• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2008

Background and Purpose：Nausea, vomiting and weight loss are common problems that are encountered in the course of cancer patient treatment who are receiving radiotherapy. In this study, we are aiming to analyze the effect of megestrol acetate on quality of life of head and neck cancer patients receiving radiotherapy, resulting from improvement of weight loss, appetite and nutritional status via multicenter, open-labeled, observational clinical trial. Material and Methods：A total of 270 patients from 10 medical institutes who are receiving radiotherapy or who have completed radiotherapy within 3 months, between February 2007 and February 2008, were selected as candidates for the study. Megestrol acetate suspension(megace) was given to the subjectives once a week for 4 weeks with the amount of 20ml(megestrol 800mg). Measurement of weight and questionnaire surveys were carried out three times: at the start of the study, 4 weeks after the start of the medication, and 4 weeks after the end of the medication, respectively. Results：The group who has received megace had a total number of 199, and control group was 70. The group who have received megace showed mean weight loss of 1kg in 8 weeks, compared with the weight loss of 5.5kg in control group, which showed that the medication was effective in reducing the amount of weight loss(P=0.027). The group who received megace had a tendency to report a reduced rate of decrease in the score of appetite, nausea and vomiting, and QOL score, but it did not have statistical significance(P>0.05). Conclusion：Megestrol acetate have reduced the degree of weight loss significantly, and it has a tendency to reduce the rate of decrease in appetite, aggravation of nausea and vomiting, and quality of life.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.341-345
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• 2017

The metacercariae of Artyfechinostomum malayanum (Leiper, 1911) Mendheim, 1943 were discovered in Pila sp. snails purchased from a market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. They were isolated from the snails using the artificial digestion technique and were orally fed to 2 hamsters, 1 rat, and 2 mice to obtain the adult flukes. The metacercariae were round, $145-165{\mu}m$ in diameter, having a cyst wall of $6-10{\mu}m$ in thickness, a head collar and collar spines, and characteristic features of excretory granules. Adult flukes were recovered in the small intestines of the animals at days 14 and 32 post infection and were morphologically observed using a light microscope and a scanning electron microscope. They were plump or elongated, ventrally curved, $6.0-8.1{\times}1.6-2.0mm$ in size, and characterized by the head collar bearing 43 collar spines, including 5 end group ones on each side, a long cirrus sac extending beyond the posterior margin of the ventral sucker, a submedian ovary, and 2 deeply lobed testes. Eggs in uteri were operculate, ovoid to ellipsoid, and $120-135{\times}68-75{\mu}m$ in size. In scanning electron microscopy, the head collar was prominent with collar spines looking like horns. Scale-like tegumental spines were densely distributed on the ventral surface between the head collar and ventral sucker. Sensory papillae were distributed mainly on the tegument around suckers. By this study, it has been first confirmed that the life cycle of A. malayanum exists in Cambodia.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.541-548
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• 2017

A survey was performed to know the infection status of echinostome metacercariae in Cipangopaludina chinensis malleata snails from Korea. Total 75 snails collected in 5 localities, i.e., Imsil-gun, Jeollabuk-do, Hwasun-gun and Shinan-gun (Aphae and Jido), Jeollanam-do, and Jinju-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, were examined for metacercariae by the artificial digestion method. Infection rates of metacercariae were 80.0%, 66.7%, 100%, 60.0%, and 73.3%, and their densities were 39, 32, 183, 19, and 30 per snail infected, respectively. The metacercariae were round, $105-118{\times}105-118{\mu}m$ in size, with a thin cyst wall, collar spines on the head collar, and excretory granules in 2 canals of excretory tube. Adult flukes were elongated, ventrally curved, and $5,167{\times}939{\mu}m$ in average size. Head collar distinct, bearing 45 collar spines with 5 end groups on each side. Oral sucker subterminal, pharynx well developed, and esophagus somewhat short. Cirrus sac well developed, with a saccular seminal vesicle, and ventral sucker very large. Ovary elliptical and on the median line of the body. Testes tandem and slightly lobed. Eggs operculated, elliptical, and $90-103{\times}55-60{\mu}m$ in size. By scanning electron microscopy, the head collar was prominent with 45 collar spines resembling horns of younger stags. Scale-like tegumental spines were densely distributed on the body surface between the head collar and ventral sucker. Conclusively, it has been first confirmed that the life cycle of E. macrorchis is indigenously maintained in Korea, and C. chinensis malleata snails are popularly infected with the metacercariae of this echinostome.

• International Journal of Clinical Preventive Dentistry
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.228-234
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• 2018

Objective: The authors have experimented for the artificial plaque removal effect of several kinds of 360 degree rotating head typed tooth-brushes with sonic vibratory actioned by using of automatic machine for horizontal scrub method in order to find the better toothbrush type for plaque removal. Methods: The experiment was conducted on three medium to 360 degree rotating head toothbrushes, a medium sized toothbrush and a medium sized toothbrush, and a flat toothbrush consisting of 30 ordinary toothbrushes. A brushing machine with horizontal scrubbing was manufactured and had variations of the end of the bristle attached to or near the surface of the teeth, a vibrating wave action force of 16,000 or 18,000 cycles per minute, and a working time of 2 or 3 minutes. The tooth removal effect was confirmed by scanning and analyzing images with a computer program after automatic brushing with the machine. The elimination rate results for each group were analyzed using the independent t-test and one-way ANOVA test. Results: It revealed the most in removal effect for the artificial plaque in such conditions as action at near the tooth surface with 18,000 cycle for 3 minutes in case of using A, B, and C tooth-brush. And it has more removal effect rate than for using the plane tooth-brush (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was recommended to develop the 360 degree rotating head and vibratory toothbrush focusing to use near the tooth surface with 18,000 cycles of vibration for 3 minutes at one site of the teeth area.

• Medical Lasers
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2021

Background and Objectives Hypothyroidism is the most common endocrine disease. On the other hand, there is no treatment that can improve the thyroid function. Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) can improve the cellular activity. The effect of hypothyroidism is not obvious. This study examined the effects of LLLT on the thyroid gland function of a propylthiouracil (PTU)-induced hypothyroidism mouse model. Materials and Methods Twenty-five male ICR mice were distributed into five groups of five animals each: Negative control (none PTU animal) and positive control (PTU animal) of unirradiated animals, and three experimental groups with LLLT (3J, 6J, and 12J). Each mouse was exposed to a distinct dose of a 632-nm laser once a week for three rounds. The positive control group and three LLLT groups were induced into a hypothyroidism state by PTU administration. The animals' thyroid-stimulating hormone and thyroxine levels were measured using an ELISA kit, and their thyroid tissue was harvested and analyzed after sacrifice at the end of the experiment. The hormone level and morphological changes in the tissue of the five groups were compared. Results The thyroid hormone levels in the control group and LLLT groups were similar. On the other hand, the thyroid tissue of the LLLT groups showed some morphological changes that were similar to those of iodine deficiency thyroid. Conclusion LLLT did not affect the thyroid gland function in PTU-induced hypothyroidism mice.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.312-318
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• 2006

The conventional lip-synch system has a two-step process, speech segmentation and recognition. However, the difficulty of speech segmentation procedure and the inaccuracy of training data set due to the segmentation lead to a significant Performance degradation in the system. To cope with that, the connected vowel recognition method using Head-Body-Tail (HBT) model is proposed. The HBT model which is appropriate for handling relatively small sized vocabulary tasks reflects co-articulation effect efficiently. Moreover the 7 vowels are merged into 3 classes having similar lip shape while the system is optimized by employing a class dependent SCHMM structure. Additionally in both end sides of each word which has large variations, 8 components Gaussian mixture model is directly used to improve the ability of representation. Though the proposed method reveals similar performance with respect to the CHMM based on the HBT structure. the number of parameters is reduced by 33.92%. This reduction makes it a computationally efficient method enabling real time operation.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2009

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) occur commonly in the all living and in cycling cells. They constitute one of the most severe form of DNA damage, because they affect both strand of DNA. DSBs result in cell death or a genetic alterations including deletion, loss of heterozygosity, translocation, and chromosome loss. DSBs arise from endogenous sources like metabolic products and reactive oxygen, and also exogenous factors like ionizing radiation. Defective DNA DSBs can lead to toxicity and large scale sequence rearrangement that can cause cancer and promote premature aging. There are two major pathways for their repair: homologous recombination(HR) and non-homologous end-joining(NHEJ). The HR pathway is a known "error-free" repair mechanism, in which a homologous sister chromatid serves as a template. NHEJ, on the other hand, is a "error-prone" pathway, in which the two termini of the broken DNA molecule are used to form compatible ends that are directly ligated. This review aims to provide a fundamental understanding of how HR and NHEJ pathways operate, cause genome instability, and what kind of genes during the pathways are associated with head and neck cancer.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1450-1454
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• 2006

Three hundred and seventy-five steers (approximately 7 mo of age and $239.0{\pm}10.4kg$) were utilized to determine the effects of trace mineral (TM) supplementation and source on performance during the on-farm backgrounding and feedlot receiving phases of beef cattle production. At their respective ranches, steers were stratified by body weight into six groups. Groups were then assigned to one of six pens and pens were randomly assigned to treatments. Treatments consisted of: 1) control (no supplemental Cu, Zn, Mn, and Co), 2) inorganic trace mineral ($CuSO_4$, $ZnSO_4$, $MnSO_4$, and $CoCO_3$), and 3) organic trace mineral (iso-amounts of organic Cu, Zn, Mn, and Co). Mineral treatments were fed in alfalfa pellets formulated to supply 360 mg of Zn, 200 mg of Mn, 125 mg of Cu, and 12.5 mg of Co per head per day from either organic or inorganic trace mineral sources. Control steers received alfalfa pellets with no additional Cu, Zn, Mn, or Co. Steers were allowed free access to harvested alfalfa-grass hay throughout the 30-d on-farm backgrounding phase. On day 30 post-weaning, steers were weighed and transported to the feedlot. Steers were blocked by treatment within ranch, stratified by initial body weight, and randomly assigned to one of 36 pens (9-12 head per pen; 12 pens per treatment). Steers remained on the same on-farm backgrounding trace mineral treatments, however, trace mineral treatments were included in the total mixed growing ration. Steers were fed a corn silage-based growing diet throughout the 28 d feedlot receiving period. There was no effect of TM supplementation on performance of steers during the on-farm backgrounding phase. By the end of the 28-d feedlot receiving phase, ADG was similar between control and trace mineral supplemented steers. Steers supplemented with organic TM had greater (p<0.05) ADG than steers supplemented with inorganic TM by the end of the 28-d feedlot receiving phase. Morbidity and mortality rates were similar across treatments.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2014

Retinal glial responses to hypertensive glaucomatous injury were spatiotemporally surveyed. Retinas as a whole or vertical sections were processed for anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), anti-Iba1, anti-nerve growth factor (NGF), and anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$ immunohistochemistry for confocal microscopic analyses. The optic nerve head of paired controls was processed for electron microscopy. GFAP positive astrocytes appeared in the nerve fiber layer in the glaucomatous and control retinas, changing from fine protoplasmic to stout fibrous parallel to glaucomatous duration. Iba1 positive microglia appeared in both retinas, and enormous reaction appeared at the latest glaucomatous. M$\ddot{u}$ller reaction detected by GFAP reactivity expanded from the end feet to whole profile following to duration in the glaucomatous. NGF reactivity expended from the end feet to the proximal radial processes of the M$\ddot{u}$ller cells in both retinas according to glaucomatous duration. TNF-${\alpha}$ immunoreactivity in the nerve fiber layer was stronger in both the glaucomatous and controls than in the normal, and exceptionally at the latest glaucomatous was even lower than the normal. The astrocytes in the optic nerve head are interconnected with each other via gap junction. These results demonstrate that astrocyte reaction propagates to the contralateral via physical links, and TNF-${\alpha}$ is correlated with NGF production for neuroprotection in response to hypertensive glaucomatous injury.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.41-48
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• 2005

The gravitational consolidation behavior of the dredged ground with horizontal drains is analyzed using a finite difference program developed for self-weight consolidation analysis with horizontal drains. The influence of area and direction of horizontal drains on the consolidation time and settlement is analyzed. Various field conditions such as the non-treated ground below horizontal drain installed ground, the accumulation of drained water at the end of horizontal drains, are also included in the analyses. It was found that a slight decrease of consolidation time is resulted in the twice increase of the sectional area of drains. Installing drains vertically can reduce the consolidation time more significantly than installing drains horizontally. The analyses showed quantitatively that the non-treated ground below the horizontal drain installed ground has much influence on long term consolidation settlement, and the accumulation of hydraulic head at the end of horizontal drains results in the increase of consolidation time and insufficient consolidation.