• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.65-72
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• 2016

This study presented an analytical method for detecting radium in soils using a liquid scintillation counter (LSC). The isotope ²²⁶Ra was extracted from soil using the fusion method and then separated from interfering radionuclides using the precipitation method. Radium was coprecipitated as sulfate salts with barium (Ba) and then converted into Ba(Ra)CO₃, which is soluble in an acidic solution. The isotope ²²²Rn, the decay progeny of ²²⁶Ra, was trapped in a water immiscible cocktail and analyzed by LSC. The pulse shape analysis (PSA) level was estimated using ⁹⁰Sr and ²²⁶Ra standard solutions. The figure of merit was the highest at PSA 80, while the alpha spillover was the lowest at PSA 80. The counting efficiency was 243 ± 2% in a glass vial. This analytical method was verified with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reference materials, including IAEA-312, IAEA-314, and IAEA-315. The recovery ranged from 60–82%, while the relative bias between the measured value and the recommended value was less than 10%. The minimum detectable activity was 2.1 Bq kg⁻¹ with dry mass 1 g, the background count rate of 0.02 cpm, the recovery rate of 70% and counting time of 30 min.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10263-10266
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• 2015

Background: The risk of febrile neutropaenia (FN) and treatment related death (TRD) with first line palliative chemotherapy for de novo metastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains unknown outside of a clinical trial setting despite its widespread usage. This study aimed to determine rates in a large cohort of patients treated in the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). Materials and Methods: Patients who were treated with first line palliative chemotherapy for de novo MBC from 2002-2011 in UMMC were identified from the UMMC Breast Cancer Registry. Information collected included patient demographics, histopathological features, treatment received, including the different chemotherapy regimens, and presence of FN and TRD. FN was defined as an oral temperature > $38.5^{\circ}C$ or two consecutive readings of > $38.0^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours and an absolute neutrophil count < $0.5{\times}10^9/L$, or expected to fall below $0.5{\times}10^9/L$ (de Naurois et al, 2010). TRD was defined as death occurring during or within 30 days of the last chemotherapy treatment, as a consequence of the chemotherapy treatment. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS version 18.0 software. Survival probabilities were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and differences in survival compared using log-rank test. Results: Between $1^{st}$ January 2002 and $31^{st}$ December 2011, 424 patients with MBC were treated in UMMC. A total of 186 out of 221 patients with de novo MBC who received first line palliative chemotherapy were analyzed. The mean age of patients in this study was 49.5 years (range 24 to 74 years). Biologically, ER status was negative in 54.4% of patients and Her-2 status was positive in 31.1%. A 5-flourouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (FEC) chemotherapy regimen was chosen for 86.6% of the cases. Most patients had multiple metastatic sites (58.6%). The main result of this study showed a FN rate of 5.9% and TRD rate of 3.2%. The median survival (MS) for the entire cohort was 19 months. For those with multiple metastatic sites, liver only, lung only, bone only and brain only metastatic sites, the MS was 18, 24, 19, 24 and 8 months respectively (p-value= 0.319). Conclusions: In conclusion, we surmise that FEC is a safe regimen with acceptable FN and TRD rates for de novo MBC.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.333-341
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• 1990

To investigate bovine leukosis virus (BLV) infection in the cattle rearing in a dairy farm where a case of bovine lymphosarcoma had been identified several years ago, the 196 Holstein cattle including newborn calves to 12 years of age were tested. The BLV antibody test and peripheral lymphocyte count for bovine leukosis were carried out by the immunodiffusion (ID) test and Bendixen's Kep. These tests were performed 2 to 4 times at the interval of 3 to 5 months. The observed results were as follows: 1. The positive rates of BLV-antibody in the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th tests were 23.3%, 28.1%, 49.0% and 55.7%, respectively. The conversion rates from negative to positive in the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th tests were 8.9%, 41.4%, and 20.0%, respectively. Results showed that the highest conversion rate was observed at the 3rd test which was conducted after winter. The highest positive rate by ID test were observed in 4 year old cattle in the 1st and 2nd tests, and in 2 year old herd in the 3rd and 4th tests. 2. In hematological test by Bendixen's Key, the positive and suspicious rates in the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th tests were 5.8 and 7.8%, 8.3 and 6.6%, 8.7 and 10.1%, 10.8 and 19.6% respectively. Results showed that the positive and. suspicious rates increased in course of time. 3. 70 to 100% of the positive cattle in hematological test were positive for BLV-antibody test. All of 13 cattle with persistent lymphocytosis (PL) were also positive for BLV-antibody, indicating the high relationship between PL and BLV-antibody. 4. The number of total leukocytes and absolute lymphocytes in the BLV-antibody positive cattle appeared significantly higher than those of the negative cattle. The markedly increased cell counts were observed in the cattle over one year old. 5. The mean of total leukocytes and absolute lymphocytes in the negative cattle for BLV-antibody increased slightly after sero-conversion into positive. 6. In the clinical examinations during experimental periods, none of the 72 positive cattle for BLV-antibody showed any lesions for bovine leukosis.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.269-274
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• 2009

Purpose: There have been reported that preoperative chemotherapy for treating noncurative gastric cancer could increase the R0 resection rate by downstaging the gastric cancer. Yet there have been only rare reports about the effect of preoperative chemotherapy on performing surgery for noncurative gastric cancer. Our study was designed to analyze our experiences with these effects. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 46 patients who had undergone gastrectomy after chemotherapy between December 2001 and January 2009. The patients' preoperative condition, the operative findings and the postoperative clinical coursed were analyzed. Results: Preoperative chemotherapy was performed for a mean of 4.4 cycles. Four patients showed a level of ANC below 1,500 (${\mu}/L$) and above a 10 percentile weight loss, respectively. For an operation, we found fibrosis or fixation between the tumor and the adjacent organs in 29 patients, and 4 of the 13 patients who underwent resection with another organ were documented to have invasion by tumor. Forty one patients underwent curative resection. Ten patients developed postoperative complications. There was no mortality at postoperative 60 days. Conclusion: We assumed that preoperative chemotherapy had little effect on the patient preoperatively, and it had some effect on down-staging pathologically. Preoperative chemotherapy didn't increase the postoperative complication rate.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.141-146
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• 2016

HEVC/H.265 is the latest joint video coding standard proposed by ITU-T SG 16 WP and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC29/WG 11. In H.265, pictures are divided into a sequence of coding tree units(CTUs), and the CTU further is partitioned into multiple CUs to adapt to various local characteristics. Its coding efficiency is approximately two times high compared to previous standard H.264/AVC. However according to the size of extended CU(coding unit) and transform block, the hardware size of PMR(prediction/mode decision/reconstruction) block within video encoder is about 4 times larger than previous standard. In this study, we propose a new less complex hardware architecture of PMR block which has the most high complexity within encoder without any noticeable PSNR loss. Using this simplified block, we can shrink the overall size the H.265 encoder. For FHD image, it operates at clocking frequency of 300 MHz and frame rate of 60 fps. And also for the test image, the Bjøntegaard Delta (BD) bit rate increase about average 30 % in PMR prediction block, and the total estimated gate count of PMR block is around 1.8 M.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6905-6911
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• 2013

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the top cancer among women worldwide and the most frequent malignancy among Iranian women over the past few decades. The increasing trend and high mortality rate of BC in the developing world necessitates studies concentrating on its characteristics in countries in Asia. The current study focused on clinical and histopathological features of BC among Iranian females. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study involved 714 Iranian patients with histopathologically proven BC undergoing resection of primary tumours and axillary clearance. Demographic, clinical and histopathological data were obtained and studied between ten year age groups (${\leq}40$ years, 41-50 years, 51-60 years, 61-70 years, and ${\leq}71$ years) in four chronologic phases from 1994-2009. Results: Mean age of patients was $49.4{\pm}13.1$ years. Most of cases (33.2%) were in 41-50 group. Mean size of primary tumors was $3.94{\pm}2.47$ cm and 87.1% of cases had infiltrative ductal carcinoma. Modified radical mastectomy was the most common method of surgery carried out (48.8%). Some 57.1% of tumors were in pT2 and tumor size decreased significantly during the period (p<0.05). The most common BC stage was llla (27%). Lower BC stages (0 and 1) constituted 13.9% of the diagnosed tumors. Our series of patients aged ${\leq}40$ had larger tumors (mean $4.73{\pm}3.02$ cm) compared to older age groups (p=0.003). Lower stages (0 and I) were more frequent among the oldest patients while nearly 50% of patients aged ${\leq}40$ had tumor stage III. We also observed a significant decreasing trend in the mean LN count (p<0.05) and blood vessel invasion (p=0.023) from younger to older age groups. Conclusions: More aggressive disease for younger age groups, earlier peak incidence age and high rate of advanced BC at the time of diagnosis among Iranian women, were the main findings of this study.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.145-152
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• 2014

This study was performed to investigate the effect of of transdermal testosterone gel (TTG) on controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) and IVF outcomes and ovarian morphology according to pretreatment duration in poor responders. A total of 120 women were recruited for this pilot study. They were randomized into control, 2 weeks, 3 weeks or 4 weeks TTG treatment groups. For three TTG treatment groups, 12.5 mg TTG was applied daily for 2 weeks, 3 weeks or 4 weeks in preceding period of study stimulation cycle. After 3 weeks of TTG pretreatment, significant increase of antral follicle count (AFC) and significant decreases of mean follicular diameter (MFD) and resistance index (RI) value of ovarian stromal artery were observed (p=0.026, p<0.001, p<0.01, respectively). The total dose of rhFSH administered for COS significantly decreased after 3 and 4 weeks TTG treatment both compared with control group (p<0.001, p<0.001). The numbers of oocytes retrieved and mature oocytes were significanty higher in 3 and 4 weeks TTG treatment groups than control group (p<0.001, p<0.001 in the number of oocytes retrieved; p<0.001, p<0.001 in the number of mature oocytes). The clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate were increased only in 4 weeks TTG treatment group compared with control group (p=0.030 and p=0.042, respectively). These data demonstrated that TTG pretreatment for 3 to 4 weeks increases AFC and ovarian stromal blood flow, thereby potentially improving the ovarian response to COS and IVF outcome in poor responders undergoing IVF/ICSI.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.79-104
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• 1985

Clinical and cytomorphological studies were carried out in 32 leukotic cattle from Tokachi and Kushiro districts in Hokkaido during the 12 year period from 1969 to 1980. The leukotic cattle were examined :and divided into four types(15 cases of the adult, 11 cases of the thymic, 4 casas of the calf and 2 cases of the skin types). The results obtained were as follows : 1. As for the frequency of the main clinical signs in each type, In the adult type, the main clinical signs (of decreasing order) are as follows: swelling of the superficial lymph nodes>depression and loss of weight>tachycardia>anorekia, anemia of the visible mucous membrane and tachypnea. Those of the thymic type were swelling of the thymus>swelling of the medial iliac lymph nodes> swelling of the superficial lymph nodes>tachypnea. Those of the calf type were swelling of the auperficial lymph nodes>depression and emaciation>tachypnea>anorexia, tachycardia, anemia of the visible mucous membrane and recumbency. Those of the skin type were generalized urticaria-like lesions in skin and swelling of superficial lymph nodes>and depression and loss of weight in the decreasing order of frequency. In addition, large tumor mass in the pelvic cavity and swelling of the medial iliac lymph nodes were detected through rectal palpation in 33.3% and 100% in the adult type cases, respectively. 2. As for the hematological findings, The frequency of occurrence of decreased erythrocyte counts in the decreasing order were as follows : adult>calf>thymic>and skin types. The increase in the total leukocyte count in the order of decreasing frequency were as follows: calf>thymic>adult>and skin types. The increase in the absolute lymphocyte counts was found to be at a low rate, 62.5% of all the cases examined. By contrast, the increase of 5% or more of abnormal lymphocyte rates was observed at a high rate, 96.9% of the total cases. 3. Abnormal lymphocytes were found in all cases examined for lymph nodes biopsied. 4. From the cytomorphological point of view, leukotic cells were divided into 3 types: reticulum cell, lymphoid cell and monocytic cell types. The adult type leukotic cattle were divided with reticulum cell type (66.7%), the lymphoid cell type(22.6%) and monocytic cell type(6.7%). The thymic type was lymphoip cell type(72.7%) and reticulum cell type(27.3%). In the calf type, all were lymphoid cell type while all of the skin type were reticulum cell type only. 5. The leukotic cattle had higher NP frequency in the blood and lymphoid tissue than non-1 eukotic cattle. Especially the adult type had the highest NP frequency. However, it was not recognized that NP were characteristic of leukotic cattle alone. 6. The above findings lead to the conclusion that the most effective diagnostic methods for bovine leukosis are the confirmation of swelling of the superficial and internal lymph nodes and thymus in addition to appearance of abnormal neoplastic cell in the peripheral blood and lymph nodes biopsied.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.749-755
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• 2014

Exopolysaccharides (EPSs) have been widely used in the food industry as viscofying, stabilizing, and emulsifying agents as well as in the pharmaceutical industry for their immunomodulatory, anti-tumor, and anti-inflammatory effects. A total of 458 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains isolated from several kinds of soybean pastes were screened for the production of homo-EPS (HoPS). LAB isolates were primarily screened using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and further screened polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting genes involved in HoPS production. Six LAB isolates producing high amounts of HoPS were identified by TLC. Among these isolates, glucansucrase gene was amplified in two strains (JSA57, JSB22), whereas the fructansucrase gene was detected in three strains (JSA57, JSB22, JSB66). After isolating the strains, their morphological characteristics and 16S rDNA sequences were determined. Six species were identified as L. alimentarius HSB15, L. plantarum JSA22, L. pentosus JSA57, L. brevis JSB22, L. alimentarius JSB66, and L. parabrevis JSB89. To evaluate the potential probiotic properties of these LAB, their survival rates against a simulated intestinal environment were determined. After 2 hr of incubation in artificial gastric juice, survival rates of JSA57, JSB90, JSB22, and JSB66 were all greater than 50%. After 2 hr of incubation in bile juice, viable cell count of JSB22 was similar with initial vial cell counts. Growth of the six LAB was screened in arabino-oligosaccharide (AOS)-containing MRS broth. Results showed that growth of the isolates selectively increased after culture in AOS-containing media. Strain JSB22 (6 hr), JSB66 (6 hr), HSB15 (20 hr), and JSA22 (29 hr) showed maximum growth rate. Especially, JSB22 showed the highest growth rate. These results suggest that EPS-producing LAB isolated from Deonjang could be applied as synbiotics.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.905-911
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• 2002

A study was carried out to assess the therapeutic effect of ascorbic acid in mastitis of dairy cows. The herd with a population of 250-275 lactating cows was screened for clinical and subclinical mastitis for a period of 5 months. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, eighteen animals each with clinical and subclinical mastitis in one quarter only were selected as study population. Twelve cows (group A) with normal udder and health were also selected as a healthy control. Clinical mastitis cows were grouped as B (n=12) and C (n=6). Cows of group B were treated with ascorbic acid at 25 mg/kg, subcutaneously for 5 consecutive days and intramammary infusion (Ampicillin sodium 75 mg and Cloxacillin sodium 200 mg/infusion) based on antibiotic sensitivity test, till complete recovery. Group C cows received only intramammary infusion till the complete recovery. Eighteen subclinical mastitis cows were divided in group D (n=12) and E (n=6). Cows of group D were treated with ascorbic acid at 25 mg/kg subcutaneously for 5 consecutive days while group E did not receive any treatment. California mastitis test (CMT), somatic cell count (SCC), physical changes of udder and milk were used to diagnose and classify the mastitis. Evaluation of the therapy was based on CMT score and physical changes of udder and milk. Sample size calculation was also performed but was not followed for control groups due to scarcity of cases. Adequate blinding was done when and where required to avoid the biases. Confounding variables like herd, age of the cow, stage of the lactation, season and geographical region were duly considered and adequate blocking was followed. Ascorbic acid was administered in clinical and subclinical cases even after cure considering its immunostimulatory and healing inducing effects. The recovery rate was faster in cases of clinical mastitis treated with ascorbic acid along with an intramammary infusion (group B) than the quarters of group C cows. Quarter wise the average duration/number (3.16${\pm}$0.11 days) of antimicrobial intramammary infusion was significantly (p<0.01) less in group B than that of average duration/number (5.33${\pm}$0.20 days) of group C. Subclinical mastitis cows treated with ascorbic acid showed 83.33% recovery while 16.77% did not respond to treatment till last day of study. Cows of group E (untreated) did not recovered from the mastitis. Subjective parameters viz. swelling, pain reflex of udder and physical changes in milk from quarter of ascorbic acid treated cows (group B) disappeared earlier than that of group C cows. It is concluded from this study that the ascorbic acid might be useful as an adjunct in case of clinical mastitis to get quick recovery with less number of intramammary infusions. High recovery rate in subclinical mastitis quarters of group D cows is appreciable and opens a new avenue to conduct further trials in a larger population in various field conditions. However, the pharmacology of ascorbic acid with particular reference to health of mammary gland needs to be investigated.