• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1339-1344
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• 2014

Aims: Alterations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been implicated in carcinogenesis and tumor progression. We here evaluated the diagnostic and prognostic potential of mtDNA as a biomarker for breast cancer. Methods: Using multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction, nuclear DNA (nDNA) and mtDNA levels in serum, buffy coat, tumor, and tumor-adjacent tissue samples from 50 breast cancer patients were determined and assessed for associations with clinicopathological features. To evaluate mtDNA as a biomarker for distinguishing between the four sample types, we created receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: The mtDNA levels in buffy coat were significantly lower than in other sample types. Relative to tumor-adjacent tissue, reduced levels of mtDNA were identified in buffy coat and tumor tissue but not in serum. According to ROC curve analysis, mtDNA levels could be used to distinguish between buffy coat and tumor-adjacent tissue samples with good sensitivity (77%) and specificity (83%). Moreover, mtDNA levels in serum and tumor tissue were positively associated with cancer TMN stage. Conclusions: The mtDNA levels in blood samples may represent a promising, non-invasive biomarker in breast cancer patients. Additional, large-scale validation studies are required to establish the potential use of mtDNA levels in the early diagnosis and monitoring of breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.5143-5148
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• 2012

Objective: The aim was to investigate indicators related to DNA damage and cancer pathogenesis in Type II diabetes cases with breast cancer. It was planned to evaluate the relationship between these markers with oral antidiabetic drugs. Research Design and Methods: Fourty patients and 10 healthy individuals were included in the study. HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and 8-OHdG are examined in blood samples taken from these individuals with an ELISA Kit. Statistical analysis of data was performed with 95% confidence using Windows package program SPSS 15.0. Results: HIF-$1{\alpha}$ parameters were found to be meaningfully higher in the patient group than the controls in both pretreatment and posttreatment periods (p<0.05). No significant differences in terms of 8-OHdG between patients and controls. However, posttreatment serum HIF-$1{\alpha}$ ve 8-OHdG levels was found lower than pretreatment levels in patients receiving metformin, but not with pioglitazone. Conversely, serum 8-OHdG levels decreased significantly in these patients. When patients were evaluated according to the treatment groups (pioglitazone vs. metfformin) no significant differences in terms of serum HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and 8-OHdG levels between treatment groups. Conclusions: HIF-$1{\alpha}$ levels decreased significantly in the patient group receiving metformin. However, there was no significant difference in terms of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ levels in the patients receiving pioglitazone.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.268-277
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• 2012

Objectives: 1) To determine mercury levels in urine samples from garbage workers in Southern Thailand, and 2) to describe the association between work characteristics, work positions, behavioral factors, and acute symptoms; and levels of mercury in urine samples. Methods: A case-control study was conducted by interviewing 60 workers in 5 hazardous-waste-management factories, and 60 matched non-exposed persons living in the same area of Southern Thailand. Urine samples were collected to determine mercury levels by cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometer mercury analyzer. Results: The hazardous-waste workers' urinary mercury levels (10.07 ${\mu}g/g$ creatinine) were significantly higher than the control group (1.33 ${\mu}g/g$ creatinine) (p < 0.001). Work position, duration of work, personal protective equipment (PPE), and personal hygiene, were significantly associated with urinary mercury level (p < 0.001). The workers developed acute symptoms - of head-aches, nausea, chest tightness, fatigue, and loss of consciousness at least once a week - and those who developed symptoms had significantly higher urinary mercury levels than those who did not, at p < 0.05. A multiple regression model was constructed. Significant predictors of urinary mercury levels included hours worked per day, days worked per week, duration of work (years), work position, use of PPE (mask, trousers, and gloves), and personal hygiene behavior (ate snacks or drank water at work, washed hands before lunch, and washed hands after work). Conclusion: Changing garbage workers' hygiene habits can reduce urinary mercury levels. Personal hygiene is important, and should be stressed in education programs. Employers should institute engineering controls to reduce urinary mercury levels among garbage workers.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Toocicology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.121-123
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• 2003

The registration of a pesticide for use in the gardens or a farmer's field requires assessment of the potential negative effects of that pesticide on human health. To anticipate how a pesticide might impact human health, laboratory animals such as mice and rats are exposed to varying dosages in their foods -from very minimal to extremely high levels. Toxicologists then evaluate the observable effect(s) of consuming known quantities of that specific pesticide on acute, subchronic, chronic, mutational, reproduction and neurological effects. Information gained from such test is evaluated by toxicologists and medical experts to determine potential human effects

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.31-68
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• 2006

The present research investigates the acquisition of the English locative alternation by Korean EFL learners, which poses a learnability paradox, taking Pinker's framework of learnability theory as its basis. It addresses two questions (1) how lexical knowledge is represented initially and at different levels of interlanguage development and (2) what kinds of difficulty Korean learners find in the acquisition of English locative verbs and their constructions. Three groups of learners at different proficiency levels with a control group of English native speakers are examined by two instruments: elicited production task and grammaticality judgment task. According to different levels of proficiency, the learners exhibit gradual sensitivity to a change-of-state meaning and obtain complete perception of the meanings of locative verbs (manner-of-motion and change-of-state) and their constructions. Overgeneralization errors are observed in their performance. The errors are due to misinterpretations of particular lexical items in conjunction with the universal linking rules. More fundamental cause of difficulty is accounted for by partial use of learning mechanisms, caused by insufficient L2 input.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.52-58
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• 2006

Coffee chaff for manufacturing of the 6 mm thick cement-bonded boards was obtained from a coffee processing industry at Omuo-Ekiti, in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Boards were produced with three levels of cement to coffee chaff ratio of 1.5:1, 2.5:1 and 3.5:1; and at three levels of mixing curing reagent of 2.0%, 2.5% and 3.0%. Three dimensional properties of thickness swelling (TS), water absorption (WA) and linear expansion (LE) were investigated after 48 hours immersion in water. The mean values obtained for TS, WA and LE ranged from 0.46% to 1.47%, from 11.52% to 24.00%, from 0.19% to 0.35%, respectively. The most dimensionally stable boards were produced at the highest mixing levels of curing reagent and cement to coffee chaff ratio of 3.0% and 3.5:1, respectively. The coffee chaff is suitable as raw material for the manufacture of cement-bonded composites and it would be able to stimulate and activate the use of other agro-byproducts for the manufacture of value-added panels.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.1128-1128
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• 2001

We have developed a probe for measuring the light levels inside illuminated fruit. The probe has minimal effect on the light levels being measured and enables the sampling of the light flux at any point within the fruit. We present experimental light extinction rates within apple, nashi, kiwifruit, and mandarin fruit. Moving from the illuminated side to the far side of the fruit, the extinction level follows an initial power law decay as the light diffuses into the fruit then reduces to an exponential decay through the rest of the fruit. Significant variations in the rates of light extinction are found in the core, skin and differing flesh regions. Monte Carlo simulations of the light distribution in fruit, which use scattering and absorption coefficients for the diffusely scattering tissue, and boundary conditions for the skin effects, produce results that follow the experimental results closely.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.199-216
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• 2009

This study investigates how Korean speakers develop their interlanguage of English passive constructions with a reference to the learners' grammar proficiency levels. Sixty two college students of different levels of English participated in this study. They were asked to complete a sentence-completion task. Their production was classified into accurate passives, malformed passives, pseudo-passives, unaccusatives, and actives according to the use of transitive, ergative and unergative verbs. They then were further analyzed depending on the subjects' levels of grammar by three main factors: L1 transfer, the English voice system, and universal cognitive factors. The results showed that the subjects of the lower group produced more pseudo-passives, malformed passives, and overpassivization than those of the higher group, and even subjects of higher group still made passives for ergative verbs. It was also shown that L1 and universal factors had more influence on the lower group than on the higher group. Based on the analyses of the subjects' responses, the development of the English passive system by Korean learners is shown and some implications are suggested for effective teaching of English.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.247-258
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• 2008

Environmental standards for beneficial uses of dredged materials are proposed. Even though chemical analysis of ocean sediments are carried out frequently, their analyses results were not interrelated with the effects of biological lives due to a shortage of biological data. These facts have resulted in difficulty to develope Korean's standards of recycling dredged materials. This paper first searched existing current foreign standards, analyzed local contaminated ocean sediment data, identified their main chemical components of contaminants, and then compared with clean-up standards of sediments consisting of lower and higher levels. From these analysis, new environmental standards considering Korean domestic circumstances are proposed. It is judged that new standards are appropriate to both Korean national sedimental environments and economically recycling aspects because environmental standard levels proposed are higher than background levels of sediments in Korean and foreign standards.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.650-659
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• 2021

Multi-carrier waveforms have several advantages over single-carrier waveforms for radar communication. Employing multi-carrier complementary phase-coded (MCPC) waveforms in radar applications has recently attracted significant attention. MCPC radar signals take advantage of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing properties, and several authors have explored the use of MCPC signals and the difficulties associated with their implementation. The sidelobe level and peak-to-mean-envelope-power ratio (PMEPR) are the key issues that must be addressed to improve the performance of radar signals. We propose a scheme that applies pattern-based scaling and geometric progression methods to enhance sidelobe and PMEPR levels in MCPC radar signals. Numerical results demonstrate the improvement of sidelobe and PMEPR levels in the proposed scheme. Additionally, autocorrelations are obtained and analyzed by applying the proposed scheme in extensive simulation experiments.