• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.779-793
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• 2023

Intensive and long-term aquaculture activities in Korea have generated considerable amounts of organic matter, deteriorating the sedimentary environment and ecosystem. The Korean government enacted the Fishery Management Act to preserve and manage the environment of fish farms. Based on this, a fisheries environment assessment has been conducted on fish cage farms since 2014, necessitating the development of a scientific and objective evaluation method suitable for the domestic environment. Therefore, a benthic health index (BHI) was developed using the relationship between benthic polychaete communities and organic matter, a major source of pollution in fish farms. In this study, the development process and calculation method of the BHI have been introduced. The BHI was calculated by classifying 225 species of polychaetes appearing in domestic coastal and aquaculture areas into four groups by linking the concentration gradient of the total organic carbon in the sediment and the distributional characteristics of each species and assigning differential weights to each group. Using BHI, the benthic fauna communities were assigned to one of the four ecological classes (Grade 1: Normal, Grade 2: Slightly polluted, Grade 3: Moderately polluted, and Grade 4: Heavily polluted). The application of the developed index in the field enabled effective evaluation of the Korean environment, being relatively more accurate and less affected by the season compared with the existing evaluation methods like the diversity index or AZTI's Marine Biotic Index developed overseas. In addition, using BHI will be useful in the environmental management of fish farms, as the environment can be graded in quantified figures.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.320-328
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• 2008

Background: Numerous surgical devices for mitral repair have been used in the past with good results. In this study we describe a simple annuloplasty technique with using a new device ($Mitracon^{(R)}$). The aim of this study was to assess its efficacy and surgical results with using $Mitracon^{(R)}$. Material and Method: From May 2003 to October 2005, 46 patients (21 women and 25 men (mean age of $51.4{\pm}17.8$ years) with mitral regurgitation from various causes were treated with either the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ (the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group) or the Capentier Edward rigid ring (the CE group). The median follow-up duration was 18.9 months. Result: The mean grade of mitral regurgitation before and immediately after surgery in the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group and the CE group decreased from $3.2{\pm}0.8$ to $0.6{\pm}0.7$ and $3.4{\pm}0.7$ to $0.3{\pm}0.5$, respectively. There were no significant changes in the ejection fraction either between the two groups or before and immediately after surgery. No deaths were seen in either group. Early postoperative echocardiography of all 46 patients showed only trivial mitral regurgitation or none at all. Echocardiography at a median of 18.9 months also showed no progression in mitral regurgitation. The mean grade of mitral regurgitation in the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group at this time point decreased from $3.2{\pm}0.8$ to $0.8{\pm}0.7$ (p<0.05). The CE group also showed a similar degree of decrease from $3.4{\pm}0.7$ to $0.3{\pm}0.6$ (p<0.05). The mitral valve area in the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group at 1 year follow-up was $3.3{\pm}0.9cm^2$. The mitral valve area in the CE group was $2.7{\pm}0.6cm^2$. The mean mitral pressure gradient in the $Mitracon^{(R)}$ group at 1 year follow-up was $3.1{\pm}1.3$ mmHg. The mean pressure gradient in the CE group was $4.5{\pm}2.1$ mmHg, although any statistical significant difference for this between the groups was not reached. Conclusion: The present study showed the described technique to be safe and effective in the intermediate term. Because long term results are unavailable, a more extensive prospective randomized multicenter trial may be warranted to determine whether this procedure should be generally applied for repair of mitral valve disease.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.147-157
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• 2013

With the advent of the digital environment that can be accessed anytime, anywhere with the introduction of high-speed network, the free distribution and use of digital content were made possible. Ironically this environment is raising a variety of copyright infringement, and product images used in the online shopping mall are pirated frequently. There are many controversial issues whether shopping mall images are creative works or not. According to Supreme Court's decision in 2001, to ad pictures taken with ham products is simply a clone of the appearance of objects to deliver nothing but the decision was not only creative expression. But for the photographer's losses recognized in the advertising photo shoot takes the typical cost was estimated damages. According to Seoul District Court precedents in 2003, if there are the photographer's personality and creativity in the selection of the subject, the composition of the set, the direction and amount of light control, set the angle of the camera, shutter speed, shutter chance, other shooting methods for capturing, developing and printing process, the works should be protected by copyright law by the Court's sentence. In order to receive copyright protection of the shopping mall images by the law, it is simply not to convey the status of the product, the photographer's personality and creativity can be recognized that it requires effort. Accordingly, the cost of making the mall image increases, and the necessity for copyright protection becomes higher. The product images of the online shopping mall have a very unique configuration unlike the general pictures such as portraits and landscape photos and, therefore, the general image watermarking technique can not satisfy the requirements of the image watermarking. Because background of product images commonly used in shopping malls is white or black, or gray scale (gradient) color, it is difficult to utilize the space to embed a watermark and the area is very sensitive even a slight change. In this paper, the characteristics of images used in shopping malls are analyzed and a watermarking technology which is suitable to the shopping mall images is proposed. The proposed image watermarking technology divide a product image into smaller blocks, and the corresponding blocks are transformed by DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform), and then the watermark information was inserted into images using quantization of DCT coefficients. Because uniform treatment of the DCT coefficients for quantization cause visual blocking artifacts, the proposed algorithm used weighted mask which quantizes finely the coefficients located block boundaries and coarsely the coefficients located center area of the block. This mask improves subjective visual quality as well as the objective quality of the images. In addition, in order to improve the safety of the algorithm, the blocks which is embedded the watermark are randomly selected and the turbo code is used to reduce the BER when extracting the watermark. The PSNR(Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) of the shopping mall image watermarked by the proposed algorithm is 40.7~48.5[dB] and BER(Bit Error Rate) after JPEG with QF = 70 is 0. This means the watermarked image is high quality and the algorithm is robust to JPEG compression that is used generally at the online shopping malls. Also, for 40% change in size and 40 degrees of rotation, the BER is 0. In general, the shopping malls are used compressed images with QF which is higher than 90. Because the pirated image is used to replicate from original image, the proposed algorithm can identify the copyright infringement in the most cases. As shown the experimental results, the proposed algorithm is suitable to the shopping mall images with simple background. However, the future study should be carried out to enhance the robustness of the proposed algorithm because the robustness loss is occurred after mask process.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.149-169
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• 2020

"The Urban Renewal New Deal project", one of the government's major national projects, is about developing underdeveloped areas by investing 50 trillion won in 100 locations on the first year and 500 over the next four years. This project is drawing keen attention from the media and local governments. However, the project model which fails to reflect the original characteristics of the area as it divides project area into five categories: "Our Neighborhood Restoration, Housing Maintenance Support Type, General Neighborhood Type, Central Urban Type, and Economic Base Type," According to keywords for successful urban regeneration in Korea, "resident participation," "regional specialization," "ministerial cooperation" and "public-private cooperation", when local governments propose urban regeneration projects to the government, they can see that it is most important to accurately understand the characteristics of the city and push ahead with the projects in a way that suits the characteristics of the city with the help of local residents and private companies. In addition, considering the gentrification problem, which is one of the side effects of urban regeneration projects, it is important to select and implement urban regeneration types suitable for the characteristics of the area. In order to supplement the limitations of the 'Urban Regeneration New Deal Project' methodology, this study aims to propose a system that recommends urban regeneration types suitable for urban regeneration sites by utilizing various machine learning algorithms, referring to the urban regeneration types of the '2025 Seoul Metropolitan Government Urban Regeneration Strategy Plan' promoted based on regional characteristics. There are four types of urban regeneration in Seoul: "Low-use Low-Level Development, Abandonment, Deteriorated Housing, and Specialization of Historical and Cultural Resources" (Shon and Park, 2017). In order to identify regional characteristics, approximately 100,000 text data were collected for 22 regions where the project was carried out for a total of four types of urban regeneration. Using the collected data, we drew key keywords for each region according to the type of urban regeneration and conducted topic modeling to explore whether there were differences between types. As a result, it was confirmed that a number of topics related to real estate and economy appeared in old residential areas, and in the case of declining and underdeveloped areas, topics reflecting the characteristics of areas where industrial activities were active in the past appeared. In the case of the historical and cultural resource area, since it is an area that contains traces of the past, many keywords related to the government appeared. Therefore, it was possible to confirm political topics and cultural topics resulting from various events. Finally, in the case of low-use and under-developed areas, many topics on real estate and accessibility are emerging, so accessibility is good. It mainly had the characteristics of a region where development is planned or is likely to be developed. Furthermore, a model was implemented that proposes urban regeneration types tailored to regional characteristics for regions other than Seoul. Machine learning technology was used to implement the model, and training data and test data were randomly extracted at an 8:2 ratio and used. In order to compare the performance between various models, the input variables are set in two ways: Count Vector and TF-IDF Vector, and as Classifier, there are 5 types of SVM (Support Vector Machine), Decision Tree, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and Gradient Boosting. By applying it, performance comparison for a total of 10 models was conducted. The model with the highest performance was the Gradient Boosting method using TF-IDF Vector input data, and the accuracy was 97%. Therefore, the recommendation system proposed in this study is expected to recommend urban regeneration types based on the regional characteristics of new business sites in the process of carrying out urban regeneration projects."

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.217-224
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• 2014

Purpose : Conventional, IMRT, at CSI treatment with VMAT, this study compare the treatment plan with dose changes measured at Junction field according to the error of Setup. Materials and Methods : This study established Conventional, the IMRT, VMAT treatment planning for CSI therapy using the Eclipse 10.0 (Eclipse10.0, Varian, USA) and chose person in Seoul National University Hospital. Verification plan was also created to apply IMRT QA phantom for each treatment plan to the film measurements. At this time, the error of Setup was applied to the 2, 4, 6mm respectively with the head and foot direction. ("+" direction of the head, "-" means that the foot direction.) Using IMRT QA Phantom and EBT2 film, was investigated by placing the error of Setup for each Junction. We check the consistency of the measured Film and plan dose distribution by gamma index (Gamma index, ${\gamma}$). In addition, we compared the error of Setup by the dose distribution, and analyzing the uniformity of the dose distribution within the target by calculating the Homogeneity Index (HI). Results : It was figured out that 90.49%-gamma index we obtained with film is agreement with film scan score and dose distribution of treatment plan. Also, depend on the dose distribution on distance, if we make the error of Setup 2, 4, 6mm in the head direction, it showed that 3.1, 4.5, 8.1 at $^*Diff$(%) of Conventional, 1.1, 3.5, 6.3 at IMRT, and 1.6, 2.5, 5.7 at VMAT. In the same way, if we make the error of Setup 2, 4, 6mm in the foot direction, it showed that -1.6, -2.8, -4.4 at $^*Diff$(%) of Conventional, -0.9, -1.6, -2.9 at IMRT, and -0.5, -2.2, -2.5 at VMAT. Homogeneity Index(HI)s are 1.216 at Conventional, 1.095 at IMRT and 1.069 at VMAT. Discussion and Conclusion : The dose-change depend on the error of Setup at the CSI RT(radiation therapy) using IMRT and VMAT which have advantages, Dose homogeneity and the gradual dose gradients on the Junction part is lower than that of Conventional CSI RT. This a little change of dose means that there is less danger on patients despite of the error of Setup generated at the CSI RT.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.189-196
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• 2011

Purpose: Surfactants have been used to improve oxygenation for infants with meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). We evaluated the change of pulmonary indices after surfactant therapy for MAS through a systematic meta-analysis. Methods: Relevant randomized controlled studies (RCTs) were identified by database searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL, up to June 2011, and by additional hand searches. Data were extracted regarding pulmonary indices, such as the oxygen index and arterial alveolar oxygen gradient. Meta-analyses were separately conducted for the studies of surfactant lavage therapy and surfactant bolus therapy. The risk of bias was assessed, and clinical as well as statistical heterogeneities were also investigated. Results: Two RCTs for bolus surfactant therapy and two RCTs for surfactant lavage therapy were identified. The oxygenation index results were heterogeneous between the two studies in which bolus surfactant therapy was given, while a/A $PO_2$ showed significantly better results in the treatment group over time after use of surfactant (12 hours: WMD 0.08, 95% CI 0.04-0.12; 24 hours: WMD 0.17, 95% CI 0.06-0.28). For surfactant lavage therapy, both studies consistently suggested an interventional benefit in terms of the pulmonary indices although it did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion: Surfactant therapy appeared to improve oxygenation of infants with MAS. Since a limited number of RCTs are available in the current literature and those studies were also clinically heterogeneous in terms of illness severity and the method of surfactant use, further research is needed to gather evidence to support surfactant therapy in MAS.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.727-734
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• 2004

The Lecompte procedure for transposition of the great arteries has an advantage because it obviates the need for an extracardiac conduit for the reconstruction of the pulmonary outflow tract. We evaluated the effectiveness and the application of the Lecompte procedure. Material and Method: A retrospective review was conducted of the records of 46 patients who underwent the Lecompte procedure during the past 15 years. Mean age at operation was 29.2$\pm$20.3 (range: 3∼83) months. The diagnoses involved anomalies of the ventriculoarterial connection with ventricular septal defect and pulmonary outflow tract obstruction, such as transposition of the great arteries, double-outlet right ventricle, and double-outlet left ventricle. Result: Early mortality was 4.4% (2 of 46 patients) and late mortality was 6.8% (3 of 44). The mean follow-up was 11.2$\pm$6.9 years. Eighteen patients (43.9% of survivors, n=41) had pulmonary stenosis (pressure gradient above 30 mmHg), the main reason for which was a calcified monocusp valve (n=15, 83.3%). Seventeen of 46 patients (37.0%) underwent reoperation: 15 for pulmonary stenosis, 5 for residual ventricular septal defect, 4 for left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, 3 for pulmonary insufficiency, and 4 for other causes. The cumulative survival rates were 91.3$\pm$4.2%, and 87.0$\pm$5.8% at 10 and 15 years, respectively. The actuarial probabilities of freedom from reoperation for pulmonary stenosis were 90.6$\pm$4.5%, 73.9$\pm$7.3%, and 54.0$\pm$10.4% at 5, 10, and 15 years, respectively. Conclusion: The Lecompte procedure is an effective treatment modality. Repair in early age is possible with acceptable morbidity and mortality, but recurrent right ventricular outflow tract obstruction caused by degeneration of the monocusp valve is a problem that needs resolution.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.76-84
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• 1999

The differentiation between malignancy-related ascites(MRA) and non-malignant ascites (NMA) is important for further diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Although many parameters were investigated, none has provided a complete distinction between MRA and NMA. We investigated several ascitic fluid parameters to determine the differential power, and to differentiate malignant-related from nonmalignant-related ascites with a sequence of sensitive parameters followed by specific parameters. For the present study, 80 patients with ascites were divided into two groups: MRA and NMA, The MRA group was consisted of 27 patients with proven malignancy by image study, biopsy, and follow up: 21 of these patients had peritoneal carcinomatosis, but the remaining 6 showed no evidence of peritoneal carcinomatosis. The NMA group was consisted of 53 patients with no evidence of malignancy: among these patients, one had SLE, and others had liver cirrhosis, The samples of blood and ascites were obtained simultaneously, and then the levels of ascites cholesterol, CEA. protein and LDH, cytology, albumin gradient, ascites/serum concen-tration ratios of LDH(LDH A/S), and ascites/serum concentration ratios of protein(protein A/S) were measured. Applying cut-off limits for determined parameters, we estimated the diagnostic efficacy of each parameter, Among the eight parameters investigated, ascites fluid cholesterol yielded the best sensitive value of 93%(cut-off value 30mg/dl), and cytologic examination and the protein A/S(cut-off value 0.5) showed the most specific value of 100% and 96%, respectively. Based on the above results, the diagnostic sequence with cholesterol as a sensitive parameter followed by the combination of cytologic examination and protein A/S as specific parameters, was tested in 80 patients. This diagnostic sequence identified 81.5% of patients with malignancy, and all patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis were classified as malignancy-related ascites. In spite of many limitations, this proposed diagnostic sequence may permit a cost-effective and simple differentiation of malignancy-related ascites from nonmalignant ascites.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.263-274
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• 1993

Potassium $(K^+)$ channels are present in airway smooth muscle cells, and their activation results in hyperpolarization and relaxation. Because these effects may have therapeutic relevance to hypersensitivity and asthma, we examined the effect of a potassium channel activator, cromakalim (BRL 34915, CK) on the release of mediators from superfused tracheal and parenchymal strips after passive sensitization with $IgG_1$ antibody. Both tissues were superfused with CK $(2{\times}10^{-6}\;M)$ for 30 min and challenged with CK and antigen (Ox-HSA). Using monodispersed, partially purified, highly purified guinea pig lung mast cells, we also examined the effect of CK on mediator release from these cells after passive sensitization with $IgG_{1}$ antibody $({\alpha}-OA)$. Guinea pig lung mast cells were purified using enzyme digestion method, count current elutriation, and discontinuous Percoll density gradient. After CK pretreatment, passively sensitized mast cells were challenged with varying concentration of antigen (OA, immunological stimuli) or with varying concentration of calcium ionophore (CaI, non-immunological stimuli). Histamine (Hist) release was determined by spectrophotofluorometry, and leukotrienes (LT) by radioimmunoassy. CK pretreatment decreased Hist by 35% and LT release by 40% in the antigen-induced tracheal tissue after $IgG_1$ sensitization but did not decrease the contractile response. In the antigen-induced parenchymal tissue CK decreased Hist release by 25% but poorly decreased LT. Both immunologic and non-immunologic stimuli caused a dose-dependent release of Hist and LT from monodispersed, partially purified and highly purified lung mast cells. Verification of LT release was obtained by the use of 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor, A64077 (Zileuton). CK decreased Hist and LT release by 20% respectively in the OA-induced guinea pig lung mast cells after $IgG_1$ sensitization. The inhibitory effects of CK on the Hist and LT release in the Ox-HSA-induced airway smooth muscle tissues or in the OA-induced and CaI-induced mast cells after $IgG_1$ sensitization were completely blocked by TEA and GBC. These studies show that guinea pig lung mast cells seem to be an important contributor to LT release, and that CK (which has been known as an airway smooth muscle relaxant) can in part act to inhibit mediator release in the antigen-induced airway smooth muscle, and that CK may also act to inhibit mediator release in the OA-induced and CaI-induced highly purified mast cells. These results suggest that Hist and LT release evoked by mast cell activation might in part be associated with $K{^+}4 channel activity.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.313-321
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• 2004

Excellent clinical results of the arterial switch operation and the limited availablity of the intraventricular rerouting has recently made an arterial switch operation to become the therapeutic method of choice for the repair of double-outlet right ventricle (DORV) with subpulmonary ventricular septal defect (VSD). The early and midterm outcomes of arterial switch operation for this anomaly were evaluated. Material and Method: Between August 1994 and July 2002, 13 patients underwent an arterial switch operation for the correction of double-outlet right ventricle with subpulmonary VSD at Dong-A university hospital.. The 50% rule was used to define DORV. Median age and mean body weight were 27 days (range, 3-120 days) and 3.8$\pm$0.7kg (range, 2.92-5.3kg) respectively. Aortic arch anomalies were associated in 6 cases (46.2%), which were all repaired through one-stage operation. The relationship of the great arteries were side-by-side in 8 cases (61.5%) and anteroposterior in 5 (38.5%). Coronary artery patterns were 1 LCx-2R in 6 cases, retropulmonary left coronary artery (LCA) in 6, and intramural LCA in 1 respectively. The enlargement of VSD was required in 1 patient and the patch enlargement of right ventricular outflow tract was performed in another one patient. The Lecompte maneuver was used in all but 3 patients with a side by side relationship of the great arteries. Result: Overall postoperative hospital mortality was 23.1 % (3/13). All operative deaths were occurred in the patients with aortic arch anomalies. There was one late death related to the postoperative complication of the central nerve system during the mean follow-up of 41.3$\pm$30.7 months. Pulmonary valvar stenosis (＞30mmHg of pressure gradient) developed in 1 patient (10%) and left pulmonary artery stenosis in 2 (20%), among them, one required reoperation 52 months after repair. There was an asymptomatic patient with moderate aortic regurgitation. 5-year survival rate including operative deaths was 68.3%. Conclusion: Although the operative mortality is high in the patients with aortic arch anomaly, the arterial switch operation for DORV with supbpulmonary VSD can be performed with low operative mortality and low reoperation rate in the patients Without arch anomaly. The arterial switch operation can be considered a good option for this complex anomaly.