). Result: The durations of chest tube placement after the procedure were $7.0{\pm}4.0$ days (group A) and $6.7{\pm}3.6$ days (group B). The hospital stays were $24.3{\pm}9.4$ days (group A) and $30.7{\pm}21.5$ days (group B), respectively. The symptoms of dyspnea were much more improved in group A (p-value=0.014) after discharge (mean f/u group $A=8.5{\pm}2.2$ months, group B $8.0{\pm}7.4$ months). The collapsed portions of lung were better expanded in group A than in group B (p-value=0.011). Conclusion: We recommend VTP for the selected patients with malignant pleural effusion because of the advantages of dissecting the fibrous peel to relieve the atelectasis and dyspnea, and excising the pleura for diagnosis with direct viewing of the lesion.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.87-100
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• 2009

Objectives: This study was conducted to suggest the way to improve the tobacco control program of public health centers in Korea. Methods: A survey with a self-administered questionnaire was conducted among 246 persons in charge of tobacco control work in public health centers nationwide in December, 2006. Frequency analysis was performed with a final sample of 212 respondents with SPSS 12.0 for Windows. Results: The duration of engagement in tobacco control work was less than 3 years among 86.7% of respondents, and 87.3% of respondents had other duties besides tobacco control. Almost all public health centers conducted a campaign with posters or leaflets, and smoking prevention education among adolescents. The actual priority for programs was based on the community diagnosis in only 33.5% of the cases. Only 1.9% of respondents complained lack of budget, on the other hand, 44.7% of respondents appealed insufficient number of personnel. The route of knowledge and skill was largely dependent on self-learning or information from colleague. Collaboration with other related department was done well in 39.5% of the cases. The majority of respondents was satisfied with the general support from central government. Conclusions: To improve the tobacco control program of public health centers, it is needed the reinforcement of capacity and specialty among personnel, priority setting and performance of programs based on the scientific evidence, induction of community participation, utilization of community human resources, development of education and training course for practical skill, effective networking among departments.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.52-62
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• 1991

The toxic effect of azalea extract, expecially on cardiovascular system, is relatively unclear. The purpose of this study is to study the possible underlying mechanism and effect of toxic ingredient of azalea on cardiovascular system. The 71 healthy rabbits were divided into 10 groups : In group as preliminary study ; 4cc of normal saline was administered intravenously(N) ; 0.7gm/kg and 1.0gm/kg of azalea extract was administered respectively in the same route, volume(A1, A2) ; atropine was administered intravenously(A) ; after pretreatment with atropine(0.04mg/kg) to block parasympathetic system, azalea extract was injected like the above groups(AA1, AA2) ; normal saline, 0.7gm/kg and 1.0gm/kg of azalea extract were administered respectively with 0.2cc(1 : 1000) epinephrine(E0,E1,E2). We measured the following indices at I minute interval during first 10 minutes and then 10 minute interval during next 30 minutes : RR interval, QTc interval, maximal systolic and diastolic pressure drop with occuring time and presence of significant arrhythmia. The results were as follows : 1. The changes of RR interval, QTc interval were significantly increased in groups by Azalea extract. The blood pressure change was significantly decreased in groups by Azalea extract. There were no significant differences according to dosage of Azalea extract. 2. The changes of RR interval, blood pressure were significant differences between administration of atropine and Azalea extract after pretreatment with atropine, but not in the change of QTc interval. 3. There were no significant differences in the change of RR interval, ATc interval, blood pressure drop according to pretreatment with atropine. 4. The interaction between epineprine and Azalea extract was not noted by the effect of epineprine itself. 5. The ST change by 0.7gm/kg, 1.0gm/kg of Azalea extract was revealed in 1 case(14.0%), 7 case(100%), respectively. 6. Most of all cases with arrhthymia, ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, were noted in the group by epineprine, except one case by Azalea extract(1.0gm/kg). It was idioventricular rhythm. In conclusion, azalea extract has negative inotropic and chronotropic effect with arrhythmogenic potential possibly through direct myocardial ischemia or injury but we cann't be absolutely exclusive of actions of autonmic nervous system, especially parasympathetic nervous system.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 1962

Immune response to two methods of Newcastle disease virus vaccine, one inactivated and the other attenuated was observed and the data presented. (1) Administration of inactivated virus vaccine in an amount of 1.0 ml. by intramuscular route gave an appreciable immunity to Newcastle disease for a period of at least three-and-half months. (2) The chickens given attenuated virus vaccine in the drinking water produced satisfactory immunity as manifested by the fact that immunized birds showed resistance when challenged 105 days after the vaccination and maintained high degree of HI titer for a period of 75 days. (3) Vaccination with the attenuated virus vaccine in drinking water is very simple and time saving in procedure, although the duration of immunity seems to be slightly shorter than that proced by inactivated virus vaccine. The author wishes to express his appreciation, to Drs. Kyu Myung Lee, Chang Koo Lee, and Ryong Sook Kee of their suggestions and help. The author is also indebted to Dr. Chang Hi Lee, Director of Anyang Veterinary Laboratory, who allowed the use of the facilities of the laboratory, whitout which this experiment could not have been undertaken.