• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 2020

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) has the advantage of selectively removing cancer cells ingesting boron compounds. In this study, the benefits for treatment time and boron compound injection dose were compared between current neutron sources and a high current neutron sources to be developed in near future. The time-activity curve (TAC) of GBM (Glioblastoma) for one bolus injection was obtained by applying modified 3 compartment model. The treatment time was determined for an accelerator-based neutron sources at the present time and a high current accelerator based neutron source to be developed in the near future. In the case of the double amount of IAEA-recommended neutron flux, the treatment time was shortened to 15 minutes. In the case of high current accelerators, which are five times the amount of IAEA-recommended neutron flux, the irradiation time is within 5 minutes. The use of a high current accelerator based neutron source in BNCT is advantageous in terms of treatment time. In addition, it can increase the efficiency of use of neutrons and reduce the boron compound injection dose to patients, thus reducing pharmacological toxicity.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.1063-1072
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• 2009

Membranous nephropathy(MN) is the most common cause of adult nephrotic syndrome worldwide. But treatment of MN is not defined. This study was to evaluate the effects of Lonicerae Flos Extract(LFE) on the MN induced by cBSA in mice. Mice were divided into 4 groups. The first group named for 'Normal' was injected with a saline solution. The second group named 'Control' treated with cBSA(10 mg/kg i.p) only. The third group named 'LFE-250', treated with cBSA(10 mg/kg i.p) and LFE(250 mg/kg, p.o). The fourth group named 'LFE-500'treated with cBSA(10 mg/kg i.p) and LFE(500 mg/kg, p.o). After cBSA and LFE treatment for 4 weeks, we measured change of body weight, 24hrs proteinuria, serum albumin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, BUN, creatinine, TNF-$\alpha$, IL-6, IL-$1{\beta}$, IL-10, IFN-$\gamma$, IgA, IgM and IgG levels. The morphologic changes of renal glomeruli were also observed with a light microscope. The levels of 24 hrs proteinuria, total cholesterol, IgG , IgM, IgA, IL-6 were significantly decreased in both LFE groups. The level of triglyceride, IL-$1{\beta}$ was significantly decreased in LFE-500 group. The level of Albumin was significantly increased in LFE-250 group. The level of TNF-$\alpha$, IFN-$\gamma$ were significantly decreased in LFE-250 group. The mRNA expression of IL-$1{\beta}$ in splenocytes was consideraly decreased in LFE-500 group. In histological findings of kidney tissue, thickening of GBM decreased in both LFE groups. This study shows that the LFE might be effective for treatment of MN. More clinical data and studies are to be done for efficient application.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.93-107
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• 2009

Objective: Membranous nephropathy (MN) is one of the most common causes of nephrotic syndrome in adults. However, there is not a satisfactory treatment for MN. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Houttuyniae Herba Extract (HHE) on MN induced by cationic bovine serum albumin (cBSA). Methods: Mice were divided into 4 groups. The first group, Normal, was injected with saline. The second group, Control, was treated with cBSA (10mg/kg i.p) only. The third group, HHE-250, was treated with cBSA (10mg/kg i.p) and HHE (250mg/kg, p.o). The fourth group, HHE-500, was treated with cBSA (10mg/kg i.p) and HHE (500mg/kg, p.o). After treatment for 4 weeks, we measured change of body weight, 24 hrs proteinuria, serum albumin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, BUN, creatinine, IgA, IgM, IgG, TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-1${\beta}$ levels and the mRNA expression of IFN-${\gamma}$, IL-6, and IL-10. The morphologic changes of renal glomeruli were also observed with a light microscope and an electron microscope. Results: The levels of 24 hrs proteinuria and serum triglyceride, BUN, IgG, TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-1${\beta}$ significantly decreased in both HHE groups, while the level of serum albumin significantly increased in both HHE groups. The mRNA expression of IFN-${\gamma}$ and IL-6 in splenocytes considerably increased in both HHE groups. The mRNA expression of IL-10 in splenocytes considerably decreased in both HHE groups. In histological findings of kidney tissue, thickening of GBM decreased in both HHE groups. Conclusions: This study shows that HHE might be effective for treatment of acute stage MN. More clinical data and studies are to be done for efficient application.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.376-382
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• 1994

Repeated injections of low-doses of mercuric chloride in rats or mice induce polyclonal activation which includes the induction of anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibodies and circulating immune complex and it results in nephritis. Because this disease is autoimmune mediated disease resulted from immune dysfunction, immunomodulators are used to control the symptoms or to cure the disease. Irpex lacteus Fr. is a kind of new medicinal fungus. The polysaccharide fraction extracted from submerged fermentation of Irpex lacteus Fr. decreased the serum agglutinin, serolysin and IgM plaque forming cells in normal mice. The hitherto obtained clinical results suggested that it significantly improved the oligourea, edema, and hypertension in patients who have nephritis. To elucidate the action-mechanisms of Irpex lacteus Fr., we established the experimental model of HgCl$_2$induced polyclonal activation by intraperitoneal administrations of HgCl$_2$to mice. To assess the immunomodulating effect of Irpex lacteus fraction, we Investigated its effects on the mitogen induced proliferation and IgM PFC counts of splenic lymphocytes in mice during the treatment of HgCl$_2$. The Irpex lacteus polysaccharide reduced the abnormally increased mitogen induced Iymphocyte proliferation and IgM PFCs to almost normal levels. And the Irpex lacteus polysaccharides prevented the increasement of serum immunoglobulin level induced by HgCl$_2$. These data suggested that the Irpex lacteus polysaccharides might have the immunomodulating activity to prevent and /or improve the HgCl$_2$ induced autoimmune disease.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.49-58
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• 2023

Dropouts of students not only cause financial loss to the university, but also have negative impacts on individual students and society together. To resolve this issue, various studies have been conducted to predict student dropout using machine learning. This paper presents a model implemented using DNN (Deep Neural Network) and LGBM (Light Gradient Boosting Machine) to predict dropout of university students and compares their performance. The academic record and grade data collected from 20,050 students at A University, a small and medium-sized 4-year university in Seoul, were used for learning. Among the 140 attributes of the collected data, only the attributes with a correlation coefficient of 0.1 or higher with the attribute indicating dropout were extracted and used for learning. As learning algorithms, DNN (Deep Neural Network) and LightGBM (Light Gradient Boosting Machine) were used. Our experimental results showed that the F1-scores of DNN and LGBM were 0.798 and 0.826, respectively, indicating that LGBM provided 2.5% better prediction performance than DNN.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.171-184
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• 2023

Purpose: First, this paper suggests an alternative approach to find optimal portfolio (stocks, bonds and ESG stocks) under the maximizing utility of investors. Second, we include ESG stocks in our optimal portfolio, and compare improvement of welfares in the case with and without ESG stocks in portfolio. Methods: Our main method of analysis follows Brennan et al(2002), designed under the continuous time framework. We assume that the dynamics of stock price follow the Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) while the short rate have the Vasicek model. For the utility function of investors, we use the Power Utility Function, which commonly used in financial studies. The optimal portfolio and welfares are derived in the partial equilibrium. The parameters are estimated by using Kalman filter and ordinary least square method. Results: During the overall analysis period, the portfolio including ESG, did not show clear welfare improvement. In 2017, it has slightly exceeded this benchmark 1, showing the possibility of improvement, but the ESG stocks we selected have not strongly shown statistically significant welfare improvement results. This paper showed that the factors affecting optimal asset allocation and welfare improvement were different each other. We also found that the proportion of optimal asset allocation was affected by factors such as asset return, volatility, and inverse correlation between stocks and bonds, similar to traditional financial theory. Conclusion: The portfolio with ESG investment did not show significant results in welfare improvement is due to that 1) the KRX ESG Leaders 150 selected in our study is an index based on ESG integrated scores, which are designed to affect stability rather than profitability. And 2) Korea has a short history of ESG investment. During the limited analysis period, the performance of stock-related assets was inferior to bond assets at the time of the interest rate drop.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.475-498
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• 2024

The prediction of the susceptibility of soil to liquefaction using a limited set of parameters, particularly when dealing with highly unbalanced databases is a challenging problem. The current study focuses on different ensemble learning classification algorithms using highly unbalanced databases of results from in-situ tests; standard penetration test (SPT), shear wave velocity (V_s) test, and cone penetration test (CPT). The input parameters for these datasets consist of earthquake intensity parameters, strong ground motion parameters, and in-situ soil testing parameters. liquefaction index serving as the binary output parameter. After a rigorous comparison with existing literature, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), bagging, and random forest (RF) emerge as the most efficient models for liquefaction instance classification across different datasets. Notably, for SPT and V_s-based models, XGBoost exhibits superior performance, followed by Light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) and Bagging, while for CPT-based models, Bagging ranks highest, followed by Gradient boosting and random forest, with CPT-based models demonstrating lower G_mean(error), rendering them preferable for soil liquefaction susceptibility prediction. Key parameters influencing model performance include internal friction angle of soil (ϕ) and percentage of fines less than 75 µ (F₇₅) for SPT and V_s data and normalized average cone tip resistance (q_c) and peak horizontal ground acceleration (a_max) for CPT data. It was also observed that the addition of V_s measurement to SPT data increased the efficiency of the prediction in comparison to only SPT data. Furthermore, to enhance usability, a graphical user interface (GUI) for seamless classification operations based on provided input parameters was proposed.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.68-82
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• 2008

Objective: The purpose of our study was to show the effects of Hwalhyulmaksung-bang (Huoxiemoxing-fang, HHMSB) treatment on cBSA-induced in MN Mouse Model. Methods: We divided the 20 mice into 4 groups. One group, named NR, was not treated. The second group, named CT, was treated with cBSA (7mg/kg i.p) only. The third group, named HH-250, was treated with cBSA (7mg/kg i.p) and HHMSB extract (250mg/kg, p.o). The fourth group, named HH-500, was treated with cBSA (7mg/kg i.p) and HHMSB extract (500mg/kg, p.o). 4 weeks after cBSA, proteinuria, serum albumin, total cholesterol, serum creatinine, BUN, total cell number of spleen and kidney of all groups were measured. CD3e+/CD19+ and CD4+/CD8 cells ratio of peripheral blood, kidney and spleen of all groups were analyzed. $IL-1{\beta}$ and TNF-$\alpha$, IL-6, IgG, IgM, and IFN-$\gamma$ levels of all groups were gauged. Histological analysis of kidney tissue and immunohistochemical staining (CD4, CD8) of kidney were observed. Results: The level of proteinuria significantly decreased and serum albumin increased in the group treated with cBSA and HHMSB extract compared with the control. Total cholesterol decreased but not significantly. CD3e+/CD19cells ratio of peripheral blood is decreased, but CD4+/CD8cells ratio has no significancy. CD3e+/CD19+ and CD4+/CD8 cells percentage of kidney and spleen has no significancy. Level of $IL-1{\beta}$, IL-6 is significantly decreased, and IFN-$\gamma$ is significantly increased on HHMSB compared with control. Total IgG level significantly decreased on HHMSB compared with the control. Thickness of GBM decreased on histological analysis of kidney. Deposition of CD4 and CD8 decreased on immunohistochemical staining of kidney. Conclusions: We conclude that Hwalhyulmaksung-bang treatment may could be a useful remedy agents for treating Membranous Neuropathy(MN) induced by cationized bovine serum albumin.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.212-227
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• 2009

Objective : Membranous nephropathy (MN) is one of the most commonest forms of glomerular disease in man and the most frequent cause of the adult idiopathic nephrotic syndrome. Some investigators recommend no treatment, while others propose aggressive therapy, including prednisolone plus an immunosupressant such as chlorambucil or cyclophosphamide. But a more effective way to treat MN is not defined yet. This study was to evaluate the effects of Patriniae Radix extract (PRE) on the MN induced by cBSA in mice. Methods : Mice were divided into 4 groups. The first group (normal) was injected with saline. The second group (control) was treated with cBSA (10 mg/kg i.p) only. The third group, named PRE-2S0, was treated with cBSA (10 mg/kg i.p) and PRE (250 mg/kg, p.o). The fourth group, PRE-500, was treated with cBSA (10mg/kg i.p) and PRE (500mg/kg, p.o). After cBSA and PRE treatment for 4 weeks, we measured change of body weight, 24hrs proteinuria, serum albumin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, BUN, creatinine, IgG, IgA, IgM, $TNF-\alpha$, $IL-1\beta$, and $IFN-\gamma$ levels and the mRNA expression of $IFN-\gamma$, IL-6, and IL-10. The morphologic changes of renal glomeruli were also observed with a light microscope and an electron microscope. Results : The levels of 24 hrs proteinuria and serum triglyceride. BUN. IgG. $TNF-\alpha$, and $IL-1\beta$ significantly decreased in both PRE groups, while the level of serum albumin significantly increased in both PRE groups. The mRNA expression of IL-10 in splenocytes considerably increased in both PRE groups. The mRNA expression of $IFN-\gamma$ and IL-6 in splenocytes considerably increased in both PRE group. In histological findings of kidney tissue, thickening of GBM decreased in both PRE groups. Conclusions : The present study suggests that PRE is effective when treating mice with MN induced by cBSA. More clinical data and studies are to be done for efficient application.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.99-110
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• 2009

Objectives : The current treatment regimens for patients with nephrotic syndrome due to membranous nephropathy(MN) are based on steroids or immunosuppressive therapy with the aim of reducing proteinuria and improving outcome. Although these treatments attenuate the deterioration of renal function in MN patients, it has been suggested that all are burdened by significant toxicity. Therefore, more specific and less toxic therapies are needed. This study was to evaluate the effects of Coptidis Rhizoma Extract(CRE) on the MN induced by cBSA in mice. Methods : Mice were divided into 4 groups. One group named for 'Normal' was injected with a saline solution not to be immunized. The rest groups were treated as follows; After mice were immunized with 0.2 mg of cBSA and Freund's complete adjuvant one time every two weeks for 6 weeks, they received intra-peritoneal injection of 10 mg/kg of cBSA daily for 4 weeks. Also, they were divided into 3 groups. The first named for 'Control' was not given CRE. The second for 'CRE-250' was given oral administration of 250 mg/kg of CRE daily for 4 weeks. The third for 'CRE-500' was given 500 mg/kg of CRE. All of mice were sacrificed 4 weeks after the first immunization. We measured a body weight and 24hrs proteinuria as well as serological analysis. The morphologic changes of renal glomeruli were also observed with a light microscope and an electron microscope. Results : The levels of 24 hrs proteinuria, triglyceride, IgG, IL-6 were significantly decreased in both CRE groups. And the level of IgM was significantly decreased in CRE-250 group. In histological findings of kidney tissue, thickening of GBM and deposition of electron-density were consideraly decreased in both CRE groups. Conclusions : The present study suggests that CRE is highly effective when treating mice with MN induced by cBSA. More clinical data and studies are to be done for efficient application.