• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.329-334
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• 2016

Trichomoniasis caused by Trichomonas vaginalis is a common sexually transmitted disease. Its association with several health problems, including preterm birth, pelvic inflammatory disease, cervical cancer, and transmission of human immunodeficiency virus, emphasizes the importance of improved access to early and accurate detection of T. vaginalis. In this study, a rapid and efficient loop-mediated isothermal amplification-based method for the detection of T. vaginalis was developed and validated, using vaginal swab specimens from subjects suspected to have trichomoniasis. The LAMP assay targeting the actin gene was highly sensitive with detection limits of 1 trichomonad and 1 pg of T. vaginalis DNA per reaction, and specifically amplified the target gene only from T. vaginalis. Validation of this assay showed that it had the highest sensitivity and better agreement with PCR (used as the gold standard) compared to microscopy and multiplex PCR. This study showed that the LAMP assay, targeting the actin gene, could be used to diagnose early infections of T. vaginalis. Thus, we have provided an alternative molecular diagnostic tool and a point-of-care test that may help to prevent trichomoniasis transmission and associated complications.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.375-380
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• 2016

Angiostrongyliasis is difficult to be diagnosed for the reason that no ideal method can be used. Serologic tests require specific equipment and are not always available in poverty-stricken zone and are time-consuming. A lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) may be useful for angiostrongyliasis control. We established a LFIA for the diagnosis of angiostrongyliasis based on 2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against antigens of Angiostrongylus cantonensis adults. The sensitivity and specificity were 91.1% and 100% in LFIA, while those of commercial ELISA kit was 97.8% and 86.3%, respectively. Youden index was 0.91 in LFIA and 0.84 in commercial ELISA kit. LFIA showed detection limit of 1 ng/ml of A. cantonensis ES antigens. This LFIA was simple, rapid, highly sensitive and specific, which opened an alternative approach for the diagnosis of human angiostrongyliasis.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2005.05b
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• pp.1199-1203
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• 2005

Combined sewer overflows(CSOs) are themselves a significant source of water pollution. Therefore, the control of urban drainage for CSOs reduction and receiving water quality protection is needed. Examples in combined sewer systems include downstream storage facilities that detain runoff during periods of high flow and allow the detained water to be conveyed by an interceptor sewer to a centralized treatment plant during periods of low flow. The design of such facilities as stormwater detention storage is highly dependant on the temporal variability of storage capacity available(which is influenced by the duration of interevent dry periods) as well as the infiltration capacity of soil and recovery of depression storage. As a result, a contiunous approach is required to adequately size such facilities. This study for the continuous long-term analysis of urban dranage system used analytical Probabilistic model based on derived probability distribution theory. As an alternative to the modeling of urban drainage system for planning or screening level analysis of runoff control alternatives, this model have evolved that offer much ease and flexibility in terms of computation while considering long-term meteorology. This study presented rainfall and runoff characteristics or the subject area using analytical Probabilistic model. Runoff characteristics manifasted the unique characteristics of the subject area with the infiltration capacity of soil and recovery of depression storage and was examined appropriately by sensitivity analysis. This study presented the average annual COSs and number of COSs when the interceptor capacity is in the range 3xDWF(dry weather flow). Also, calculated the average annual mass of pollutant lost in CSOs using Event Mean Concentration. Finally, this study presented a dicision of storage volume for CSOs reduction and water quality protection.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2001

Serum thyroglobulin measurement and I-131 whole-body scintigraphy (WBS) are well-established methods for the detection of recurrence in the follow-up of patients with thyroid carcinoma. However, inconsistent results are observed frequently, and these two methods are not always able to detect recurrence. In some patients, serum thyroglobulin level is elevated but the WBS is negative, because the recurrent tumor is too small and below the sensitivity of the diagnostic scan, or there is a dissociation between thyroglobulin synthesis and the iodine frapping mechanism. In such cases, various nuclear imaging methods including Tl-201 Tc-99m-sestamibi, and F-18-FDG PET can be used besides anatomical imaging methods. Among them, FDG PET localizes recurrent lesions in WBS-negative thyroid carcinoma with high accuracy. Several studies have suggested that empirical high-dose I-131 therapy resulted in a high rate of visualization in post-therapy scans with evidence of subsequent improvement. An important question is when to operate on patients with recurrent tumor. We believe that surgical removal is the best means of treatment for patients with localized persistent tumor, despite the high-dose I-131 therapy. with tumor in thyroid remnant, and with isolated recurrence in the lymph node, lung or bone. In addition, we recommend palliative resection of locally unresectable mass with subsequent treatment with high-dose I-131 therapy. Before I-131 therapy, the evaluation of sodium-iodide symporter expression in thyroid carcinoma can predict iodine uptake. Retinoic acid is known to induce redifferentiation, and to enhance I-131 uptake in thyroid carcinoma. Retinoic acid therapy may represent an alternative approach before high-dose I-131 therapy.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.78-82
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• 2014

Objective : To investigate a diagnostic value of ultrasonography in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) patients and to evaluate a correlation of sonographic measurements with the degree of electrodiagnostic abnormalities and clinical severity. Methods : Two-hundred-forty-six symptomatic hands in 135 patients and 30 asymptomatic hands in 19 healthy individuals as control group were included. In ultrasonographic study, we measured the cross-sectional area (CSA) and flattening ratio (FR) of the median nerve at the pisiform as well as palmar bowing (PB) of the flexor retinaculum. Sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonographic measurements were evaluated and ultrasonographic data from the symptomatic and control hands were compared to the grade of electrodiagnostic and clinical severity. Results : The mean CSA was $13.7{\pm}4.2mm^2$ in symptomatic hands and $7.9{\pm}1.3mm^2$ in asymptomatic hands. The mean FR was $4.2{\pm}1.0$ in symptomatic hands and $3.4{\pm}0.4$ in asymptomatic hands. The mean PB was $3.5{\pm}0.5$ mm in symptomatic hands and $2.6{\pm}0.3$ mm in asymptomatic hands. Statistical analysis showed differences of the mean CSA, FR and PB between groups were significant. A cut-off value of $10mm^2$ for the mean CSA was found to be the upper limit for normal value. Both the mean CSA and PB are correlated with the grade of electrophysiological abnormalities and clinical severity, respectively. Conclusion : Ultrasographic measurement of the CSA and PB is helpful to diagnose CTS as a non-invasive and an alternative modality for the evaluation of CTS. In addition, ultrasonography also provides a reliable correlation with the grade of electrodiagnostic abnormalities and clinical severity.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2013

Purpose: Childhood obesity is associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and it has become one of the most common causes of childhood chronic liver diseases which significant as a cause of liver related mortality and morbidity in children in the United States. The development of simpler and easier clinical indices for medical practice is needed to identify advanced hepatic fibrosis in childhood NAFLD instead of invasive method like liver biopsy. FibroScan and aspartate aminotransferase (AST)-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) have been proposed as a simple and noninvasive predictor to evaluate hepatic fibrosis in several liver diseases. APRI could be a good alternative to detect pathologic change in childhood NAFLD. The purpose of this study is to validate the efficacy of APRI for assessing hepatic fibrosis in childhood NAFLD based on FibroScan. Methods: This study included 23 children with NAFLD who underwent FibroScan. Clinical, laboratory and radiological evaluation including APRI was performed. To confirm the result of this study, 6 patients received liver biopsy. Results: Factors associated with hepatic fibrosis (stiffness measurement >5.9 kPa Fibroscan) were triglyceride, AST, alanine aminotransferase, platelet count, APRI and collagen IV. In multivariate analysis, APRI were correlated with hepatic fibrosis (>5.9 kPa). In receiver operating characteristics curve, APRI of meaningful fibrosis (cutoff value, 0.4669; area under the receiver operating characteristics, 0.875) presented sensitivity of 94%, specificity of 66%, positive predictive value of 94%, and negative predictive value of 64%. Conclusion: APRI might be a noninvasive, simple, and readily available method for medical practice to predict hepatic fibrosis of childhood NAFLD.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.117-128
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• 2017

Purpose: This study analyzes automobile quality review data to develop alternative analytical method of informal data. Existing methods to analyze informal data are based mainly on the frequency of informal data, however, this research tries to use correlation information of each informal data. Method: After sentimental analysis to acquire the user information for automobile products, three classification methods, that is, $na{\ddot{i}}ve$ Bayes, random forest, and support vector machine, were employed to accurately classify the informal user opinions with respect to automobile qualities. Additionally, Word2vec was applied to discover correlated information about informal data. Result: As applicative results of three classification methods, random forest method shows most effective results compared to the other classification methods. Word2vec method manages to discover closest relevant data with automobile components. Conclusion: The proposed method shows its effectiveness in terms of accuracy and sensitivity on the analysis of informal quality data, however, only two sentiments (positive or negative) can be categorized due to human errors. Further studies are required to derive more sentiments to accurately classify informal quality data. Word2vec method also shows comparative results to discover the relevance of components precisely.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.304-315
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• 2003

In this paper, the DDA method with a new hydro-mechanical algorithm is used to study the effect of rock discontinuities on uplift and seepage in concrete gravity dam foundations. This paper presents an alternative method of predicting uplift and seepage at the base of concrete gravity dams. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to study the importance of several parameters on dam stability such as the orientation, spacing, and location of discontinuities. The study shows that joint water flow and adverse geological conditions could result in unusual uplift at the base of concrete gravity dams, well in excess of what is predicted with the classical linear or hi-linear pressure assumption. It is shown that, in general, the DDA program with the hydro-mechanical algorithm can be used as a practical tool in the design of gravity dams built on fractured rock masses.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.33-45
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• 2016

PURPOSES : Concrete pavement has been used in the construction of the Jungbu expressway in 1987. More than 60% of the pavement on the expressway is currently made of concrete, but most has been used far beyond their design life. Pavement life has been extended through routine maintenance or overlay. However, the structural capacity of the pavement has reached its limit, and extensive rehabilitation/reconstruction with long time traffic blocking should be considered. The three following issues on concrete rehabilitation/reconstruction will be discussed: (1) economic comparison of asphalt inlay and asphalt overlay, (2) economic comparison preventive overlay on a section which is currently good and routine overlay on the section which will be poor, and (3) economic analysis of early-strength concrete when it is used in concrete reconstruction. METHODS : First, various life cycle cost analysis tools were compared, and the proper tool for the extensive rehabilitation/reconstruction was selected. Second, a sensitivity analysis of the selected tool was performed to find the influential input variables, which should be carefully selected in the analysis. Third, three case studies, which can be issues in the rehabilitation/reconstruction of the expressway concrete pavement in Korea, were performed. RESULTS : Asphalt overlay without milling the deteriorated concrete showed 18~25% lower life cycle cost than the current asphalt inlay with milling. The good current preventive overlay on the section was economically justified within the scope of this study. The construction cost limit of the early strength concrete was suggested to be economical for 1, 3, and 7 days of construction alternative opening. CONCLUSIONS : CA4PRS was a viable tool for comparing various rehabilitation/reconstruction issue alternatives. Several concrete issues associated with the rehabilitation/reconstruction of the deteriorated concrete pavement were discussed as mentioned above.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.395-400
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• 2008

Alternating magnetic field was used for detection of surface flaws on nonmagnetic and magnetic metallic specimens. The nondestructive sensor probe was composed of the planar coil with inductive magnetic thin film yoke as a sensing component and a single straight typed exciting coil. The planar inductive coil sensor with magnetic yoke was fabricated by sputtering, electroplating, dry etching and photolithography process. The alternative currents with the range of 0.1A to 1.0A (0.7 MHz to 1.8 MHz) were applied to the exciting coil. The specimens were prepared with the slit shaped artificial surface flaws (minimum depth and width; 0.5 mm) on metallic plate (Al; nonmagnetic metal and FeC; magnetic metal). The detected signal for the positions and shapes of surface flaws on specimens were obtained with high sensitivity and high signal to ratio. The measured output signals by the non-contacted scanning on surface of FeC specimen with micron-sized crack were converted to the images of the flaws. And these results were compared with the optical images, respectively.