• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.132-140
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• 2020

Objectives: This research study aimed to determine the effect of Korean medicine treatments on a patient with lumbar disc herniation accompanying polycystic kidney disease. Methods: Acupuncture, herbal medicine, pharmacopuncture, spine decompression therapy, Motion Style Acupuncture Treatment (MSAT), and Chuna were preceded for treatment. We checked the patient's Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), numeric rating scale (NRS), and straight leg raise test (SLRT) on admission and discharge; we also used the NRS and SLRT to evaluate the patient's symptoms on every third day during the hospital stay. Because it is important to manage blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine, and blood pressure during the early stage of polycystic kidney disease, BUN and serum creatinine levels were checked weekly while blood pressure was checked every morning. Results: Twelve days after admission, the NRS for lower back pain and right leg pain decreased from 7 to 3 and from 7 to 2, respectively. The ODI value also decreased from 56 to 20 while the SLRT value increased from 30/70 to 60/70. The BUN and serum creatinine levels and the blood pressure readings were all within normal range every time they were checked. Conclusions: The use of Korean medicine treatments resulted in improvements in NRS, ODI, and SLRT on a patient with a herniated lumbar disc herniated who had a past history of polycystic kidney disease; thus, the patient was able to maintaining kidney functioning. Herbal medicine, an alternative method of analgesic anti-inflammatory drugs that has been evaluated as relatively safe on liver and kidney function, could be suggested on a patient with a past history of polycystic kidney disease to maintain kidney function when renal function and blood pressure are monitored.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.39-51
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• 2011

Acute toxicity test and behavioral change analysis of seawater acclimated Japanese medaka were conducted to identify the brine effects on fish by seawater desalination. 7 day acute toxicity test of brine revealed linear concentration-response relationship from 40.0~80.0 psu treatment groups. There was no significant brine effect for 30-40 psu groups and mass mortality was observed from >50 psu exposure (7-day $LC_{50}$=51.4 psu). Images from the real time camera system were analyzed to observe the changes in behavioral patterns of medaka exposed to various salinity. 40.0 and 50.0 psu exposed groups were stabilized in behavioral patterns after 3.1 and 4.6 hours, respectively and 60.0 psu group showed sharp increase in activity during first 12 hours and 50% mortality thereafter. Similar patterns were observed to 70 and 80 psu groups and both experimental groups showed 100% mortality within 12 hours. Acute toxicity test and behavioral patterns showed very similar toxicity results which revealed the increases in mortality and behavioral activities from 50.0 psu. This critical salinity for fish impacts must be implemented to brine discharge strategy by seawater desalination into the coastal area. Also, we recommend that real time camera monitoring system must be a useful tool for early warning of fish toxicity for other applications. This research was funded by Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, Korea.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.138-143
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• 2007

Purpose: $S100{\beta}$, a marker of traumatic brain injury (TBI), has been increasingly focused upon during recent years. $S100{\beta}$, is easily measured not only in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) but also in serum. After TBI, serum S 10019, has been found to be increased at an early stage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical correlations between serum $S100{\beta}$, and neurologic outcome, and severity in traumatic brain injury. Methods: From August 2006 to October 2006, we made a protocol and studied prospectively 42 patients who visited the emergency room with TBI. Venous blood samples for $S100{\beta}$, protein were taken within six hours after TBI and vital signs, as well as the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), were recorded. The final diagnosis and the severity were evaluated using the Abbreviated Injury Score (AIS), and the prognosis of the patients was evaluated using the Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS). Results: Thirty-eight patients showed a favorable prognosis (discharge, recovery, transfer), and four showed an unfavorable prognosis. Serum $S100{\beta}$, was higher in patients with an unfavorable prognosis than in patients with a favorable prognosis, and a significant difference existed between the two groups ($0.74{\pm}1.50\;{\mu}g/L$ vs $7.62{\pm}6.53\;{\mu}g/L$ P=0.002). A negative correlation existed between serum $S100{\beta}$, and the Revised Traumatic Score (R2=-0.34, P=0.03), and a positive correlation existed between serum $S100{\beta}$, and the Injury Severity Score (R2=0.33, P=0.03). Furthermore, the correlation between serum $S100{\beta}$, and the initial GCS and the GCS 24 hours after admission to the ER were negative (R2=-0.62, P<0.001; R2=-0.47, P=0.005). Regarding the GOS, the mean serum concentration of $S100{\beta}$, was $7.62\;{\ss}{\partial}/L$ (SD=${\pm}6.53$) in the expired patients, $1.15\;{\mu}g/L$ in the mildly disable patient, and $0.727\;{\mu}g/L$ (SD=${\pm}0.73$) in the recovered patients. These differences are statistically significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: In traumatic brain injury, a higher level of serum concentration of $S100{\beta}$, has a poor prognosis for neurologic outcome.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2012

While a performance based sprinkler design method has been widely used in UK and USA according to fire hazards of occupancies, Korean fire safety industry could not yet accept it due to nonstandardization on risk level of various occupancy. Even only two or three spray pattern sprinkler was produced in Korea fire safety industry, therefore, various spray pattern sprinklers have not yet introduced to major occupancies. Spray pattern sprinklers with one of two K value have been used in all occupancies in Korea Market. UK and USA's Fire industry should produced the spray sprinklers with various K-factors and protection area due to performance based sprinkler design requirement. Therefore the fire load density for main occupancies has been investigated in order to compare with installation standard in advanced countries. Eventually a lot of variations in orifice and K factors of standard heads were set up including special heads needed for high hazard areas such as large drop type, enlarged orifice type and early suppression fast response.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.273-285
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• 2002

Three materials for sport underwear were manufactured by order for study, and among them, suitable material in order to perform an experiment on the effect of wearing was adopted. The results are as follows: The result of wearing an experimental clothes for sports manufactured as a foundation-type underwear for sports showed that if the same compositional materials were applied, laminating material had higher rate than that of others in the amount of sweat. Concerning relative humidity in clothes and the amount of sweat absorbed in clothes among the two kinds of materials which were produced by laminate, material 2(nylon+modal) was statistically exerts higher influence on the amount of sweat. The humidity in clothes keeps the optimal condition of 59.8%, and breast part showed the highest relative humidity. The material 2(nylon+modal) showed the highest comfortableness, the sense of warmth, humidity and voluminousness, and the sense of pressure. Follow-up survey revealed that in case of material 2, higher amount of sweat than that of the group objects in its early phase, and the amount of sweat varies from individuals. The temperature in clothes of folded parts of experimental clothes and maximum surface temperature was equivalent to that of average skin. With the lapse of time, the weight decreased of 11.03% in maximum, and 3.12% in minimum. The amount of change in the girth was greater in part of body frame than that of limbs, and especially, navel and waist part showed high decrease, and upper breast, breast and the largest part of abdomen showed relatively low decrease. The above experiment revealed that materials for suitable to the underwear for sports for loss of weight by an exercise should be made of doubled-nylon and modal, along with the laminate processing, which heightens the amount of sweat. Thus, wearing an experimental wear gave satisfaction in the view of the beauty of appearance as it did not discharge flowing secretion to the outside at the time of exercise.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.159-165
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• 2012

Purpose: For trauma patients, an early-transport and an organized process which are not delayed in hospital stage are necessary. Our hospital developed a procedure, the trauma Critical Pathway (CP), through which a traumatic patient has the priority over other patients, which makes the diagnostic and the therapeutic processes faster than they are for other patients. Methods: The records of patients to whom Trauma CP were applied from January 1, 2011 through April 15. 2012. were reviewed. We checked several time intervals from ER visiting to decision of admission-department, to performing first CT, to applying angio-embolization, to starting emergency operation and to discharging from ER. In addition, outcomes such as duration of ICU stay, hospital stay and mortality were checked and analyzed. Results: The trauma CP was applied to a total of 143 patients, of whom, 48 patients were excluded due to pre-hospital death, ER death, transferring to other hospital and not severe injury. Thus 95 patients (male 64, 67.3%) were enrolled in this study. Fifty-nine patients(62.1%) were injured by the traffic accident. The mortality rate was 10.5% and the mean Revised Trauma Score (RTS) of the patients was $6.4{\pm}2.0$. After visiting ER, decision making for admission was completed, on average, in 3 hours 10 seconds. The mean time intervals for the first CT, angio-embolization, surgery and discharge were 1 hour 20 minutes, 5 hours 16 minutes, 7 hours 26 minutes and 6 hours 13 minutes, respectively. Conclusion: The trauma CP did not show the improvement of time interval outcome, as well as mortality rate. However, this test did show that the trauma CP might be able to reduce delays in procedures for managing trauma patients at the university-based hospitals. To find out the benefit of CP protocol, a large scaled data is required.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.70-74
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• 1999

Thrombosis in valve or left atrium after mechanical mitral valve replacement causes prosthetic valve dysfunction or thromboembolism. Early and adequate therapy is very important but clinically not easy. Thrombolysis can avoid reoperation-related risks and act as an optimal therapy for prosthetic valve thrombosis. This report describes three patients who were treated by using low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) and wafarin. Two patients, including one pregnant woman, had prosthetic valve thrombosis and immobility of valve leaflets, and one patient with recent cerebral infarction due to thromboembolism had thrombus in left atrium. Fraxiparine 0.3 cc (7,500 ICU AXa) was administrated subcutaneously twice or triple daily. At discharge, thrombosis in valve and left atrium were completely or near totally lysed and valve leaflets were normally mobile. During the period of thrombolysis and follow up, there were no complications in all patients.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.38 no.3 s.152
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• pp.235-244
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• 2005

This study was carried out in Osan river to quantitatively investigate behavior of attacked microbial community (AMC) for enhancing self-purification process of river. We gained the results such as follows throughout long-term monitoring at in-situ river. The biomass of AMC had higher in the riffle than the almost stagnant pool and they were more developed in the riffle with high current velocity (HCV). Although the fast flowing current affects negatively to growth of the AMC during the early phase when the community gets attached to the benthic substrate, it was observed that it affected positively to their growth during the intermediate and later phase after the community is adapted to the substrate. When turbulence due to external pressure (storm or discharge of dam and reservoir) occurs, the degree of separation depends upon the flowing strength and the type of the external pressure. Since the community is not all separated, recovery is rather fast. Therefore, this study found that the degree of reduction of the pollutant by self-purification of the stream is depended upon the riverbed shape and the AMC contributes to self-purification positively or negatively in river. Therefore, the riverbed shape must be constructed in accordance with the characteristics of water quality in stream. Furthermore, the technique of installing the water channel structure appropriate for each section must be developed to maximize self-purification ability.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.116-133
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• 2002

Background : It is very common in Korea to take care of non-acute patients in an acute setting, due to the lack of long-term facilities. Long term hospitalization increase medical expenses and decreases the bed utilization, which can affect the urgent and emergent admissions, and eventually jeopardize the hospital financially. In this study, strategies for effective transfers to the lower levels of care, and to decrease the length of stay were presented by surveying and analyzing the patient's knowledge of the transfer needs, and the willingness to transfer those whose hospital length of stay was more than 30days. Method : The survey is subject to a group of 251 patients who have been hospitalized over 30 days in a general hospital in Seoul. Excluding those that were in the Intensive Care Unit and psychiatric ward, 214 in-patients were used as participants. They were surveyed from April 9, 2002 to April 17, 2002. One hundred and thirty seven out of 214 were responded which made the response rate 64%. Data were analyzed by SAS and SPSS. Result : Multi-variable Logistic Regression Analysis showed a significant effect in medical expenses, knowledge of referral system and the information of the receiving hospital. The financial burden in medical expenses made the patient 10.7 times more willing to be transferred, knowledge of the referral system made them 5 times more willing to be transferred, and the information of receiving hospital makes 6.5 times more willing to be transferred. Reasons for willing to be transferred to a lower level of care were the phase of physical therapy, the distance from home, the attending physician's advice and being unable to be treated as an out patient. Reasons for refusing to be transferred were the following. The attending physician's competency, not being ready to be discharged, not trusting the receiving hospital's competency due to the lack of information, or never hearing about the referring system by the attending physician. Conclusion : Based on this, strategies for the effective transfer to the lower levels of care were suggested. It is desirable for the attending physician to be actively involved by making an effort to explain the transfer need, and referring to the Healthcare Coordinating Center, which can help the patient make the right decision. Nationwide networking for the referral system is the another key factor that may need to be suggested as an alternative to decrease the medical expenses. Collaborating with the Home Health Agency for the early discharge planning and the Social Service Department for financial aid are also needed. It is recommended that the hospital should expedite the transfer process by prioritizing the cost and the information as medical expenses, knowledge of referring system and the information of the receiving hospital, are the most important factors to the willingness to transfer to a lower level of care.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.19-29
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• 2001

Nutrients are key environmental factors in marine ecosystem. They limit algal growth when at low concentrations and cause algal bloom when at high contents. They also control the growth and succession of many other biota including bacteria and zooplankton, either directly or indirectly. Nutrient contents therefore affect both the structure and functions of marine ecosystem. To study the contents and distribution of nutrients in Chinese Bohai Sea, two cruise surveys were undertaken in August 2000 (summer) and January 2001 (winter), respectively. A total of 595 water samples were collected from 91 sites. After collection the samples were transported to the laboratory and five nutrients, i.e., nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, phosphate and silicate, were analyzed. The results showed that tile average concentration of total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) in Bohai Sea in winter (6.5293.717 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/) was significantly higher than that in summer (3.717 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/). The phosphorus concentration in winter (0.660 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/) was also significantly higher than that in summer (0.329 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/). Mean silicate concentration in winter (7.858 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/) was not significantly different from that in summer (7.200 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/). Nutrients also varied considerable among different areas within Bohai Sea. TIN concentration in Laizhou Bay (4.444 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/), for example, was significantly higher than those in Bohai Bay (2.270 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/) and Bohai Straight (2.431 ${\mu}$mol$.$l$\^$-1/), which probably reflects tile discharge of large amounts of nitrogen into Laizhou Bay via Yellow River. The nutrients also showed vertical distribution pattern. In summer, nutrients in bottom layer were generally higher than those in surface and medium layers. In winter, however. nutrients in different layers were not significantly different Compared with historic data, TIN contents increased continuously since early 1980s, phosphorus arid silicone contents, nevertheless, fell down to some degree. Based on atomic ratios of different nutrients, nitrogen is still the main limiting factor for algal growth in Bohai Sea.