• Korean Circulation Journal
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.472-479
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• 2023

Background and Objectives: The association between bilirubin and atrial fibrillation (AF) has been evaluated previously in observational studies but with contradictory results. This study evaluated the causal association between serum bilirubin level and AF using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. Methods: This cross-sectional study includes 8,977 participants from the Dong-gu Study. In the observational analysis, multivariate logistic regression was performed to evaluate the association between bilirubin and prevalent AF. To evaluate the causal association between bilirubin and AF, MR analysis was conducted by using the UGT1A1 rs11891311 and rs4148323 polymorphisms as instrumental variables. Results: Elevated serum bilirubin levels were associated with an increased risk for AF in observational analysis (total bilirubin: odds ratio [OR], 1.31; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.15-1.48 per 1 standard deviation [SD]; direct bilirubin: OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.18-1.46 per 1 SD), whereas the genetically predicted serum bilirubin levels in MR analysis did not show this association (total bilirubin: OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.67-1.53 per 1 SD; direct bilirubin: OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.61-1.73 per 1 SD). Conclusions: Genetically predicted bilirubin levels were not associated with prevalent AF. Thus, the observational association between serum bilirubin levels and AF may be noncausal and affected by reverse causality or unmeasured confounding.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.261-270
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• 2018

Hearing-impaired people are increasing rapidly due to the global aging trend. Early detection of hearing loss requires an easy-to-use audiometry device for the public. Existing audiometry systems were developed as PC-based, PDA-based, or smartphone apps. These devices were often dependent on specific software platforms and hardware platforms. In this paper, we tried to improve software platform compatibility by using cross platform, and tried to implement IoT-based pure tone audiometry device which does not require sound pressure level correction due to hardware differences. Pure tone audiometry is available in a variety of ways depending on the type of hearing loss and age. Using the IoT-based audiometry device implemented in this paper, it will be possible for an app developer who lacks hardware knowledge to easily develop an app with various scenarios for hearing screening. The results of this study will contribute to overcoming the software and hardware dependency in the development of IoT-based healthcare device.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.250-255
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• 2008

A vanadium pentoxide ($V_2O_5$)-based bolometric infrared (IR) sensor has been designed and fabricated using micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology for glucose detection and its resistive characteristics has been illustrated. The proposed bolometric infrared sensor is composed of the vanadium pentoxide array that shows superior temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and standard silicon micromachining compatibility. In order to achieve the best performance, deposited $V_2O_5$ thin film is optimized by adequate rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. Annealed vanadium oxide thin film has demonstrated a linear characteristic and relatively high TCR value (${-4}%/^{\circ}C$). The resistance of vanadium oxide is changed by IR intensity based on glucose concentration.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.459-466
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• 2011

This article addresses robust Bayesian modeling for meta analysis which derives general conclusion by combining independently performed individual studies. Specifically, we propose hierarchical Bayesian models with unknown variances for meta analysis under priors which are scale mixtures of normal, and thus have tail heavier than that of the normal. For the numerical analysis, we use the Gibbs sampler for calculating Bayesian estimators and illustrate the proposed methods using actual data.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.184-191
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• 1999

Reconstruction of soft tissue defect of the foot, ankle and distal tibial area has been and remains a challenging problem for reconstructive surgeons. We treated 19 patients who showed soft tissue defect in these area with distally based superficial sural artery flaps, including four adipofascial flaps, two sensate flaps. The size of the soft tissue defect was from $4{\times}5cm\;to\;8{\times}10cm$. In nine cases, we preserved sural nerve. Seventeen flaps survived completely, but one flap failed and another flap showed partial skin necrosis at the distal half. In failed cases, lesser saphenous vein was ruptured at initial injury. The advantage of this flap is a constant and reliable blood supply without sacrifice of major artery or sensory nerve. Elevation of the flap is technically easy and quick. The pedicle is long and the island flap can be transffered as far as to the instep area. It also has the potential for sensate flap, innervated by the lateral sural cutaneous nerve. But for appropriate venous drainage small saphenous vein must be preserved.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.43-50
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to develop a control algorithm for outdoor air cooling based on the prediction of cooling load, and to evaluate the building energy saving using outdoor air cooling. Outdoor air conditions such as temperature, humidity, and solar insolation are predicted using forecasted information provided by the meteorological agency, and the building cooling load is predicted from the obtained outdoor air conditions and building characteristics. The air flow rate induced by outdoor air is determined by considering the predicted cooling loads. To evaluate the energy saving, the benchmark building is modeled and simulated using the TRNSYS program. Energy saving by outdoor air cooling using load prediction is found to be around 10% of the total cooling coil load in all locations of Korea. As the allowable minimum indoor temperature is decreased, the total energy saving is increased and approaches close to that of the conventional enthalpy control.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.259-260
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• 2008

Tetrofosmin is a ligand that forms a lipophilic, cationic complex with Tc-99m. Tc-99m tetrofosmin was developed as a myocardial perfusion imaging agent and also used to depict tumors. Mediastinal tumors is also detected by Tc-99m tetrofosmin. We report a case of extracardiac mediastinal activity detected by Tc-99m tetrofosmin scintigraphy, which revealed thymoma.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.211-214
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• 2014

We report our experience of a concurrent robot assisted distal gastrectomy and partial nephrectomy for synchronous early gastric cancer and renal cell carcinoma. A 55-year-old female patient was diagnosed with early gastric cancer on screening endoscopy. Abdominal computed tomography showed an incidental right renal cell carcinoma. Robot assisted distal gastrectomy was performed, followed by partial nephrectomy. The final pathological examination showed signet ring cell carcinoma within the lamina propria and renal cell carcinoma with negative resection margins. The patient showed no evidence of recurrence at 6-months. A robot-assisted combined operation could be a treatment option for early stages of synchronous malignancies.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.641-649
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• 2009

Pyrophosphate:fructose-6-phosphate 1-phosphotransferase (PFP) catalyzes the reversible interconversion of fructose-6-phosphate and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, a key step in the regulation of the metabolic flux toward glycolysis or gluconeogenesis. To examine the role of PFP in plant growth, we have generated transgenic Arabidopsis plants that either overexpress or repress Arabidopsis PFP subunit genes. The overexpressing lines displayed increased PFP activity and slightly faster growth relative to wild type plants, although their photosynthetic activities and the levels of metabolites appeared not to have significantly changed. In contrast, the RNAi lines showed significantly retarded growth in parallel with the reduced PFP activity. Analysis of photosynthetic activity revealed that the growth retardation phenotype of the RNAi lines was accompanied by the reduced rates of $CO_2$ assimilation. Microarray analysis of our transgenic plants further revealed that the altered expression of $AtPFP{\beta}$ affects the expression of several genes involved in diverse physiological processes. Our current data thus suggest that PFP is important in carbohydrate metabolism and other cellular processes.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.45-49
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• 2008

Cytosolic fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (cFBPase) in plants is a key regulatory enzyme in the photosynthetic sucrose biosynthesis. Plant cFBPases, like the mammalian FBPases, are inhibited by adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) and fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (Fru-2,6-$P_2$). In the mammalian FBPases, Lys112 and Tyr113 play important roles in the AMP binding. To understand roles of the corresponding residues, Lys115 and Tyr116, in pea cFBPase, the mutant cFBPases were generated by site-directed mutagenesis. The alterations of Lys115 to Gin and Tyr116 to Phe displayed small changes in $K_m$ and $K_i$ for Fru-2,6-$P_2$, indicating that the mutation causes minor effects on the enzyme catalysis and Fru-2,6-$P_2$ binding, whereas resulted in higher than 500-fold increase of $[AMP]_{0.5}$ compared with that of the wild-type enzyme. Results indicate the residues Lys115 and Tyr116 play important roles in the binding of AMP to the allosteric site of the pea cFBPase.