• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2001

It is a hot issue to determine the spatial location and shape of tumor boundary in fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT). We could get consecutive transaxial plane images from the phantom (paraffin) and 4 patients with brain tumor using helical computed tomography(HCT). K-means classification algorithm was adjusted to change raw data pixel value in CT images into classified average pixel value. The classified images consists of 5 regions that ate tumor region (TR), normal region (NR), combination region (CR), uncommitted region (UR) and artifact region (AR). The major concern was how to separate the normal region from tumor region in the combination area. Relative average deviation analysis was adjusted to alter average pixel values of 5 regions into 2 regions of normal and tumor region to define maximum point among average deviation pixel values. And then we drawn gross tumor volume (GTV) boundary by connecting maximum points in images using semi-automatic contour method by IDL(Interactive Data Language) program. The error limit of the ROI boundary in homogeneous phantom is estimated within ${\pm}1%$. In case of 4 patients, we could confirm that the tumor lesions described by physician and the lesions described automatically by the K-mean classification algorithm and relative average deviation analyses were similar. These methods can make uncertain boundary between normal and tumor region into clear boundary. Therefore it will be useful in the CT images-based treatment planning especially to use above procedure apply prescribed method when CT images intermittently fail to visualize tumor volume comparing to MRI images.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 2008

Background: In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, the serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) are elevated and an increase of CRP is more exaggerated in the acute exacerbation form of COPD (AECOPD) than in stable COPD. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a common complication of COPD. An increased level of CRP is known to be associated with the risk of systemic cardio-vascular disorders. However, few findings are available on the potential role of CRP in pulmonary arterial hypertension due to COPD. Methods: This study was performed prospectively and the study population was composed of 72 patients that were hospitalized due to AECOPD. After receiving acute management for AECOPD, serum CRP levels were evaluated, arterial oxygen pressure ($PaO_2$), was measured, and the existence of pulmonary arterial hypertension under room air inhalation was determined in the patients. Results: The number of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension was 47 (65.3%)., There was an increased prevalence of pulmonary arterial hypertension and an increase of serum CRP levels in patients with the higher stages of COPD (e.g., patients with stage 3 and stage 4 disease; P<0.05). The mean serum CRP levels of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and without pulmonary arterial hypertension were $37.6{\pm}7.4mg/L$ and $19.9{\pm}6.6mg/L$, respectively (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference of the mean values of $PaO_2$ between patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and without pulmonary arterial hypertension statistically ($77.8{\pm}3.6mmHg$ versus $87.2{\pm}6.0mmHg). Conclusion: We conclude that higher serum levels of CRP can be a sign for pulmonary arterial hypertension in AECOPD patients.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.53-60
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• 2000

Purpose : The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the functional and oncologic results of the limb salvage surgery with intramedullary nailing and cementization in malignant bone tumors of the proximal humerus. Materials and Methods : We reviewed 18 cases of limb salvage surgery of resection and reconstruction with an intramedullary nail and cement-molded humeral head for the malignant bone tumors of the proximal humerus, which performed between August, 1992 through the April, 1998. The diagnoses included the osteosarcoma in 7 patients, chondrosarcoma in 3, the recurrent giant cell tumor in 3, metastatic tumor in 3, multiple myeloma in one patient and the one patient with malignant fibrous histiocytoma. The mean age at the time of surgery was 38 years(range, 15-73 years). The mean follow-up period was 26 months(range, 6-67 months). Results : Average functional score by ISOLS evaluation system was 21.1(70.3%). There were 3 local recurrences and 5 distant metastases. There were one case of shoulder instability and one case of deep infection. The seven patients are continuously disease free state and seven patients are alive with disease. Four patients died from the disease. Conclusion : The limb salvage surgery with intramedullary nailing and cementization in the bone tumors of the proximal humerus may be considered an option for the malignant bone tumors of the proximal humerus in selected patients.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.51-61
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• 2020

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of object size and reaching distance on kinematic factors of the upper limb while performing arm reaching for normal subjects. Methods : The subjects of this study were 30 university students who were in D university in Busan, and the measuring tool was CMS-70P(Zebris Medizintechnik Gmbh, Germany), a three-dimensional motion analyzer. The task had six conditions. The average velocity of motion, average acceleration, maximum velocity, and the velocity definite number of movements were measured according to changes in object size(2cm, 10cm) and reaching distance(15%, 37.5%, 60%) when they performed arm reaching. The general characteristics of the subject were technical statistics. One-way ANOVA measurement was used to compare variables when the arm reaching task was performed from two object sizes to three reaching distance, and the post-test was conducted with Tukey test. In addition, an independent t-test was used to analyze the kinematic differences according to the two object sizes at three reaching distances. A two-way ANOVA measurement (3×2 Two-way ANOVA measurement) was performed to identify the interaction of the reaching distance(15%, 37.5%, 60%) and the object size(2cm, 10cm). The statistical significance level α was set to .05. Results : When the size of the object increased, the velocity and maximum velocity also increased, but the definite number of velocity decreased. When the reaching distance increased, the velocity and maximum velocity increased, whereas the definite number of velocity decreased. Conclusion : The clinical significance of this study could be utilized as the baseline data for grading object size and reaching distances when the reaching training is implemented for patients whose central nervous system was damaged.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.10
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• pp.1324-1330
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• 2009

Lindera obtusiloba Blume (LO), which is widely distributed in Korea, Japan and China, has traditionally been used as a popular folk medicine for the treatment of fever, abdominal pain, bruise and extravation. The purpose of this study was to examine the toxicities of the single and 14-day repeated doses in Sprague-Dawley rats orally administrated with LO at doses of 0, 500, 1000, 2000 (14-day repeated toxicity test) and 5000 (single toxicity test) mg (dry weight)/kg of body weight/day. The results showed that there was no difference in body weight change, food intake, water consumption, or organ weight among different dose groups. Also we observed no death and abnormal clinical signs during the experimental period. Between the groups orally administered LO and the control group, there was no statistical significance in hematological test or serum biochemical values. There were no evidences of histopathological alteration as well as abnormal gross finding mediated by single and 14 days treatments with LO. These results suggest that no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of the oral application of LO was considered to be more than 2000 mg/kg in rats under the conditions employed in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.624-629
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• 2014

Obesity is the leading metabolic disease in industrialized countries and is closely associated with coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-adipogenic effects of two roasted coffee beans, Vietnam robusta (VR) and Ethiopia Mocha Sidamo G2 (ES), as well as fermented coffee beans with Monascus ruber (MR) mycelium on differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Treatments with 1,000 ${\mu}g/mL$ of hot water extract from coffee beans significantly reduced intracellular lipid accumulation. In addition, VR more effectively inhibited transcription factors such as $PPAR{\gamma}$, $C/EBP{\alpha}$, FAS, and aP2 compared to ES. Further, ES fermented with MR showed more effective anti-adipogenic activity than non-fermented ES. These results suggest that VR and ES inhibit adipocyte differentiation which may contribute to their anti-adipogenic properties.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.134-138
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• 2007

The current PET/CT system with high quality CT images not only increases diagnostic value by providing anatomic localization, but also shortens the acquisition time for attenuation correction than primary PET system. All commercially available PET/CT system uses the CT scan for attenuation correction instead of the transmission scan using radioactive source such as $^{137}Cs,\;^{68}Ge$. However the CT scan may substantially increase the patient dose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate quality of PET images reconstructed by CT attenuation map using various tube currents. in this study, images were acquired for 3D Hoffman brain phantom and cylindrical phantom using GE DSTe PET/CT system. The emission data were acquired for 10 min using phantoms after injecting 44.03 MBq of $^{18}F-FDG$. The CT images for attenuation map were acquired by changing tube current from 10 mA to 95 mA with fixed exposure time of 8 sec and fixed tube voltage of 140 kVp. The PET images were reconstructed using these CT attenuation maps. Image quality of CT images was evaluated by measuring SD (standard deviation) of cylindrical phantom which was filled with water and $^{18}F-FDG$ solution. The PET images were evaluated by measuring the activity ratio between gray matter and white matter in Hoffman phantom images. SDs of CT images decrease by increasing tube current. When PET images were reconstructed using CT attenuation maps with various tube currents, the activity ratios between gray matter and white matter of PET images were almost same. These results indicated that the quality of the PET images using low dose CT data were comparable to the PET images using general dose CT data. Therefore, the use of low dose CT is recommended than the use of general dose CT, when the diagnostic high quality CT is not required. Further studies may need to be performed for other system, since this study is limited to the GE DSTe system used in this study.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2011

Inorganic and organic geochemical characteristics of Devonian bitumen carbonates in Alberta were studied using two drilling cores, Saleski 03-34-88-20w4 and Saleski 08-01-88-20w4, taken from the Core Research Center of Canada. The results of elements analyses showed high Total Inorganic Carbon, low Total Nitrogen and Total Sulfur, and Rock-Eval pyrolysis showed double $CO_2$ peaks in the oxidation part. These mean that the Devonian bitumen carbonates are mainly composed of dolomite formed by diagenesis, and its crystal texture is dominantly subhedral to anhedral but often euhedral. Bitumen contents were 3.6~19.0% in Saleski 3-34-88-20w4 and 5.0~16.4% in Saleski 08-01-88-20w4, respectively. As samples color become dark, bitumen and Total Organic Carbon contents are generally increasing in two cores. The results of biomarker analyses showed that the contents of resins and asphaltenes were 5~28% higher than those of saturated hydrocarbon, interring that the bitumen has been heavily biodegradated. According to the results of carbon isotope analyses in each component of bitumen, asphaltenes had highest values and the others had constant values. However, their values were varied in the range of normal crude oil (-18~-30‰).

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1750-1757
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• 2010

This study was designed to evaluate the anti-diabetic effects of Buan mulberries by using an insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus animal model. Several studies have shown that mulberries have metabolism-improving, antioxidant, and lipid-lowering properties in rats with streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes. In this study, Sprague-Dawley male rats were randomly assigned to 1 normal control group and 5 STZ-induced diabetes groups: rats that had STZ-induced diabetes and did not receive any agents (diabetic group; negative control), rats that had STZ-induced diabetes and received insulin (insulin group; positive control), rats that had STZ-induced diabetes and received 0.5% mulberry extract (0.5% mulberry group), rats that had STZ-induced diabetes and received 1.0% mulberry extract (1.0% mulberry group), and rats that had STZ-induced diabetes and received 2.0% mulberry extract (2.0% mulberry group). Mulberry extracts were administered to the diabetic animals for 4 weeks. The rats that received mulberry extracts showed lower body weights and insulin levels, as well as higher kidney weights, blood glucose levels, urine quantities, and water intake in comparison with the normal controls. Further, the insulin concentrations in the mulberry-fed animals were higher than those in the diabetic group, and the kidney weights, blood glucose levels, urine quantities, and water intake in the mulberry-fed animals were lower than the corresponding values in the diabetic controls. These results suggest that mulberry may be an effective functional food to prevent diabetes-related complications.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.231-240
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• 2009

Sixteen ruminally cannulated Korean native steers (Hanwoo; $626.2\pm47.72$ kg) were used to investigate the effects of polyclonal antibodies against abdominal (AAb) and subcutaneous adipocyte membrane proteins (SAb) on ruminal fermentation patterns and blood metabolites. The body weight (BW) of Hanwoo was decreased 2-weeks after AAb and SAb injection, BW reduction was also observed in control and non-immunized serum groups, indicating that stress induced by other factors (e.g. blood sampling etc.) rather than antibodies injection may affect the BW reduction. Antibodies treatment did not affect (P > 0.05) rumen pH, volatile fatty acids and ammonia-N concentration. The ranges were similar with typical ranges of those in Hanwoo. Compared with control, blood urea N concentration was decreased in AAb group and increased (P < 0.05) in SAb group before antibodies treatment. However, none of the groups were significantly (P > 0.05) affected at 2- or 4-weeks after the treatment. Concentration of plasma glucose in the non-immunized serum group was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the other groups at 0-week after treatment. However, antibodies treatment did not affect the concentration of plasma glucose. Concentration of plasma triglyceride showed no difference (P > 0.05) between the groups and ranged from 11.4 to 19.9 mg/dl, which is the perfect range of plasma triglyceride of Hanwoo fed concentrate based diets. In conclusion, these results may indicate that the present AAb and SAb have safety in nutritional physiological metabolism in Hanwoo. Further study on in vivo fat reduction of the antibodies against abdominal and subcutaneous adipocytes PMPs of Hanwoo is required for inedible fat-reduced high quality beef production.