• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.148-154
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• 2005

Since the output of retina for visual stimulus is carried by neurons of very diverse functional properties, it is not adequate to use conventional single electrode for recording the retinal action potential. For this purpose, we used newly developed multichannel recording system for monitoring the simultaneous electrical activities of many neurons in a functioning piece of retina. Retinal action potentials are recorded with an extra-cellular planar array of 60 microelectrodes. In studying the collective activity of the ganglion cell population it is essential to recognize basic functional distinctions between individual neurons. Therefore, it is necessary to detect and to classify the action potential of each ganglion cell out of mixed signal. We programmed M-files with MATLAB for this sorting process. This processing is mandatory for further analysis, e.g. poststimulus time histogram (PSTH), auto-correlogram, and cross-correlogram. We established MATLAB based protocol for waveform classification and verified that this approach was effective as an initial spike sorting method.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 1997

Cardiovascular disease has been the leading cause of death among patients with chronic renal failure. Many reports have been described that homocysteine is one of the independent risk factor to the occulsive vascular disease. In this study, HPLC/FLD (high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detector) technique was used to measure homocysteine level in patients with chronic renal failure and normal control group. The detection limit and recovery of total plasma homocysteine using HPLC/FLD were 98.6$\pm$5.8% and 0.2 nmol/ml, respectively. The linearity of this method was established in concentration range of 2~50 nmol/ml (correlation coefficient=0.9997). The concentrations of total plasma homocysteine were 6.81$\pm$1.54 nmol/ml and 27.28$\pm$14.94 nmol/ml in normal control (n=20) and patient group (n=90), respectively (p<0.05). In this study, the HPLC/FLD method showed high sensitivity and reproducibility for a routine clinical laboratory testing. Moreover determination of homocysteine level in plasma might be useful for a biochemical marker for predicting the cardiovascular diseases and for monitoring of therapeutic effect of lowering homocysteine in patients with chronic renal failure.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.118-123
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• 2016

Antimicrobial agents have been used in poultry for treatment of bacterial infections or additives over the past half century. However, increasing antimicrobial resistance has led to selective pressure for therapeutic use in humans and made treatment of bacterial infection more difficult. In this study, we examined the prevalence of plasmid mediated antimicrobial resistant determinants for resistance to ${\beta}-lactam$, quinolone, and aminoglycoside in Enterobacteriaceae isolates obtained from chickens in Gyeongsang provinces, and correlation between the resistant genes and antimicrobial resistance rate was also assessed. A total of 43 Enterobacteriaceae isolates were recovered from 40 chickens at Gyeongsang provinces in Korea. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion method. PCR and DNA sequencing were performed to characterize the antimicrobial resistant genes. Of the 43 Enterobacteriaceae isolates tested, 2 isolates harbored $bla_{CTX-M-14}$ gene, and 2 and 5 strains contained qnrS and aac(6')-Ib-cr genes, respectively. A total of 43 isolates displayed a relatively lower susceptible rate ranging between 0.0 and 23.3% to most of the antimicrobial agents, except cefepime, ceftazidime, and cefaclor. We confirmed that plasmid mediated antimicrobial resistant determinants were distributed in Enterobacteriaceae isolates from chickens. Investigation of the genes and monitoring of antimicrobial resistance rate is required to prevent further spreading of antimicrobial resistant genes among Enterobacteriaceae isolates.

• 재활복지
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.221-235
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• 2014

Recently, the frequency of stroke disease is increased due to the rapid aging population, and is contributed to the major occurrence factors of the posteriori acquired disability. This study is about an postural change device for the control of supine posture which is an assisted equipment using in daily rehabilitation process for overcoming the disability by the aftereffects of the stoke disease. In this paper, the existing domestic and Japan postural appliances is examined and its comparison and categorization is performed according to its functions and purposes. Here, in order to control the supine posture state, the design method for advanced multi functional system is proposed, which is devised to have an unified mattress control operations of combining the bedsore prevention tube with the supine posture tilting tube. And also, in addition of an smart function, it is designed to enable to perform an RF functions such as the monitoring of the present device state, the alteration of the basic position and the control of alternative floating and supine posture. This system control hardware consists of three main parts : the sensor detection part, the motor driving /control part, and the system control part for bluetooth communication. In results, we confirmed that the system designed by this research is possible to make it practical as an advanced smart postural change device combined by IoT technology in the application field of the recent IT technology.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.770-781
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• 2021

Objective: Chemical exchange-dependent saturation transfer (CEST) MRI is sensitive for detecting solid-like proteins and may detect changes in the levels of mobile proteins and peptides in tissues. The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of chemical exchange proton pools using the CEST MRI technique in patients with dementia. Materials and Methods: Our institutional review board approved this cross-sectional prospective study and informed consent was obtained from all participants. This study included 41 subjects (19 with dementia and 22 without dementia). Complete CEST data of the brain were obtained using a three-dimensional gradient and spin-echo sequence to map CEST indices, such as amide, amine, hydroxyl, and magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry (MTR_asym) values, using six-pool Lorentzian fitting. Statistical analyses of CEST indices were performed to evaluate group comparisons, their correlations with gray matter volume (GMV) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: Amine signals (0.029 for non-dementia, 0.046 for dementia, p = 0.011 at hippocampus) and MTR_asym values at 3 ppm (0.748 for non-dementia, 1.138 for dementia, p = 0.022 at hippocampus), and 3.5 ppm (0.463 for non-dementia, 0.875 for dementia, p = 0.029 at hippocampus) were significantly higher in the dementia group than in the non-dementia group. Most CEST indices were not significantly correlated with GMV; however, except amide, most indices were significantly correlated with the MMSE scores. The classification power of most CEST indices was lower than that of GMV but adding one of the CEST indices in GMV improved the classification between the subject groups. The largest improvement was seen in the MTR_asym values at 2 ppm in the anterior cingulate (area under the ROC curve = 0.981), with a sensitivity of 100 and a specificity of 90.91. Conclusion: CEST MRI potentially allows noninvasive image alterations in the Alzheimer's disease brain without injecting isotopes for monitoring different disease states and may provide a new imaging biomarker in the future.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2016

A ketone body (acetoacetic acid, β-hydroxybutyric acid, and acetone) increases from blood or urine when bio-energy dependence pays more fatty acid than glucose. However, in case oxidation of fat is greater than the capacity of the citric acid cycle the fatty acid oxidation is made from acetoacetyl CoA to acetoacetate then, again form β-hydroxyburytic acid to acetone, the diffusion take place into the blood. Enzymes that oxidize ketone body in the brain and nerve tissue blood ketone dody is increased during prolonged fasting, brain used it as energy. In this study, we developed the rapid two step derivatization method for sensitive detection of the ketone body by GC-MS/SIM. The plasma was deproteinized and then the hydroxy and carboxyl groups of ketone body are subjected to extraction and drying then, keto-group were derivatized with hydoxylamine at 60℃ for 30 min for oximation. Then it was trimetyl-silylated with BSTFA at 80℃ for 30 min and analyzed using a GC-MS. The linear ranges were in between 0.001 μg/mL and 250 μg/mL for β-hydroxy butyrate, and acetoacetate. The method detection limits were below 0.1 pg over each target compound determined. The mean recoveries (%) of target compounds were ranged from 88.2 % to 92.3 % at 1 µg/mL, from 89.5 % to 94.8 % at 10 μg/mL, with RSD of 6.3-9.4 %. This method could be applied to quantification of ketone bodies which are seen in the keto-acidosis in children and adults from a variety of diseases that cause ketones in the blood and urine.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1516-1524
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• 2020

Climate change is expected to affect not only availability and quality of water, the valuable resource of human life on Earth, but also ultimately public health issue. A six-year monitoring (total 20 times) of Escherichia coli O157, Salmonella enterica, Legionella pneumophila, Shigella sonnei, Campylobacter jejuni, and Vibrio cholerae was conducted at five raw water sampling sites including two lakes, Hyundo region (Geum River) and two locations near Water Intake Plants of Han River (Guui region) and Nakdong River (Moolgeum region). A total 100 samples of 40 L water were tested. Most of the targeted bacteria were found in 77% of the samples and at least one of the target bacteria was detected (65%). Among all the detected bacteria, E. coli O157 were the most prevalent with a detection frequency of 22%, while S. sonnei was the least prevalent with a detection frequency of 2%. Nearly all the bacteria (except for S. sonnei) were present in samples from Lake Soyang, Lake Juam, and the Moolgeum region in Nakdong River, while C. jejuni was detected in those from the Guui region in Han River. During the six-year sampling period, individual targeted noxious bacteria in water samples exhibited seasonal patterns in their occurrence that were different from the indicator bacteria levels in the water samples. The fact that they were detected in the five Korea's representative water environments make it necessary to establish the chemical and biological analysis for noxious bacteria and sophisticated management systems in response to climate change.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.1056-1063
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• 2012

Recent rapidly growth in nanotechnolgies is promised novel benefits through the exploitation of their unique industrial and biomedical applications. With increasing utilization of nanomaterials in consumer products, the potential release of nanomaterials into the environment and their impacts on the ecosystem and human health have been the issues of concern. Nanomaterials that was exposed unintentionally in environment might be accumulated in various environmental media, and finally it will be influenced to human and ecosystems. Therefore, it is important to understand the fate and behavior of nanoparticles for understanding effects on environmental media (air, water, and soil phase). Therefore, in this work, we investigated the several cases for environmental exposure of nanomaterials and suggested the direction of further research. In workplace, exposure to air media is dominant, but finally waste and wastewater was moved to the water and soil phase. In addition, we found the existing sewage treatment plant was not suitable to remove completely nanomaterials in wastewater flow. To deeper study, environmental monitoring tool must be developed additionally and we suggested the several analyzing method for aged and pristine physicochemical properties of nanomaterials exposed into environmental media. This review for nanomaterials' exposure to environmental media will be helpful to investigate the environmental fate of nanomaterials and define the suitable treatment method for nano-waste.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.49 no.10
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• pp.202-208
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• 2012

Fetal heart rate monitoring is important information to assess fetal well-being. Non-invasive fetal ECG (electrocardiography) can be derived from maternal abdominal signal. And various promising signal processing methods have been introduced to extract fetal ECG from mother's composite abdominal signal. However, non-invasive fetal ECG monitoring still has not been widely used in clinical practice due to insufficient reliable measurement and difficulty of signal processing. In application of signal processing method to extract fetal ECG, it might be lower signal to noise ratio due to time varying white Gaussian noise. In this paper, time varying Kalman smoother is proposed to remove white noise in fetal ECG and its feasibility is confirmed. Wiener process was set as Kalman system model and covariance matrix was modified according to white Gaussian noise level. Modified error covariance matrix changed Kalman gain and degree of smoothness. Optimal covariance matrix according to various amplitude in Gaussian white noise was extracted by 5 channel fetal ECG model, and feasibility of proposed method could be confirmed.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2008

The major risk associated with the use of automated power injectors is the well known complication of contrast material extravasation at the injection site. Automated injection of computed tomography (CT) contrast media can produce the compartment syndrome. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of this device during clinically important episodes of extravasation. The extravasation detection accessory (EDA) system was composed of a strain gage, an amplifier and a computer based system. A strain gage pliable adhesive patch was applied to the skin aver the intravenous catheter and the catheter was connected to the power injector with a cable to monitor the resolution data. If the programmed monitoring, which was developed with MS Visual C++, at the extravasation occurred, then the injection was interrupted the auto injector. CT was used to demonstrate the clinically important extravasation. This study was a prospective, observational study in which the EDA system was used to monitor the automated mechanical injection of contrast material in 7 dogs. There were two true-positive cases (range of extravasation volumes: $18{\sim}22ml$), twenty three true-negative cases, three false-positive cases and no false-negative cases. The EDA system had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 88% for the detection of clinically important extravasation. The EDA system had good sensitivity for the detection of clinically important extravasation and the EDA system has the clinical potential for the early detection of extravasation of the contrast medium that is administered with power injectors. The EDA system is easy to use safe and accurate for the monitoring extravasation of the intravenous injections, and this system may prove especially useful in CT applications.