• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.367-377
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• 2003

Background : It is well known that only 10% of those infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis actually develop clinical disease, indicating the existence of host genetic factors regulating disease expression. In this study, we investigated HLA-DRB1 and -DQB1 gene polymorphisms in Korean patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Methods : HLA-DRB1 and -DQB1 gene polymorphisms were investigated in 67 PTB patients without previous treatment history, 38 drug-sensitive (DS) and 29 multidrug-resistant (MDR) cases, and 200 healthy controls. HLA-DRB1 typing was done using reverse SSO (sequence specific oligonucleotide) and PCR-SSCP (single strand conformational polymorphism) methods and DQB1 typing was done using PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism), PCR-SSCP and PCR-SSP (sequence specific primer) methods. Results : Among the PTB patients, MDR-TB cases showed frequencies of DRB1*0701 and *08032 increased by about two-fold compared to those of normal controls, and likewise for their associated DQB1 alleles, DQB1*0202 and *0601 (15.5% vs. 34.5%, p=0.01). The frequency of HLA-DQB1*0609 was significantly increased in PTB patients (4.0% vs. 14.9%, p=0.004), showing similar increases in both DS and MDR cases. There was also an association of HLA alleles with the clinical severity of the disease according to the extent of lung lesion. Significantly increased frequencies of DRB1*08032 (4.2% vs. 32.6%, p=0.007) and DQB1*0601 (12.5% vs. 34.9%, p=0.047) were observed in more advanced (moderately & far advanced/DS and far advanced/MDR), compared with less advanced (minimal/DS and moderately advanced/MDR) lung lesions. Although DRB1*0701, DQB1*0202 and DQB1*0609 showed significant increases in different subsets of the disease, these HLA alleles did not show consistent association with disease severity. Conclusion : HLA-DRB1*08032 and DQB1*0601 alleles were associated with genetic susceptibility to MDR-TB in Korean patients, and also with disease severity and progression of PTB.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.90-98
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• 1998

Background : The CD4+ T-helper cells comprise functionally distinct subsets of Th1 and Th2 cells that are distinguished on the basis of differential cytokines production Th1 cells secrete interferon-$\gamma$, lymphotoxin, interleukin-2. Th2 cells produce interleukin-4, interleukin-5, interleukin-10. A previous study shown that Th2 cells and their cytokines increased in patients with atopic asthma. We compared cytokines(IL-4, IFN-$\gamma$) activity and subpopulation of T-lymphocytes in peripheral blood from atopic asthmatics versus non-asthmatics. Method: Fifteen patients with atopic asthma(nine men, six women), twelve patients with chronic bronchitis(six men, six women), five healthy persons(three men, two women) were studied. Activity of IL-4, IFN-$\gamma$ and T-cell subpopulation in peripheral blood were estimated. Results: Patients had a median age of 55yr. The mean activity of IL-4 of asthmatics was significantly increased(control $0.75{\pm}1.1pmol/L$, atopic asthmatics $3.50{\pm}0.75pmol/L$, chronic bronchitis $2.01{\pm}1.2pmol/L$), but IFN-$\gamma$ was not significantly increased. In the T lymphocyte sunsets the percent of CD62L+ T-lymphoeytes of asthmatics was not significantly increased (control $16.7{\pm}16.4%$, atopic asthmatics $24.8{\pm}23.6%$, chronic bronchitis $17.0{\pm}16.9%$). Conclusion: In this study elevated production of IL-4 was observed in atopic asthmatics. CD62L+T-lymphoeytes was not increased in atopic asthma.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.823-830
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• 1995

Background: It has been found that Helper T cells in the peripheral blood are decreased in the cell mediated immunity in the pulmonary tuberculosis. But it has not been confirmed yet that only decrease in number of cells which has phenotype in the peripheral blood is defined to decrease in cell mediated immunity. The immunocytochemical study was performed to observe the change of the percentage of T-lymphocytes with their subsets and activated T cells in the peripheral blood of pulmonary tuberculosis and to know how many T cells would be activated, relative to resting cells in the peripheral blood. Methods: The peripheral blood obtained from twenty two patients and ten healthy controls were smeared on the gelatin coated slide glass prepared for of mononuclear cells. The double bridge technique of alkaline phosphatase-antialkaline phosphatase(APAAP) method was used. As the primary antibodies, $T_1$(anti-human T cell), $T_4$(anti-human helper/inducer T cells) and $T_8$(anti-human supressor/cytotoxic T cell) antibodies and interleukin-2 receptor (for early activated T cell), very late activation antigen (for activated cytotoxic T cell), T cell lineage specific activation antigen monoclonal actibodies were used. Results: 1) There were significantly decrease in the absolute number of $T_4$(+) cells but significantly increase of $T_8$(+) cells in the peripheral blood of pulmonary tuberculosis (p<0.05). 2) The percentage of $T_4$(+) cells showed significantly decrease in pulmonary tuberculosis but $T_8$(+)cells significantly increase(p<0.05). $T_4(+)/T_8(+)$ ratio showed significantly decrease in the peripheral blood of the pulmonary tuberculosis(p<0.05). 3) There were significantly increase in the absolute number of variable stages of activated T cells in the peripheral blood of the pulmonary tuberculosis(p<0.05). 4) The percentage of IL-2R, VLA-1, TLiSA were 6.45+1.56%, $7.64+1.34^*$, 10.45+1.16% in order which showed significantly increase in the peripheral blood of the pulmonary tuberculosis(p<0.05). Conclusion: We speculate that only a few percentage of T lymphocyte is activated in cell mediated immunity in pulmonary tuberculosis.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.389-398
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• 2012

Virtual worlds have pursued reality as if they actually exist. In order to evaluate the sense of reality in the computer-simulated worlds, several subjective questionnaires, which include specific independent variables, have been proposed in the literature. However, the questionnaires lack reliability and validity necessary for defining and measuring the virtual realization. Few studies have been conducted to investigate the effect of visual factors on the sense of reality experienced by exposing to a virtual environment. Therefore, this study was aimed at reinvestigating the variables and proposing a more reliable and advisable questionnaire for evaluating the virtual realization, focusing on visual factors. Twenty-one questions were gleaned from the literature and subjective interviews with focused groups. Exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation was performed on the data obtained from 200 participants(females: 100) after exposing to a virtual character image described in an extreme way. After removing poorly loading items, remained subsets were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis on the data obtained from the same participants. As a result, 3 significant factors were determined to efficiently measure the virtual realization. The determined factors included visual presence(3 subset items), visual immersion(7 subset items), and visual interactivity(4 subset items). The proposed factors were verified by conducting a subjective evaluation in which participants were asked to evaluate a 3D virtual eyeball model based on the visual presence. The results implicated that the measurement method was suitable for evaluating the degree of the virtual realization. The proposed method is expected to reasonably measure the degree of the virtual realization.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.52-62
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• 2006

In previous reports we demonstrated that ginsenosides, active ingredients of Panax ginseng, affect some subsets of voltage-dependent $Ca^{2+}$ channels in neuronal cells expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. However, the major component(s) of ginseng that affect cloned $Ca^{2+}$ channel subtypes such as ${\alpha}_{1C}$(L)-, ${\alpha}_{1B}$(N)-, ${\alpha}_{1A}$(P/Q)-, ${\alpha}_{1E}$(R)- and ${\alpha}_{1G}$(T) have not been identified. Here, we used the two-microelectrode voltage clamp technique to characterize the effects of ginsenosides and ginsenoside metabolites on $Ba^{2+}$ currents ($I_{Ba}$) in Xenopus oocytes expressing five different $Ca^{2+}$ channel subtypes. Exposure to ginseng total saponins (GTS) induced voltage-dependent, dose-dependent and reversible inhibition of the five channel subtypes, with particularly strong inhibition of the ${\alpha}_{1G}$-type. Of the various ginsenosides, $Rb_1$, Rc, Re, Rf, $Rg_1$, $Rg_3$, and $Rh_2$, ginsenoside $Rg_3$ also inhibited all five channel subtypes and ginsenoside $Rh_2$ had most effect on the ${\alpha}_{1C}$- and ${\alpha}_{1E}$-type $Ca^{2+}$ channels. Compound K (CK), a protopanaxadiol ginsenoside metabolite, strongly inhibited only the ${\alpha}_{1G}$-type of $Ca^{2+}$ channel, whereas M4, a protopanaxatriol ginsenoside metabolite, had almost no effect on any of the channels. $Rg_3$, $Rh_2$, and CK shifted the steady-state activation curves but not the inactivation curves in the depolarizing direction in the ${\alpha}_{1B}$- and ${\alpha}_{1A}$-types. These results reveal that $Rg_3$, $Rh_2$ and CK are the major inhibitors of $Ca^{2+}$ channels in Panax ginseng, and that they show some $Ca^{2+}$ channel selectivity.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.11-36
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• 2021

The solar annual (Sa) and semiannual (Ssa) tides account for much of the non-uniform annual and seasonal variability observed in sea levels. These non-equilibrium tides depend on atmospheric variations, forced by changes in the Sun's distance and declination, as well as on hydrographic conditions. Here we employ tidal harmonic analyses to calculate Sa and Ssa harmonic constants for 21 Korean coastal tidal stations (TS), operated by the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency. We used 19 year-long (1999 to 2017) 1 hr-interval sea level records from each site, and used two conventional harmonic analysis (HA) programs (Task2K and UTide). The stability of Sa harmonic constants was estimated with respect to starting date and record length of the data, and we examined the spatial distribution of the calculated Sa and Ssa harmonic constants. HA was performed on Incheon TS (ITS) records using 369-day subsets; the first start date was January 1, 1999, the subsequent data subset starting 24 hours later, and so on up until the final start date was December 27, 2017. Variations in the Sa constants produced by the two HA packages had similar magnitudes and start date sensitivity. Results from the two HA packages had a large difference in phase lag (about 78°) but relatively small amplitude (<1 cm) difference. The phase lag difference occurred in large part since Task2K excludes the perihelion astronomical variable. Sensitivity of the ITS Sa constants to data record length (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, and 19 years) was also tested to determine the data length needed to yield stable Sa results. HA results revealed that 5 to 9 year sea level records could estimate Sa harmonic constants with relatively small error, while the best results are produced using 19 year-long records. As noted earlier, Sa amplitudes vary with regional hydrographic and atmospheric conditions. Sa amplitudes at the twenty one TS ranged from 15.0 to 18.6 cm, 10.7 to 17.5 cm, and 10.5 to 13.0 cm, along the west coast, south coast including Jejudo, and east coast including Ulleungdo, respectively. Except at Ulleungdo, it was found that the Ssa constituent contributes to produce asymmetric seasonal sea level variation and it delays (hastens) the highest (lowest) sea levels. Comparisons between monthly mean, air-pressure adjusted, and steric sea level variations revealed that year-to-year and asymmetric seasonal variations in sea levels were largely produced by steric sea level variation and inverted barometer effect.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

With increasing interest, there have been studies on LiDAR(Light Detection And Ranging)-based DEM(Digital Elevation Model) to acquire three dimensional topographic information. For producing LiDAR DEM with better accuracy, Filtering process is crucial, where only surface reflected LiDAR points are left to construct DEM while non-surface reflected LiDAR points need to be removed from the raw LiDAR data. In particular, the changes of input values for filtering algorithm-constructing parameters are supposed to produce different products. Therefore, this study is aimed to contribute to better understanding the effects of the changes of the levels of GroundFilter Algrothm's Mean parameter(GFmn) embedded in FUSION software on the accuracy of the LiDAR DEM products, using LiDAR data collected for Hwacheon, Yangju, Gyeongsan and Jangheung watershed experimental area. The effect of GFmn level changes on the products' accuracy is estimated by measuring and comparing the residuals between the elevations at the same locations of a field and different GFmn level-produced LiDAR DEM sample points. In order to test whether there are any differences among the five GFmn levels; 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, One-way ANOVA is conducted. In result of One-way ANOVA test, it is found that the change in GFmn level significantly affects the accuracy (F-value: 4.915, p<0.01). After finding significance of the GFmn level effect, Tukey HSD test is also conducted as a Post hoc test for grouping levels by the significant differences. In result, GFmn levels are divided into two subsets ('7, 5, 9, 3' vs. '1'). From the observation of the residuals of each individual level, it is possible to say that LiDAR DEM is generated most accurately when GFmn is given as 7. Through this study, the most desirable parameter value can be suggested to produce filtered LiDAR DEM data which can provide the most accurate elevation information.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.189-200
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• 2024

Background and Objectives: Concerns remain that early aspirin cessation may be associated with potential harm in subsets at high risk of ischemic events. This study aimed to assess the effects of P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy after 3-month dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) vs. prolonged DAPT (12-month or longer) based on the ischemic risk stratification, the CHADS-P2A2RC, after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods: This was a sub-study of the SMART-CHOICE trial. The effect of the randomized antiplatelet strategies was assessed across 3 CHADS-P2A2RC risk score categories. The primary outcome was a major adverse cardiac and cerebral event (MACCE), a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Results: Up to 3 years, the high CHADS-P2A2RC risk score group had the highest incidence of MACCE (105 [12.1%], adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 2.927; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.358-6.309; p=0.006) followed by moderate-risk (40 [1.4%], adjusted HR, 1.786; 95% CI, 0.868-3.674; p=0.115) and low-risk (9 [0.5%], reference). In secondary analyses, P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy reduced the Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) types 2, 3, or 5 bleeding without increasing the risk of MACCE as compared with prolonged DAPT across the 3 CHADS-P2A2RC risk strata without significant interaction term (interaction p for MACCE=0.705 and interaction p for BARC types 2, 3, or 5 bleeding=0.055). Conclusions: The CHADS-P2A2RC risk score is valuable in discriminating high-ischemic-risk patients. Even in such patients with a high risk of ischemic events, P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy was associated with a lower incidence of bleeding without increased risk of ischemic events compared with prolonged DAPT.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.497-509
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• 2002

Background : The mechanisms through which cellular activation results in intracellular mycobacterial killing is only partially understood. However, in vitro studies of human immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis have been largely modeled on the work reported by Crowle, which is complicated by several factors. The whole blood culture is simple and allows the simultaneous analysis of the relationship between bacterial killing and the effect of effector cells and humoral factors. In this study, we attempted to determine the extent to which M. tuberculosis is killed in a human whole blood culture and to explore the role of the host and microbial factor in this process. Methods : The PPD positive subject were compared to the umbilical cord blood and patients with tuberculosis, diabetes and lung cancer. The culture is performed using heparinized whole blood diluted with a culture medium and infected with a low number of M. avium or M. tuberculosis $H_{37}Ra$ for 4 days by rotating the culture in a $37^{\circ}C$, 5% $CO_2$ incubator. In some experiments, methlprednisolone- or pentoxifyline were used to inhibit the immune response. To assess the role of the T-cell subsets, CD4+, CD8+ T-cells or both were removed from the blood using magnetic beads. The ${\Delta}$ log killing ratio was defined using a CFU assay as the difference in the log number of viable organisms in the completed culture compared to the inoculum. Results : 1. A trend was noted toward the improved killing of mycobacteria in PPD+ subjects comparing to the umbilical cord blood but there was no specific difference in the patients with tuberculosis, diabetes and lung cancer. 2. Methylprednisolone and pentoxifyline adversely affected the killing in the PPD+ subjects umbilical cord blood and patients with tuberculosis. 3. The deletion of CD4+ or CD8+ T-lymphocytes adversely affected the killing of M. avium and M. tuberculosis $H_{37}Ra$ by PPD+ subjects. Deletion of both cell types had an additive effect, particularly in M. tuberculosis $H_{37}Ra$. 4. A significantly improved mycobacterial killing was noted after chemotherapy in patients with tuberculosis and the ${\Delta}$ logKR continuously decreased in a 3 and 4 days of whole blood culture. Conclusion : The in vitro bactericidal assay by human whole blood culture model was settled using a CFU assay. However, the host immunity to M. tuberculosis was not apparent in the human whole blood culture bactericidal assay, and patients with tuberculosis showed markedly improved bacterial killing after anti-tuberculous chemotherapy compared to before. The simplicity of a whole blood culture facilitates its inclusion in a clinical trial and it may have a potential role as a surrogate marker in a TB vaccine trial.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.161-177
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• 2014

Corporate credit rating assessment consists of complicated processes in which various factors describing a company are taken into consideration. Such assessment is known to be very expensive since domain experts should be employed to assess the ratings. As a result, the data-driven corporate credit rating prediction using statistical and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques has received considerable attention from researchers and practitioners. In particular, statistical methods such as multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) and multinomial logistic regression analysis (MLOGIT), and AI methods including case-based reasoning (CBR), artificial neural network (ANN), and multiclass support vector machine (MSVM) have been applied to corporate credit rating.2) Among them, MSVM has recently become popular because of its robustness and high prediction accuracy. In this study, we propose a novel optimized MSVM model, and appy it to corporate credit rating prediction in order to enhance the accuracy. Our model, named 'GAMSVM (Genetic Algorithm-optimized Multiclass Support Vector Machine),' is designed to simultaneously optimize the kernel parameters and the feature subset selection. Prior studies like Lorena and de Carvalho (2008), and Chatterjee (2013) show that proper kernel parameters may improve the performance of MSVMs. Also, the results from the studies such as Shieh and Yang (2008) and Chatterjee (2013) imply that appropriate feature selection may lead to higher prediction accuracy. Based on these prior studies, we propose to apply GAMSVM to corporate credit rating prediction. As a tool for optimizing the kernel parameters and the feature subset selection, we suggest genetic algorithm (GA). GA is known as an efficient and effective search method that attempts to simulate the biological evolution phenomenon. By applying genetic operations such as selection, crossover, and mutation, it is designed to gradually improve the search results. Especially, mutation operator prevents GA from falling into the local optima, thus we can find the globally optimal or near-optimal solution using it. GA has popularly been applied to search optimal parameters or feature subset selections of AI techniques including MSVM. With these reasons, we also adopt GA as an optimization tool. To empirically validate the usefulness of GAMSVM, we applied it to a real-world case of credit rating in Korea. Our application is in bond rating, which is the most frequently studied area of credit rating for specific debt issues or other financial obligations. The experimental dataset was collected from a large credit rating company in South Korea. It contained 39 financial ratios of 1,295 companies in the manufacturing industry, and their credit ratings. Using various statistical methods including the one-way ANOVA and the stepwise MDA, we selected 14 financial ratios as the candidate independent variables. The dependent variable, i.e. credit rating, was labeled as four classes: 1(A1); 2(A2); 3(A3); 4(B and C). 80 percent of total data for each class was used for training, and remaining 20 percent was used for validation. And, to overcome small sample size, we applied five-fold cross validation to our dataset. In order to examine the competitiveness of the proposed model, we also experimented several comparative models including MDA, MLOGIT, CBR, ANN and MSVM. In case of MSVM, we adopted One-Against-One (OAO) and DAGSVM (Directed Acyclic Graph SVM) approaches because they are known to be the most accurate approaches among various MSVM approaches. GAMSVM was implemented using LIBSVM-an open-source software, and Evolver 5.5-a commercial software enables GA. Other comparative models were experimented using various statistical and AI packages such as SPSS for Windows, Neuroshell, and Microsoft Excel VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). Experimental results showed that the proposed model-GAMSVM-outperformed all the competitive models. In addition, the model was found to use less independent variables, but to show higher accuracy. In our experiments, five variables such as X7 (total debt), X9 (sales per employee), X13 (years after founded), X15 (accumulated earning to total asset), and X39 (the index related to the cash flows from operating activity) were found to be the most important factors in predicting the corporate credit ratings. However, the values of the finally selected kernel parameters were found to be almost same among the data subsets. To examine whether the predictive performance of GAMSVM was significantly greater than those of other models, we used the McNemar test. As a result, we found that GAMSVM was better than MDA, MLOGIT, CBR, and ANN at the 1% significance level, and better than OAO and DAGSVM at the 5% significance level.