• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.409-418
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• 2011

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary probiotics and immunomodulator on growth performance, carcass characteristics, fecal $NH_3$ content and pathogenic bacteria counts in ileum and cecum and ileum of broiler chicken (Korean native chicken, HanHyup No. 3). A total of 120 (day-old) chicks were randomly divided into 5 treatments with 3 replicates and there were 8 birds per replicate. Dietary treatments consisted of five diets; the corn-soybean based control diet (C), the diet containing antibiotics (Avilamycin) 10 ppm (T1), the diet containing probiotics 1 [(Lactobacillus ($4.45{\times}10^6$) + yeast ($1.51{\times}10^6$) + Bacillus subtilis ($3.50{\times}10^5$)] at 0.5% level (T2), probiotics 2 [(Lactobacillus ($6.70{\times}10^7$) + yeast ($3.10{\times}10^6$)] at 0.5% level in diet (T3), and the diet containing probiotics 3 [T2 + ${\beta}$-glucan + organic acid] (T4) and raised for 9 weeks. There were no significant differences among treatments in weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion. Carcass ratios of broilers were higher in T3 and T4 than other treatments, however, the differences were non-significant. Internal organs and liver, heart weight were significantly increased in T4 (p<0.05) compared to other treatments. The fecal $NH_3$ gas content was decreased (p<0.05) in antibiotics fed group than others. However, probiotic fed groups were not different when compared with control. The number of Salmonella and E. coli in cecum were reduced in the group supplemented with probiotics and immunomodulator compared to the antibiotics (p<0.05). In this experiment, we showed that diets containing pro-biotics and immunomodulator were capable of an alternative to antibiotics.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.214-220
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• 2004

Purpose: As for the malignant bowel obstruction of terminal cancer patient, a prognosis is relatively bad. Physicians consider palliative procedures or surgery for the quality of life, but sometimes it is hard to decide. After diagnosis of a malignant bowel obstruction in terminal cancer patients, we investigated the clinical characteristics, the prognostic factors and the survival of patients with palliative procedures or surgery. Methods: we retrospectively reviewed the medical records in 40 malignant bowel obstruction patients who had been diagnosed as terminal cancer from May in 2002 to May in 2004. Results: There were 21 males (53%) and 19 females (47%), and median age of patients was $64.1{\pm}1.58$ years. The most common cause of malignant bowel obstruction was colorectal cancer (18 patients, 45%), followed by stomach cancer (11, 28%), pancreatic cancer (4, 10%), others (7, 19%). Metastases were carcinomatosis peritonei (14 patients, 35%), liver (13, 33%). During a bowel obstruction, symptoms were vomiting (15 patients, 38%), abdominal pain (10, 25%), constipation (6, 15%), abdominal distension (5, 13%). Performance status (ECOG) was 2 score (16 patients, 40%), 3 score (20, 50%), 4 score (4, 10%). Palliative procedure group were 30 patients, the others 10. Median survival in palliative procedure group was 142 days, that of no palliation group 30. Median survival time of palliative procedure group from palliative procedures or surgery were significantly higher than that of no palliation group from diagnosis of malignant bowel obstruction. Prognostic factors of palliative procedure group were PS, site of obstruction and primary cancer. Median survival in PS 2, lower GI obstruction and colorectal cancer was higher than PS 3, upper GI obstruction and others, respectively. Conclusion: we recommend aggressively palliative procedures or surgery in malignant bowel obstruction patients diagnosed with terminal cancer if palliative procedures or surgery could be performed effectively.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2002

Background : Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) have usually been considered to be contaminants of colonizers when isolated from respiratory specimens in Korea, where there is a high prevalence of tuberculosis and a low rate of HIV infections. Therefore, there has been few studies on the clinical significance of NTM species in immunocompetent patients were investigated. Methods : Thirty-five NTM isolates, for which species identification was requested by the treating physicians during 1999 at the Asan Medical Center, were retrospectively analyzed. They were identified to the species level by mycolic acid analysis using high-performance liquid chromatography. The medical records of the patients with the NTM isolates were reviewed to identify those patients who met the American Thoracic Society (ATS)'s criteria for mycobacterial pulmonary infection. Their antimicrobial susceptibility data were compared with the clinical outcomes. Results : The NTM were identified as M. intracellulare (6 isolates), M. avium (5), M. abscessus (5), M. gordonae (5), M. terrae complex (4), M. szulgai (2), M. kansasii (2), M. fortuitum (2), M. peregrinum (1), M. mucogenicum (1), M. celatum (1), and M. chelonae (1). All 35 patients showed clinical symptoms and signs of chronic lung disease, but none had a HIV infections; 16 (45.7%) patients were found to be compatible with a NTM pulmonary infection according to the ATS criteria, 5 and 4 cases were affected with M. intracellulare and M. abscessus, respectively; 8 patients had a history of pulmonary tuberculosis. 13 patients received antimycobacterial therapy for an average of 21 months and 9 patients were treated with second-line drugs. Only 4 patients had improved radiologically. Conclusion : A NTM should be considered a potential pathogen of pulmonary infections in immunocompetent patients with chronic pulmonary diseases. Most NTM infections were left untreated for a prolonged period and showed a poor outcome as a result, M. intracellulare and M. abscessus were the two most frequent causes of NTM pulmonary infections in this study. Species identification and antimycobacterial susceptibility tests based on the species are needed for the optimum management of a NTM pulmonary infection in patients.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.102-108
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• 2020

In recent years, packed column has been widely used in separation processes, such as absorption, desorption, distillation, and extraction, in the petrochemical, fine chemistry, and environmental industries. Packed column is used as a contacting facility for gas-liquid and liquid-liquid systems filled with random packed materials in the column. Packed column has various advantages such as low pressure drop, economical efficiency, thermally sensitive liquids, easy repairing restoration, and noxious gas treatment. The performance of a packed column is highly dependent on the maintenance of good gas and liquid distribution throughout a packed bed; thus, this is an important consideration in a design of packed column. In this study, hydraulic pressure drop, hold-up as a function of liquid load, and mass transfer in the air, air/water, and air-NH₃/water systems were studied to find the geometrical characteristic for raschig super-ring experiment dry pressure drop. Based on the results, design factors and operating conditions to handle noxious gases were obtained. The dry pressure drop of the random packing raschig super-ring was linearly increased as a function of gas capacity factor with various liquid loads in the Air/Water system. This result is lower than that of 35 mm Pall-ring, which is most commonly used in the industrial field. Also, it can be found that the hydraulic pressure drop of raschig super-ring is consistently increased by gas capacity factor with various liquid loads. When gas capacity factor with various liquid loads is increased from 1.855 to 2.323 kg^-1/2 m^-1/2 S^-1, hydraulic pressure drop increases around 17%. Finally, the liquid hold-up related to packing volume, which is a parameter of specific liquid load depending on gas capacity factor, shows consistent increase by around 3.84 kg^-1/2 m^-1/2 S^-1 of the gas capacity factor. However, liquid hold-up significantly increases above it.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.229-233
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• 2016

This study was conducted to compare three commercially available egg testing devices for measuring egg quality. The devices used were a Laser-type (automatic), a Ultrasonic-type (automatic), and a Probe-type (manual). Fresh eggs weighing 60~68 grams were obtained from a commercial hen farm. Three trials were conducted. In Trial 1, a total of 50 eggs were successively analyzed by the three egg testing devices. In Trial 2, fresh eggs were successively analyzed by a combination of two egg testing devices. In Trial 3, a total of 600 eggs (weighing 60~68 grams) laid by same flock were selected, further divided into three sub-groups with a total of 200 eggs, and analyzed by an egg testing device. In Trials 1 and 2, no apparent difference was observed in egg weight between egg testing devices. However, albumin height was scored highest in the Ultrasonic-type egg tester followed by the Probe-type and Laser-type (Trials 1 and 2). Consequently, the Haugh unit was similarly altered. Yolk color was highest in the Laser-type egg tester followed by the Ultrasonic-type and Probe-type (Trials 1 and 2). When fresh eggs laid by a single flock were independently analyzed by three devices, egg weight did not differ, but albumin height and Haugh unit were higher (p<0.05) in the Ultrasonic-type egg tester than in the Probe-type or Laser-type testers. However, Laser-type testers produced higher (p<0.05) yolk color values than the Ultrasonic-type or Probe-type egg testers. In conclusion, the commercially available egg testing devices exhibited performance differences in measuring egg qualities, which warrants further consideration as to whether the magnitude of bias and precision between the devices could be acceptable in the egg grading system, especially when assessing eggs stored for certain durations.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.393-399
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• 1994

Spinal cord compression, an oncologic emergency, is a rare complication of hematologic malignancy Our experience was obtained with a series 32 Patients following retrospective analysis for assessing the role of radiation therapy and identifying the prognostic factors affecting on treatment outcome. Diagnosis was usually made by means of radiologic study such as myelography or computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neurologic examination. Five cases were diagnosed by subjective symptom only with high index of suspicion. In 31 cases, the treatment consisted in radiation therapy alone and the remained one patient had laminectomy before radiation therapy because of diagnostic doubts. Total treatment doses ranged from 800 cGy to 4000 cGy with median of 2000 cGy. Initially large fraction size more than 250 cGy were used in 13 patients with rapidly progressed neurologic deficit. The clinical parameters considered in evaluating the response to treatment were backache, motor-sensory performance and sphincter function. Half of all patients showed good response. Partial response and no response were noted in $37.5\%$ and $12.5\%$, respectively. Our results showed higher response rate than those of other solid tumor series. The degree of neurologic deficit at that time of diagnosis was the most important predictor of treatment outcome. The elapsed time from development of symptoms to start of treatment was significantly affected on the outcome. But histology of primary tumor total dose and use of initial large fraction size were not significantly affect on the outcome. These results confirmed the value of early diagnosis and treatment especially in radiosensitive hematologic malignancy.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2010

Recreation forests are in the spotlight as the place for personality development, mind and body comfort, companionship, and environment education in forests and valleys. Visitors to recreation forests have been on the increase along with booming in recreation forest building since 1988. Recreation forests are being categorized according to some features such as regional and environmental condition. Recreation forests, however, have not met the expectations of some visitors who want to take a rest with calmness due to the influence of the 5-day-work-week system, increasing interest in rest, leisure, and well-being, and users converge during weekends, summer, and the tourist season. In order to improve visitors' satisfaction efficiently, this study surveyed the level of satisfaction in each cluster based on the precedent study which had classified 85 national or public recreation forests in Korea into clusters. Questionnaires were distributed properly to each cluster and, of the 1,132 questionnaires collected, 1,015 were valid and used for analysis. Reliability of questionnaires and statistical validity of the model were verified. As a result, there are meaningful differences in the ranking of independent variables which affect the level of satisfaction according to clusters. Variables in rest and fatigue recovery have the strongest influence on the level of satisfaction in the clusters of potential factor, internal activation factor, and mixed potential capacity factor. In the use performance and visiting condition factor cluster, appropriateness of visit cost is most influential and, in the education cluster, connectivity with tourist attractions around it is most affective. These results can provide priority in services and maintenance of recreation forests for improving the level of satisfaction and differentiate the distribution of resources according to clusters.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2008

By considering the storage temperatures of agricultural products, three types of PCMs $(K_1$, $K_2$, $K_3$) were developed to be used in temperature ranges of $0{\sim}5^{\circ}C$, $5{\sim}10^{\circ}C$ and $10{\sim}15^{\circ}C$, $K_1$ PCM for $0{\sim}5^{\circ}C$ was developed by mixture of $C_{14}H_{30}$ and soduim polyacrylate, and $K_2$ PCM for $5{\sim}10^{\circ}C$ and $K_3$ PCM for $10{\sim}15^{\circ}C$ were mixture of $C_{14}H_{30}$, $C_{18}H_{38}$ and soduim polyacrylate with different composition ratio. 'The target temperatures of cold chain system were set at $7^{\circ}C$, $13^{\circ}C$, and $17^{\circ}C$ with $K_{1-3}$, $K_{2-3}$ and $K_{3-1}$ PCMs, respectively. The times to reach the target temperatures in the storage chamber were 21 hours, 18 hours, and 61 hours with $K_1$, $K_2$, and $K_3$ PCMs, respectively. The performances of natural convection type and forced convection of the temperature controlled portable container were analyzed Apples were stored in the portable container of $5^{\circ}C$, and temperatures at surface and center were measured. The initial temperature of the apple was $25^{\circ}C$. The temperatures of apple at the surface and the center were $15^{\circ}C$ and $16^{\circ}C$, respectively, after 5 hours with natural convection type. However, the temperatures at the surface and the center were already reached to $7^{\circ}C$ within 1 hour with forced convection type. The forced convection type showed the better performance and the temperatures of portable container were maintained more than 15 hours.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.73-94
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• 2010

The attending system is a medical system that allows doctors in clinics to use the extra equipment in hospitals-beds, laboratory, operating room, etc-for their patient's care under a contract between the doctors and hospitals. Therefore, the system is very beneficial in terms of the efficiency of the usage of medical resources. However, it is necessary to develop a strong support system to strengthen its weaknesses and supplement its merits. If doctors use hospital beds under the attending system of hospitals, they would be able to check a patient's condition often and provide them with nursing care services. However, the current attending system lacks delivery and assistance support. Thus, for the successful performance of the attending system, a networking system should be developed to facilitate communication between the doctors and nurses. In particular, the nursing records in the attending system could help doctors monitor the patient's condition and provision of nursing care services. A nursing record is the formal documentation associated with nursing care. It is merely a data repository that helps nurses to track their activities; nursing records thus represent a resource of primary information that can be reused. In order to maximize their usefulness, nursing records have been introduced as part of computerized patient records. However, nursing records are internal data that are not disclosed by hospitals. Moreover, the lack of standardization of the record list makes it difficult to share nursing records. Under the attending system, nurses would want to minimize the amount of effort they have to put in for the maintenance of additional records. Hence, they would try to maintain the current level of nursing records in the form of record lists and record attributes, while doctors would require more detailed and real-time information about their patients in order to monitor their condition. Therefore, this study developed a system for assisting in the maintenance and sharing of the nursing records under the attending system. In contrast to previous research on the functionality of computer-based nursing records, we have emphasized the practical usefulness of nursing records from the viewpoint of the actual implementation of the attending system. We suggested that nurses could design a nursing record dictionary for their convenience, and that doctors and nurses could confirm the definitions that they looked up in the dictionary through negotiations with intelligent agents. Such an agent-based system could facilitate networking among medical institutes. Multi-agent systems are a widely accepted paradigm for the distribution and sharing of computation workloads in the scientific community. Agent-based systems have been developed with differences in functional cooperation, coordination, and negotiation. To increase such communication, a framework for a multi-agent based system is proposed in this study. The agent-based approach is useful for developing a system that promotes trade-offs between transactions involving multiple attributes. A brief summary of our contributions follows. First, we propose an efficient and accurate utility representation and acquisition mechanism based on a preference scale while minimizing user interactions with the agent. Trade-offs between various transaction attributes can also be easily computed. Second, by providing a multi-attribute negotiation framework based on the attribute utility evaluation mechanism, we allow both the doctors in charge and nurses to negotiate over various transaction attributes in the nursing record lists that are defined by the latter. Third, we have designed the architecture of the nursing record management server and a system of agents that provides support to the doctors and nurses with regard to the framework and mechanisms proposed above. A formal protocol has also been developed to create and control the communication required for negotiations. We verified the realization of the system by developing a web-based prototype. The system was implemented using ASP and IIS5.1.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2014

Purpose: Although vitamin D deficiency is more commonly found in cancer patient than in non-cancer patients, there have been little data regarding the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in cancer patients at the very end of life. We examined vitamin D deficiency in terminally ill cancer patients and related factors. Methods: This study was based on a retrospective chart review of 133 patients in a hospice ward. We collected data regarding age, sex, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level, cancer type, physical performance, current medications and various laboratory findings. We investigated factors related to serum vitamin D levels after multivariate adjustment for potential confounders. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D<20 ng/mL was considered deficient and <10 ng/mL severely deficient. Results: Ninety-five percent of the patients were serum vitamin D deficient. Severe vitamin D deficiency was more common in male patients, non-lung cancer patients, $H_2$ blocker users and non-anticonvulsant users. Elevated levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were also associated with low serum vitamin D levels. Multiple regression analysis showed that severe vitamin D deficiency was associated with male gender (aOR 3.82, 95% CI: 1.50~9.72, P=0.005), $H_2$ blocker users (aOR 3.94, 95% CI: 1.61~9.65, P=0.003) and elevated serum ALT levels (aOR 4.52, 95% CI: 1.35~15.19, P=0.015). Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency was highly prevalent among terminally ill cancer patients. Severe vitamin D deficiency was more common in male patients, $H_2$ blocker users, and patients with elevated ALT levels.