• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2023

Objective: Human exposure to multiple xenobiotics, over various developmental windows, results in adverse health effects arising from these concomitant exposures. Humans are widely exposed to bisphenol A, and acetaminophen is the most commonly used over-the-counter drug worldwide. Bisphenol A is a well-recognized male reproductive toxicant, and increasing evidence suggests that acetaminophen is also detrimental to the male reproductive system. The recent recognition of male reproductive system dysfunction in conditions of suboptimal reproductive outcomes makes it crucial to investigate the contributions of toxicant exposures to infertility and sub-fertility. We aimed to identify toxicity in the male reproductive system at the mitochondrial level in response to co-exposure to bisphenol A and acetaminophen, and we investigated whether melatonin ameliorated this toxicity. Methods: Male Wistar rats were divided into six groups (n=10 each): a control group and groups that received melatonin, bisphenol A, acetaminophen, bisphenol A and acetaminophen, and bisphenol A and acetaminophen with melatonin treatment. Results: Significantly higher lipid peroxidation was observed in the testicular mitochondria and sperm in the treatment groups than in the control group. Levels of glutathione and the activities of catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and manganese superoxide dismutase decreased significantly in response to the toxicant treatments. Likewise, the toxicant treatments significantly decreased the sperm count and motility, while significantly increasing sperm mortality. Melatonin mitigated the adverse effects of bisphenol A and acetaminophen. Conclusion: Co-exposure to bisphenol A and acetaminophen elevated oxidative stress in the testicular mitochondria, and this effect was alleviated by melatonin.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.335-341
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• 2024

Background/Aims: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected the worldwide practice of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Here we designed a modified N95 respirator with a channel for endoscope insertion and evaluated its efficacy in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Methods: Thirty patients scheduled for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy were randomized into the modified N95 (n=15) or control (n=15) group. The mask was placed on the patient after anesthesia administration and particles were counted every minute before (baseline) and during the procedure by a TSI AeroTrak particle counter (9306-04; TSI Inc.) and categorized by size (0.3, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, and 10 ㎛). Differences in particle counts between time points were recorded. Results: During the procedure, the modified N95 group displayed significantly smaller overall particle sizes than the control group (median [interquartile range], 231 [54-385] vs. 579 [213-1,379]×10³/m³; p=0.056). However, the intervention group had a significant decrease in 0.3-㎛ particles (68 [-25 to 185] vs. 242 [72-588] ×10³/m³; p=0.045). No adverse events occurred in either group. The device did not cause any inconvenience to the endoscopists or patients. Conclusions: This modified N95 respirator reduced the number of particles, especially 0.3-㎛ particles, generated during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 1989

The present study was designed to investigate i) the action of various nucleotides on membrane permeability of rat red blood cell and hepatocyte for $Na^{+}$ and $Rb^{+}$ ii) the characteristics of purinoceptors on these cell membranes. Blood from Sprague-Dawley rats was obtained by carotid arterial cannulation. Red blood cells were then washed 3 times with saline at $4{\circ}C$. Hepatic parenchymal cells were isolated from rat livers by using a modification of the Berry and Friend (1969) method. For the $Na^{+}$ influx studies, isolated RBC and hepatocyte were incubated in incubation medium containing $^{22}Na^{+}0.2\;{\mu}Ci/ml$ at $37^{\circ}C$. After various time intervals samples were removed from the incubation flask and washed out 3 times with ice-cold washing solutions. Cells were destroyed by adding Triton X-100 and TCA solution. After centrifugation, the supernatants were assayed for $^{22}Na^{+}$ by gamma counter. $^{86}Rb^{+}$ was used to simulate $K^{+}$ in these $K^{+}efflux$ studies. Isolated hepatocytes were incubated for 60 min in the loading solution containing $^{86}Rb^{+}\;10\;{\mu}Ci/ml$ at $37^{\circ}C$. After loading, the cells washed out 3 times by centrifugation with washing solution. The cells were incubated in buffer solution at $37^{\circ}C$. At intervals thereafter, samples were removed and centrifuged. The supernatants were analyzed for $^{86}Rb^{+}$ by liquid scintillation counter. The main results of the experiments were: 1) ATP and ATPP increased in both $^{22}Na^{+}$ influx and $^{86}Rb^{+}$ efflux in the red blood cell. Although ADP showed a tendency to increase in RBC membrane permeability for $^{22}Na^{+}$ and $^{86}Rb^{+}$, the changes were not significantly different from the control. 2) The Significant changes in $^{22}Na^{+}$ and $^{86}Rb^{+}$ flux by ATP were also demonstrated in hepatocyte. ATPP and ADP showed a tendency to increase in hepatocyte membrane permeability for both ions. 3) Other nucleoside triphosphates-ITP, GTP and CTP-did not change in membrane permeability for $^{22}Na^{+}$ and $^{86}Rb^{+}$ in RBC and hepatocyte. In conclusion, not only ATP but also ATPP activate purinoceptors and change in membrane permeability for $Na^{+}$ and $K^{+}$. In order to activate purinoceptors on the cell membrane, the nucleotides have to possess intact adenine moiety and three phosphates or more in its molecule.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.869-876
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• 2011

It is important to analyze the dynamic behavior of counter-rotating rigid/deformable rolls in the roll-coating process, because the stability of the process is affected by the dynamic characteristics. In the present study, the effects of material property, angular velocity, and gap size on the contact pressure and contact shape of the deformable roll are numerically investigated. The behavior of two rolls with a negative gap was analyzed using the finite element method, and the material property of the deformable roll was applied with the Mooney-Rivlin coefficients of the hyper-elastic model. The contact shape is affected by the gap size, and the contact pressure mainly depends on the stiffness of the deformable roll and the gap size. To maintain a negative gap between two rolls, controls such as load and displacement controls must be used. The results indicate that displacement control can reduce the instability.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.42
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• pp.229-249
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• 2015

As the post-cold war era and globalization go on, national security problems which were not traditional national security problems such as terrorism, crime, environmental disasters, economic crises, cyber-terrorism, diseases, and energy problems threat humanity and nations and demands changes. Also, with the change, the concept of "big government" has emerged as the role of nation expanded. The modern society sees every country change from small government to big government in order to realize the establishment of welfare state. A comprehensive interpretation of security is needed in order to comprehensive protection of citizens beyond outside invasion such as crime, new disaster, terrorism. In Korea, incidents such as Cheonan-Ham, Yeonpeyong-Do, foot-and-mouth disease, Ddos terrorism, pirates hostages, mad cow disease, AI are happening and the humanitarian support for North Korea and the summit of South and North Korea are at a standstill. Also, National emergency management system, comprehensive emergency management center, countrol tower, national security system, cooperation with citizens, establishment of legal and institutional system are needed. The importance of this research is on the reestablishment of new national security and emergency management system according to the comparison between the national security and counter-terrorism system of Korea and that of the United States which is a leading country in this field. Also, the establishment of national emergency management act is needed as a statute for effective function as currently various laws and administrative organizations are dispersed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.141-148
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• 2018

Purpose: The Korean government approved selected nonprescription drugs (Over-The-Counter drug; OTC drug) to be distributed in convenience stores from 15. Nov. 2012. This study examined the changes in the incidence and the clinical outcome of acute pharmaceutical drug poisoning after the deregulation of OTC drug sales. Methods: This study analyzed the data of Emergency Department based Injury In-depth Injury Surveillance (EDIIS), Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 2011 to 2014. The following items were examined: age, gender, intention, alcohol association, pharmaceutical drugs resulting acute poisoning, the clinical outcomes in emergency department, and the admission rate of intensive care unit (ICU). This is a retrospective cross section observational study. Results: A total of 10,162 patients were subject to pharmaceutical drug poisoning. Acute poisoning by acetaminophen and other drugs were 1,015 (10.0%) and 9,147 (90.0%) patients, respectively. After the deregulation of OTC drug sales, acute poisoning by other drugs increased from 4,385 to 4,762 patients but acute poisoning by acetaminophen decreased from 538 to 477 patients (p<0.05). The rate of admission of acetaminophen poisoning increased from 36.1% (194/538) to 46.8% (223/477). The admission rate to the ICU by acetaminophen poisoning increased from 4.6% (25/538) to 11.3% (54/477) after the deregulation of OTC drug sales (p<0.05). Conclusion: Since the deregulation of OTC drugs sales, pharmaceutical drug poisoning has increased but acetaminophen poisoning has decreased. The rate of hospitalization and ICU admission by pharmaceutical drug poisoning with or without acetaminophen has also increased.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.848-863
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• 2021

Purpose: On August 16, 2021, the Taliban established the Taliban regime after conquering capital Kabul of the Afghan by using the strong alliance of international terrorist organizations. The Taliban carried out terrorism targeting the Korean people, including the kidnapping of Kim Seon-il in 2004, the abduction of a member of the Saemmul Church in 2007, and the attack on Korean Provincial Reconstruction Team in 2009. Therefore, this research has shown the possibility of Taliban terrorism in Korea. Method: Based on the statistical data on terrorism that occurred in Afghanistan, Taliban's various terrorist activities such as tactics, strategies, and weapons are examined. Consequently, the target facilities and the type of terrorist attacks are analyzed. Result: The Taliban are targeting the Afghan government as their main target of attack, and IS and the Taliban differ in their selection of targets for terrorism. Conclusion: From the result of this research, we recommend Korea need to reinforce the counter terrorism system in soft targets. Because If the Taliban, which has seized control of Afghanistan, and IS, which has established a worldwide terrorism network, cooperate to threaten domestic multi-use facilities with bombing, the Republic of Korea may face a terrorist crisis with insufficient resources and counter-terrorism related countermeasures.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.443-453
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• 2020

This study using the active vibration control technique attempts to alleviate numerically the airframe vibration of a UH-60A helicopter. The AVCS(Active Vibration Control System) is applied to reduce the 4/rev vibration responses at the specified locations of the UH-60A airframe. The 4/rev hub vibratory loads of the UH-60A rotor is predicted using the nonlinear flexible dynamics analysis code, DYMORE II. Various tools such as NDARC, MSC.NASTRAN, and MATLAB Simulink are used for the AVCS simulation with five CRFGs and seven accelerometers. At a flight speed of 158knots, the predicted 4/rev hub vibratory loads of UH-60A rotor excite the airframe, and then the 4/rev vibration responses at the specified airframe positions such as the pilot seat, rotor-fuselage joint, mid-cabin, and aft-cabin are calculated without and with AVCS. The 4/rev vibration responses at all the locations and directions are reduced by from 25.14 to 96.05% when AVCS is used, as compared to the baseline results without AVCS.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.147-154
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• 2020

Standard samples were prepared for this study, and applied for BactoScan^TM and BactoCount^TM in order for quality control evaluation for total bacterial count in raw milk. Accordingly, the preparation of two lots of standard samples for quality control were lyophilized, which contain Lactobacillus lactis. The standard samples were prepared into three different levels of bacterial counts, those were Low 30,000~40,000, Medium 70,000~90,000, High 150,000~220,000 CFU/mL, respectively. Then, the proficiency tests were performed in total 19 laboratories for measuring total bacterial counts. The total bacterial counts in the standard samples showed 37~42, 82~105, 214~240 CFU/mL in the first lot, and it showed 30~36, 67~75, 131~163 CFU/mL in the second lot in low, medium and high levels, respectively. Based on these results, the absolute values of z-scores of six standard samples in 18 laboratories were ≤2, which means the samples are satisfactory. However, z-score in one laboratory was ≤3, which means the sample is questionable. Using two standard samples, the correlation between BactoScan^TM and BactoCount^TM was 0.9982, which means the results of total bacterial count measurement of both equipment were equivalent. Therefore, the standard samples manufactured in this study for quality control of total bacterial count using BactoScan^TM and BactoCount^TM in the raw milk could be applied to proficiency tests.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
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• v.3 no.7
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• pp.1727-1738
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• 1996

This paper proposes a extended service filtering technique to solve overload control problems inService Con-trol Poin(SCP) due to Televoting (VOT) services with heavy traffic characteristics. Also, this paper compares this new technique with existing IN overload control lechniques, and calculate steady state call blocking probabilities in In under overload conditions. The proposed technique considers SCP overload and IN CS-1services such as VOT service that need to use the specialized resources of IP. This technique uses first an activating step which SCP sends service filtering request to SSP and IP for the start of service filtering. Then, in the filtering step SSP sendas filtering results to SCP periodically or each N-calls.Also,when filtering time-out timer expired or call counter value exceeded maximum number of calls,SSP stops service filtering,and sends ser-vice filteing response to SCP in the deactivating step. The application of this techique to VOT service defined in IN CS-1 service is investigated and analyzed by using an analytical VOT service model.In order to apply this technique to VOT service, this paper also discusses VOT service and the corresponding N architecture including Service Switching Point(SSP),SCP and IP. Then this paper also constructs an analytical VOT service model,and calculates SCP and SSP/IP(circuit)call blocking probablities.With the application of this new technique,this paper shows good performance enhancements in SCP call blocking probability.