• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.1-13
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• 2022

Kidney disease is becoming a global public health issue. Acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have serious adverse health outcomes. However, there is no effective therapy to treat these diseases. Lactoferrin (LF), a multi-functional glycoprotein, is protective against various pathophysiological conditions in various disease models. LF shows protective effects against AKI and CKD. LF reduces markers related to inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and kidney fibrosis, and induces autophagy and mitochondrial biogenesis in the kidney. Although there are no clinical trials of LF to treat kidney disease, several clinical trials and studies on LF-based drug development are ongoing. In this review, we discussed the possible kidney protective mechanisms of LF, as well as the pharmacological and therapeutic advances. The evidence suggests that LF may become a potent pharmacological agent to treat kidney diseases.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제30권4호
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• pp.299-308
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• 2022

T cells are attractive targets for the development of immunotherapy to treat cancer due to their biological features, capacity of cytotoxicity, and antigen-specific binding of receptors. Novel strategies that can modulate T cell functions or receptor reactivity provide effective therapies, including checkpoint inhibitor, bispecific antibody, and adoptive transfer of T cells transduced with tumor antigen-specific receptors. T cell-based therapies have presented successful pre-clinical/clinical outcomes despite their common immune-related adverse effects. Ongoing studies will allow us to advance current T cell therapies and develop innovative personalized T cell therapies. This review summarizes immunotherapeutic approaches with a focus on T cells. Anti-cancer T cell therapies are also discussed regarding their biological perspectives, efficacy, toxicity, challenges, and opportunities.

• Medical Lasers
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.84-87
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• 2020

Post-acne erythema (PAE) is one of the major problems during or after treatment of acne vulgaris with any modality. A variety of therapeutic options have been described with various clinical outcomes and side effects. We report here on treating a patient with PAE using 595-nm picosecond-domain neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Nd:YAG) laser. After four sessions of treatment, the patient displayed nearly complete improvement and no remarkable adverse effects. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first case of the effective treatment of PAE using a 595-nm picosecond-domain Nd:YAG laser. We recommend that using a 595-nm picosecond-domain Nd:YAG laser can be both an effective and safe treatment option for treating PAE.

• Journal of Smart Tourism
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.9-17
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• 2021

Smart tourism research and development have mainly focused on the benefits of smart tourism technologies to certain stakeholders with transactional relationships in destinations. However, smart technologies in destinations could also cause several negative outcomes, leading to social, ethical, and moral issues. Such issues arise from the power imbalance between different stakeholders of smart tourism development. To mitigate the adverse effects of smart technologies, destinations need to enunciate the essential moral and ethical principles when developing smart tourism. Therefore, adopting descriptive and normative approaches to stakeholder theory, this paper proposes a framework to showcase several methods to address the issues.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제44권2호
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• pp.194-207
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• 2022

In the last decade, substantial progress has been achieved in intelligent traffic control technologies to overcome consistent difficulties of traffic congestion and its adverse effect on smart cities. Edge computing is one such advanced progress facilitating real-time data transmission among vehicles and roadside units to mitigate congestion. An edge computing-based deep reinforcement learning system is demonstrated in this study that appropriately designs a multiobjective reward function for optimizing different objectives. The system seeks to overcome the challenge of evaluating actions with a simple numerical reward. The selection of reward functions has a significant impact on agents' ability to acquire the ideal behavior for managing multiple traffic signals in a large-scale road network. To ascertain effective reward functions, the agent is trained withusing the proximal policy optimization method in several deep neural network models, including the state-of-the-art transformer network. The system is verified using both hypothetical scenarios and real-world traffic maps. The comprehensive simulation outcomes demonstrate the potency of the suggested reward functions.

• 국제학술발표논문집
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• The 9th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• pp.11-17
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• 2022

Design-bid-build (DBB) is the most common project delivery method among highway projects. State Highway Agencies (SHAs) usually apply a low-bid approach to select contractors for their DBB projects. In this approach, the Federal Highway Agency suggests SHAs heighten contractors' competition to lower bid prices. However, these attempts may become ineffective due to collusive bidding arrangements among certain contractors. One common strategy is the rotation of winning bidders of a group of contractors who bid on many of the same projects. These arrangements may also be specific to a particular region or vary in time. Despite the practices' adverse effects on bidding outcomes, an effective model to detect red-flag bidding patterns is lacking. This study fills the gap by proposing a novel framework that utilizes pattern mining techniques and statistical tests for unusual pattern detection. A case study with historical data from an SHA is conducted to illustrate the proposed framework.

• 한국건설관리학회논문집
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• 제24권6호
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• pp.91-98
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• 2023

Construction accidents result from a combination of factors, including both the actions of workers and the safety conditions on site. Despite advancements in enhancing construction site safety, there remains a gap in comprehending the cognitive processes underlying workers' unsafe behavior. This paper investigates and validates a qualitative model that delves into the potential causes of workers' unsafe actions by examining their cognitive processes, employing a system dynamics approach. By analyzing the interplay of various loops within this model, it offers both short- and long-term safety strategies for managers intent on minimizing unsafe behavior among workers. Specifically, safety managers should prioritize increasing workers' awareness of hazards through education and fostering a positive safety mindset. Moreover, they should task frontline supervisors with directly addressing and rectifying instances of unsafe behavior by workers. Lastly, construction safety managers ought to formulate safety strategies that take into account the cognitive states of workers to mitigate any adverse consequences of biased safety management. The outcomes of this research contribute to our comprehension of methods to enhance hazard perception among workers, curtail unsafe actions, and ultimately reduce construction accidents from a cognitive standpoint.

• 한방안이비인후피부과학회지
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• 제33권4호
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• pp.74-99
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• 2020

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness and safety of Socheongryong-tang(SCRT) for allergic rhinitis(AR). Methods : We searched randomized controlled trials(RCTs) that used SCRT for AR in 8 databases(PubMed, Cochrane Library, CNKI, CiNii Articles, OASIS, NDSL, KISS, KMbase) from their inception until August 2019. The primary outcome was effective rate and scores evaluating the improvement of AR symptoms. The secondary outcome was quality of life scale, adverse events, recurrence rate, and laboratory indicators. Two researchers assessed the risk of bias in the included trials through the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool independently. The study synthesized outcomes using RevMan 5.3. Results : Eighteen RCTs involving 1686 participants were included in this review. The risk of bias was unclear for the majority of the included studies. Meta-analysis of 12 RCTs showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the SCRT group and usual care group in the effective rate(RR 1.18, 95% CI(0.98, 1.41), p=0.09, I²=46%). Meta-analysis of 5 RCTs showed that the combination treatment group of SCRT and usual care was significantly higher than the usual care group in the effective rate(RR 1.24, 95% CI(1.12, 1.38), p<0.0001, I²=0%). The SCRT group was more effective in improving nasal symptoms and quality of life than the placebo group according to one RCT. Mild adverse events such as dry mouth were identified in 5 RCTs, but no serious adverse events were reported. Conclusion : This review showed that in terms of the effective rate for AR, there was no statistically significant difference between SCRT and usual care and the combination treatment of SCRT and usual care was more effective than usual care. There were no serious adverse events. However, it is difficult to make a definite conclusion because of few included studies and heterogeneity between studies, and the quality of included studies was mostly insufficient. Further well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• 제69권2호
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• pp.103-107
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• 2010

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether findings on initial chest computed tomography (CT) of influenza pneumonia can help predict clinical outcome. Methods: We reviewed all adult patients admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) with a confirmed diagnosis of novel influenza A H1N1 virus (2009 H1N1) pneumonia, who underwent chest CT upon admission between Aug 26, 2009 and Jan 31, 2010. Radiologic findings were characterized by type and pattern of opacities and zonal distribution. Clinical outcome measures were intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation, and inhospital death. Results: Of 59 patients diagnosed with 2009 H1N1 pneumonia, 41 (69.5%) underwent chest CT on admission into ED. Nine (22%) of these patients developed adverse clinical outcomes requiring the following treatments: 9 (22.0%) ICU admissions, 5 (12.2%) mechanical ventilation, and 3 (7.3%) inhospital deaths. Counting the number of patients with more than 4 involved lobes, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for detection of adverse clinical outcome were 67%, 84%, 55% and 80%, respectively. Conclusion: Extensive involvement of both lungs (over 4 lobes) is related to ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, and inhospital death. Initial chest CT may help predict an adverse clinical outcome of patients with 2009 H1N1 influenza pneumonia.

• 대한상부위장관⦁헬리코박터학회지
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.180-185
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• 2018

Background/Aims: We aimed to compare the outcomes of Helicobacter pylori eradication in patients receiving sequential therapy (ST) depending on the use of ecabet sodium (ES). Materials and Methods: Between January to December 2015, 176 patients randomly received either ST alone (n=72) or 10-day ES therapy combined with ST (n=104). After applying the exclusion criteria, 56 patients were finally assigned to the ST-only group and 84 to the ST with ES group. We retrospectively reviewed and analyzed the H. pylori eradication rate and adverse events between the two groups. Results: Among the 140 patients, 121 (86.4%) achieved successful H. pylori eradication and 24 (17.1%) had adverse events. Eradication was achieved in 50 patients (89.3%) in the ST-only group and in 71 patients (84.5%) in the ST with ES group (P=0.420). No significant difference in the incidence of adverse events was found between the ST-only and ST with ES groups (12.5% vs. 20.2%, respectively; P=0.234). However, the ST with ES group tended to have a higher prevalence of nausea or vomiting than the ST-only group (11.9% vs. 1.8%; P=0.050). Conclusions: ST showed a good H. pylori eradication rate without deteriorating the adverse events regardless of adding ES.