• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.324-329
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• 2009

Purpose : Acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP) is a rare disease, but its prognosis is fatal because of lack of efficient treatment modality. Recently, it has been reported that there was epidemic AIP in Korea. This study aims to investigate the past and current status of AIP in Korea. Methods : We performed a nationwide survey and a prospective study. From August 6 to 15, 2008, a questionnaire survey was conducted to identify the prevalence, local distribution, and response to current treatments. The questionnaire was answered by pediatrician working in 23 referral centers in Korea. In addition, 5 referral centers in Seoul performed a preliminary prospective observational study by obtaining clinical data and specimens from appropriate patients. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed the samples for possible pathogens. Results : The survey showed 78 AIP cases had occurred and 36 patients had died. Lung biopsy was performed only on 20 patients. In 2008, 9 AIP cases developed. In a prospective study, 9 (M:F=5:4) patients developed AIP in spring and 7 (78%) died, with the mean rate of death occurring 46 days after diagnosis. Human corona virus 229E, cytomegalovirus, influenza A virus, influenza B virus, and parainfluenza virus were isolated from the respiratory specimens. Conclusion : This study showed nationwide prevalence of AIP in Korea. In addition, because of the high mortality rate and rapid progress, pediatricians need to be aware of the disease. Further studies and a nationwide network are required for reducing the morbidity and mortality rates related to AIP.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.213-221
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• 2001

Background : There is a well recognized interlaboratory variation in the results using the polymerase chain reaction(PCR) to detect the IS6110 sequence. The clinical utility of a commercially developed PCR test(Amplicor) in bronchial washings for detecting pulmonary tuberculosis in smear negative patients was evaluated. The sensitivity and specificity of Amplicor was compared with that of an in-house PCR test used for detecting the IS6110 sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis(M.tbc) in the bronchial washing fluid. Methods : 66 patients whose sputum smear for M. tbc were negative or who could not produce any sputum were recruited from January 1999 to July 1999. They all had a bronchoscopy performed to determine if there were signs of hemoptysis, patients who could not cough up sputum, lung lesion that exclude pulmonary tuberculosis. Pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed on the basis of a positive culture or a response to anti-tuberculosis therapy. Results : 19 patients with tuberculosis were identified and samples from 16 patients were later confirmed by culture. Bronchial washing for Amplicor PCR revealed a sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of 94.7%, 97.9%, 94.7%, 97.9%, respectively. Using IS6110 based PCR, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were of 73.7%, 87.2%, 70%, 89.1% respectively. Conclusion : Bronchial washing for Amplicor PCR proved to be more useful than IS6110 based PCR in rapidly diagnosing smear negative pulmonary pulmoary tuberculosis in patients where tuberculosis was likely to be differential and rapid diagnosis was essential for optimal treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.672-678
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• 2015

The types of hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) being transported by sea in Korea are at about 6,000, HNS transport volume accounts for 19% of total tonnage shipped in Korea, and the increase rate of seaborne HNS trade in Korea is 2.5 times higher than the average increase rate of the world seaborne HNS trade. Reflecting this trend, HNS spill incidents have been frequently reported in Korean waters, and there are increasing social demands to develop HNS management technology for the preparedness, response, post-treatment and restoration in relation to HNS spill incidents at sea. In this study, a risk-based HNS prioritization system was developed and an HNS risk database was built with evaluation indices such as sea transport volume, physicochemical properties, toxicities, persistency, and bioaccumulation. Risk scores for human health and marine environments were calculated by multiplying scores for toxicity and exposure. The top-20 substances in the list of HNS were tabulated, and Aniline was ranked first place, but it needs to be managed not by individuals but by HNS groups with similar score levels. Limitations were identified in obtaining data of chronic toxicity and marine ecotoxicity due to lack of testing data. It is necessary to study on marine ecotoxicological test in the near future. Moreover, the priority list of HNS is expected to be utilized in the development of HNS management technology and the relevant technologies, after the expert's review process and making up for the lack of test data in the current research results.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.201-209
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• 1996

Purpose : To assess the efficacy of high dose rate - intracavitary radio-therapy (HDR-ICR) in the radiotherapy of FIGO stage IB squamous cell carcinoma of uterine cervix and to determine the optimum dose combination scheme of external radiotherapy and ICR to achieve acceptable local control without severe complication. Materials and Methods : One hundred and sixty two patients with FIGO stage Ib squamous cell carcinoma of uterine cervix who received definitive radiotherapy between May 1979 and December 1990 were retrospectively analyzed. All the patients received external radiotherapy combined with HDR-ICR. External dose of 40-46 Gy in 4.5-5 weeks was given to whole pelvis(median 45 Gy) and ICR dose of 30-39 Gy in 10-13 times was given to the point A. Midline shielding was done after 20-45 Gy of external radiotherapy(median 40 Gy) Summation of external dose Plus ICR dose to the point A range were 64.20-95.00 Gy. and mean was 83.94 Gy. We analyzed the local control rate, survival rate, and late complication rate. Rusults : Initial complete response rate was $99.4\%$ for all patients. Overall 5-year survival rate was $91.1\%$ and 5-year disease free survival rate was $90.9\%$. Local failure rate was $4.9\%$ and distant failure rate was $4.3\%$. Tumor size was the only significant prognostic factor. When tumor size greater than 3cm, 5-rear survival rate was $92.6\%$ and less than 3cm, that was $79.6\%$. Late complication rate was $23.5\%$ with $18.5\%$ of rectal complication and $4.9\%$ of bladder complication. Mean rectal dose summation of external midline dose plus ICR rectal point dose was lower in the patients without rectal complication(74.88 Gr) than those with rectal complication (78.87 Gy). Complication rate was increased with low rate of improvement of survival rate when summation of external midline dose plus point A or point R dose by ICR was greater than 70-75 Gy. Conclusion : The definitive radiation therapy using high dose rate ICR in FIGO stage IB uterine cervical cancer is effective treatment modality with good local control and survival rate without severe complication.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.225-231
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• 1998

Purpose : To determine whether TNF-$\alpha$ increases the antitumor effect of radiotherapy in murine syngeneic tumor system. Materials and Methods : Syngeneic murine tumors of MCa-K or MCa-4 (mammary carcinoma), OCa-I (ovarian carcinoma), or HCa-I(hepatocarcinoma were grown in hind legs of C3Hf/HeJ mice. When tumors were grown to 6 mm in mean diameter mice were treated with TNF-$\alpha$, radiation, or combination of the both. Gamma-radiation was given as a single dose of 30 Gy for HCa-I and 15 Gy for other tumors using Cobalt-60 teletherapy unit. A novel TNF-$\alpha$ mutein developed in Korea, was intraperitoneally administered daily at a dose of 10 ug per mouse for 7 days. In combination of radiation and TNF-$\alpha$, the drug was started 1 hour after radiation. Tumor growth delay assay was used to measure the tumor response to the treatment. Results : Among 4 tested tumors, TNF-$\alpha$ alone showed significant antitumor activity in MCa-K and OCa-I tumors, which showed absolute growth delay (AGD) of 5.0 days and 6.5 days, respectively. In combination with radiation, TNF-$\alpha$ showed significant delay of AGD (41.1 days) in OCA-I compared to AGDs of TNF-$\alpha$ alone and radiation, i.e., 6.5 days and 26.9 days, respectively(p<0.05). Enhancement factor was 1.29 in OCa-I, which showed supraadditive effect. TNF-$\alpha$ did not show significant delay of AGDs in the remaining 3 tumors compared to AGDs of TNF-$\alpha$ alone and radiation. Conclusions: TNF-$\alpha$ alone showed antitumor effects in MCa-K and OCa-I. In combination with radiation, TNF-$\alpha$ acted in supraadditive way in OCa-I only. The results of this study imply that the combination of TNF-$\alpha$ and radiation has different therapeutic potential depending on tumor model and further study is advocated.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.44-48
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• 2019

Objectives: Insomnia is one of the most prevalent sleep disorders. Recent studies suggest that cognitive and physical arousal play an important role in the generation of primary insomnia. Studies have also shown that information processing disorders due to cortical hyperactivity might interfere with normal sleep onset and sleep continuity. Therefore, focusing on central nervous system arousal and normalizing the information process have become current topics of interest. It has been well known that neurofeedback can reduce the brain hyperarousal by modulating patients' brain waves during a sequence of behavior therapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of neurofeedback therapy on electroencephalography (EEG) characteristics in patients with primary insomnia. Methods: Thirteen subjects who met the criteria for an insomnia diagnosis and 14 control subjects who were matched on sex and age were included. Neurofeedback and sham treatments were performed in a random order for 30 minutes, respectively. EEG spectral power analyses were performed to quantify effects of the neurofeedback therapy on brain wave forms. Results: In patients with primary insomnia, relative spectral theta and sigma power during a therapeutic neurofeedback session were significantly lower than during a sham session ($13.9{\pm}2.6$ vs. $12.2{\pm}3.8$ and $3.6{\pm}0.9$ vs. $3.2{\pm}1.0$ in %, respectively; p < 0.05). There were no statistically significant changes in other EEG spectral bands. Conclusion: For the first time in Korea, EEG spectral power in the theta band was found to increase when a neurofeedback session was applied to patients with insomnia. This outcome might provide some insight into new interventions for improving sleep onset. However, the treatment response of insomniacs was not precisely evaluated due to limitations of the current pilot study, which requires follow-up studies with larger samples in the future.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.833-840
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• 2022

Chronic inflammation has been shown to be closely associated with tumor development and progression. Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) is composed of a family of five transcription factors. NF-κB signaling plays a crucial role in the inflammatory response and is often found to be dysregulated in various types of cancer, making it an attractive target in cancer therapeutics. In this study, CDC-like kinase 3 (CLK3) was identified as a novel kinase that regulates the NF-κB signaling pathway. Our data demonstrate that CLK3 inhibits the canonical and non-canonical NF-κB pathways. Luciferase assays following the transient or stable expression of CLK3 indicated that this kinase inhibited NF-κB activation mediated by Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), which are known to activate NF-κB signaling via the canonical pathway. Consistent with data on the ectopic expression of CLK3, CLK3 knockdown using shRNA constructs increased NF-κB activity 1.5-fold upon stimulation with TNFα in HEK293 cells compared with the control cells. Additionally, overexpression of CLK3 suppressed the activation of this signaling pathway induced by NF-κB-inducing kinase (NIK) or CD40, which are well-established activators of the non-canonical pathway. To further examine the negative impact of CLK3 on NF-κB signaling, we performed Western blotting following the TNFα treatment to directly identify the molecular components of the NF-κB pathway that are affected by this kinase. Our results revealed that CLK3 mitigated the phosphorylation/activation of transforming growth factor-α-activated kinase 1 (TAK1), inhibitor of NF-κB kinase alpha/beta (IKKα/α), NF-κB p65 (RelA), NF-κB inhibitor alpha (IκBα), and Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2-Mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK1/2-MAPK), suggesting that CLK3 inhibits both the NF-κB and MAPK signaling activated by TNFα exposure. Further studies are required to elucidate the mechanism by which CLK3 inhibits the canonical and non-canonical NF-κB pathways. Collectively, these findings reveal CLK3 as a novel negative regulator of NF-κB signaling.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.28-41
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• 2024

The carbon balance serves as a valuable indicator of a plant's physiological status under diverse environmental conditions. We investigated the photosynthetic and respiratory responses of the Asian surfgrass Phyllospadix iwatensis along the northeast coast of the Korean peninsula in response to changing water temperature (ranging from 5℃ to 30℃) to estimate the seasonal whole-plant carbon balance through a series of incubation experiments. The maximum gross photosynthetic rate (P_max) showed a significant difference among the temperature treatments, while there was no significant difference in photosynthetic efficiency (α). The maximum gross photosynthetic rate of P. iwatensis reached its peaks at 20℃ treatment (101.65 μmol O₂ g^-1 DW h^-1) but decreased rapidly at 30℃. The saturation irradiance (I_k), compensation irradiance (I_c), and respiration rate (R) of P. iwatensis exhibited significant differences among the temperature treatments. The saturation irradiance increased up to 20-25℃ (121.59-124.50 μmol photons m^-2 s^-1) and sharply decreased at 30℃. The compensation irradiance and respiration rate increased steadily with rising water temperature. The ratio of P_max to R (P_max:R ratio) was the highest at 5℃ but dramatically decreased at 30℃. The whole-plant carbon balance, calculated based on photosynthetic parameters, respiration rates, and biomass, exhibited distinct seasonal variation, increasing during winter and spring and decreasing during summer and fall, which is consistent with the highest in situ growth in spring and severely limited growth at the highest water temperature conditions. Phyllospadix iwatensis displayed a negative carbon balance during late summer, fall, and winter, but demonstrated a positive carbon balance during spring and early summer. Our findings suggest that the rising seawater temperatures associated with climate change may lead to significant alterations in the seagrass ecosystem functioning along the rocky shores of the Korean east coast.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.113 no.1
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• pp.88-96
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• 2024

This study was conducted to determine the optimal light conditions for the in situ and ex situ conservation and restoration of Osmanthus insularis, a rare plant species in South Korea. Evaluations included the growth performance, leaf morphological features, photosynthetic characteristics, and photosynthetic pigment contents of seedlings grown from April to November under different light conditions (100%, 55%, 20%, and 10% relative light intensity). The shoot lengths and root collar diameters did not differ significantly with relative light intensity. The dry weights of leaves, stems, and roots and the leaf number were highest at 55% relative light intensity. The leaf shape showed morphological acclimation to light intensity, with leaf area decreasing and thickness increasing as the relative light intensity increased. Several leaf parameters, including photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance at light saturation point, net apparent quantum yield, and dark respiration, as well as chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoid contents, were all highest at 55% relative light intensity. Under full light conditions, the leaves were the smallest and thickest, but the chlorophyll content was lower than at 55% relative light intensity, resulting in lower photosynthetic ability. Plants grown at 10% and 20% relative light intensity showed lower chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoid contents, as well as decreased photosynthetic and dark respiration rates. In conclusion, O. insularis seedlings exhibited morphological adaptations in response to light intensity; however, no physiological responses indicating enhanced photosynthetic efficiency in shade were evident. The most favorable light condition for vigorous photosynthesis and maximum biomass production in O. insularis seedlings appeared to be 55% relative light intensity. Therefore, shading to approximately 55% of full light is suggested for the growth of O. insularis seedlings.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.372-385
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• 1999

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the causes and pathologic process of chronic non-productive cough as an isolated symptom with a normal spirometry and chest radiograph by investigating clinicopathologic findings. Method: We studied 25 adults with chronic non-productive cough over a 3-week period with a normal chest radiograph and pulmonary function tests without any other symptoms. Clinical assessment, cough score, chest and sinus radiograph, pulmonary function tests, methacholine challenge, allergic skin prick test, and bronchoscopy for bronchial biopsies were performed. Subjects were then treated with prednesolone 20 to 30 mg/day for 1 to 2 weeks. Results: The experimental group was divided into two subgroups-those infiltrated with eosinophils, and those infiltrated with lymphocytes depending on eosinophil and lymphocyte counts, both of which were respectively higher than those of the control group. Eosinophils infiltrated group had mean numbers of eosinophil of 89.8 $cells/mm^3$ while control group's mean was 0.4 $cells/mm^2$(p=0.005). Lymphocyte infiltrated group was 4 patients whose mean was 84.3 $cells/mm^2$ with 28.4 $cells/mm^2$ of control group(P=0.026). In addition, the mean thickness of the basement membrane of experimental group was $14.20{\pm}5.20{\mu}m$ in contrast of control group whose mean was $3.50{\pm}1.37{\mu}m$(P=0.001). With the methacholine challenge test, 7 of the 21 eosinophil infiltrated subjects were diagnosed with cough variant asthma ; the other 14 with eosinophilic bronchitis. Three subjects with eosinophilic bronchitis were atopic positive (21.4%) with the skin prick test In the lymphocyte dominant group, all four subjects were diagnosed with lymphocytic bronchitis. Cough score was improved after steroid treatment in 22 of 25 subjects in the experimental group (88.0%). Conclusion: These results suggest chronic non-productive cough as an isolated symptom with a normal spirometry and chest radiograph was associated with airway inflammation by eosinophil and lymphocyte infiltration. The causes for chronic non-productive cough were eosinophilic bronchitis, cough variant asthma, and lymphocytic bronchitis(written in frequency). They further suggest that therapeutic treatment with steroids can provide effective symptomatic relief.