• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.308-313
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• 2008

Objective: The serum S100 protein has been known to reflect the severity of neuronal damage. The purpose of this study was to assess the prognostic value of the serum S100 protein by Elecsys S100 immunoassay in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and to establish reference value for this new method. Methods: Serum S100 protein value was measured at admission, day 3 and 7 after bleeding in 42 consecutive patients (SAH : 20, ICH : 22) and 74 healthy controls, prospectively. Admission Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score, Hunt & Hess grade and Fisher grade for SAH, presence of intraventricular hemorrhage, ICH volume, and outcome at discharge were evaluated. Degrees of serum S100 elevation and their effect on outcomes were compared between two groups. Results: Median S100 levels in SAH and ICH groups were elevated at admission (0.092 versus $0.283{\mu}g/L$) and at day 3 (0.110 versus $0.099{\mu}g/L$) compared to healthy controls ($0.05{\mu}g/L;$ p<0001). At day 7, however, these levels were normalized in both groups. Time course of S100 level in SAH patient was relatively steady at least during the first 3 days, whereas in ICH patient it showed abrupt S100 surge on admission and then decreased rapidly during the next 7 days, suggesting severe brain damage at the time of bleeding. In ICH patient, S100 level on admission correlated well with GCS score (r=-0.859; p=0.0001) and ICH volume (r=0.663; p=0.001). A baseline S100 level more than $0.199{\mu}g/L$ predicted poor outcome with 92% sensitivity and 90% specificity. Logistic regression analyses showed Ln (S100) on admission as the only independent predictor of poor outcome (odd ratio 36.1; 95% CI, 1.98 to 656.3) Conclusion: Brain damage in ICH patient seems to develop immediately after bleeding, whereas in SAH patients it seems to be sustained for few days. Degree of brain damage is more severe in ICH compared to SAH group based on the S100 level. S100 level is considered an independent predictor of poor outcome in patient with spontaneous ICH, but not in SAH. Further study with large population is required to confirm this result.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.1011-1014
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• 2006

Coarse resolution (9 - 50 km pixels) Sea Surface Temperature satellite data are frequently considered adequate for open ocean research. However, coastal regions, including coral reef, estuarine and mesoscale upwelling regions require high-resolution (1-km pixel) SST data. The AVHRR SST data often suffer from navigation errors of several kilometres and still require manual navigation adjustments. The second serious problem is faulty and ineffective cloud-detection algorithms used operationally; many of these are based on radiance thresholds and moving window tests. With these methods, increasing sensitivity leads to masking of valid pixels. These errors lead to significant cold pixel biases and hamper image compositing, anomaly detection, and time-series analysis. Here, after manual navigation of over 40,000 AVHRR images, we implemented a new cloud filter that differs from other published methods. The filter first compares a pixel value with a climatological value built from the historical database, and then tests it against a time-based median value derived for that pixel from all satellite passes collected within ${\pm}3$ days. If the difference is larger than a predefined threshold, the pixel is flagged as cloud. We tested the method and compared to in situ SST from several shallow water buoys in the Florida Keys. Cloud statistics from all satellite sensors (AVHRR, MODIS) shows that a climatology filter with a $4^{\circ}C$ threshold and a median filter threshold of $2^{\circ}C$ are effective and accurate to filter clouds without masking good data. RMS difference between concurrent in situ and satellite SST data for the shallow waters (< 10 m bottom depth) is < $1^{\circ}C$, with only a small bias. The filter has been applied to the entire series of high-resolution SST data since1993 (including MODIS SST data since 2003), and a climatology is constructed to serve as the baseline to detect anomaly events.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.117-156
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• 2012

This paper decomposes and estimates trend/cyclical components of some key macro variables-GDP, inflation, and interest rate, using a simple DSGE model along with flexible trend specification. The extracted cyclical components of output and interest rate are similar to HP-filtered counterparts, despite some differences in persistence and volatility, while inflation resembles that from BK filtering. This implies that the usual practice of applying a single filtering method to the data of interest may be problematic. When the baseline model is extended to incorporate consumption habit and price indexation, habit turns out to be important in explaining the persistence of business cycles. Comparison of several alternative models shows that the usual practice of estimation of DSGE model using filtered data leads to biased results. Finally, various sensitivity analyses illustrate that (1) allowing for correlation between structural cyclical shocks and trend shocks and (2) including irregular components (in inflation rate) may deliver interesting/important implication for gap estimates.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.203-207
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• 2005

Objectives: Recently, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) redefined the criteria of prediabetes, which has lowered the diagnostic level of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) from 110 to 125 mg/dl, down to levels between 100 to 125mg/dl. The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive cutoff level of FPG as a risk for the development of diabetes mellitus in Korean men. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 11,423 (64.5%) out of 17,696 males $\leq$30 years of age, and who met the FPG of $\leq$125 mg/dl and hemoglobin A1c of $\leq$ 6.4% criteria, without a history of diabetes, and who were enrolled at the screening center of a certain university hospital between January and December 1999. The subjects were followed from January 1999 to December 2002 (mean follow-up duration; 2.3(${\pm}0.7$) years). They were classified as normal (FPG <100mg/dl), high glucose (FPG $\geq$100mg/dl and <110mg/dl) and impaired fasting glucose (FPG $\geq$110mg/dl and $\leq$125mg/dl) on the basis of their fasting plasma glucose level measured in 1999. We compared the incidence of diabetes between the 3 groups by performing Cox proportional hazards model and used receiver operating characteristic analyses of the FPG level, in order to estimate the optimal cut-off values as predictors of incident diabetes. Results: At the baseline, most of the study subjects were in age in their 30s to 40s (mean age, 41.8(${\pm}7.1$) year). The incidence of diabetes mellitus in this study was 1.19 per 1,000 person-years (95% CI=0.68-1.79), which was much lower than the results of a community-based study that was 5.01 per 1,000 person-years. The relative risks of incident diabetes in the high glucose and impaired fasting glucose groups, compared with the normal glucose group, were 10.3 (95% CI=2.58-41.2) and 95.2 (95% CI= 29.3-309.1), respectively. After adjustment for age, body mass index, and log triglyceride, a FPG greater than 100mg/dl remained significant predictors of incident diabetes. Using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the optimal cutoff level of FPG as a predictor of incident diabetes was 97.5 mg/dl, with a sensitivity and a specificity of 81.0% and 86.0%, respectively. Conclusion: These results suggest that lowering the criteria of impaired fasting glucose is needed in Korean male adults. Future studies on community-based populations, including women, will be required to determine the optimal cutoff level of FPG as a predictor of incident diabetes.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.46-54
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• 2012

We propose a continuously varying contact pressure(CVCP)-adaptive feature extraction algorithm for pulse diagnostic analysis. The CVCP method measures the pulse waveform with continuously increasing contact pressure(CP). This method offer a high resolution signal of the pulse waveform amplitude(PWA) as a function of the contact pressure. Therefore it enables us to overcome the limitation of commercially available pulse-taking devices whose analysis rely on a few number of PWA-CP pairs. We show that an efficient feature extraction algorithm which covers the features of the CVCP-method can be developed by sequentially applying Fast Fourier Transform, peak detection by center-to-edges method, baseline drift removal, detection of the percussion wave upstroke by intersecting tangent method and detection of the analysis region. Finally, by a clinical study with 30 subjects, we show that our CVCP-adaptive feature extraction algorithm detected the upstroke with accuracy of 99.46% and sensitivity of 99.51%, which were about 4.82% and 2.46% increases respectively, compared to a conventional feature extraction method. The proposed CVCP method and the CVCP-adaptive feature extraction algorithm are expected to improve the accuracy in the pulse diagnostic algorithms such as floating/sunken pulse qualities and deficient/excess pulse qualities.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.485-492
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• 2001

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus has been rapidly increased in parallel with the westernization of eating behavior in Korea. Increased consumption of animal fat and simple sugar can be potential contributors for insulin resistance. The purpose of the study was to determine whether Western-(WD) and Korean-style(KD) diets altered insulin secretion and insulin resistance in male Sprague Dawley rats. Rats weighing 98$\pm$5g were provided by KD(77 En% of starch, 5 En% of corn oil and 13 En% of gluten plus 5 En% of casein), WD(42 En% of starch, 40 En% of butter and 18% of casein) or control diet(62 En% of starch, 20 En% of corn oil and 18% of casein) for 12 weeks. Body weights were lower in KD compared to WD. Fasting blood glucose levels were not different among diets. Insulin secretion from the beta cells was higher by 2.2$\pm$0.4 folds in WD than KD at baseline. In hyperglycemic clamp insulin secretion was higher in WD than KD and CD. Whole body glucose disposal rates referred to the state of insulin sensitivity were lowest in WD among groups. Glycogen deposits in soleus and quadriceps muscles were lowest in WD among all groups, but their triglyceride contents were highest. GLUT4 contents and glycogen synthase were lowest in WD in both muscles. In conclusions, westernization of diets needed more insulin to normalization of blood glucose levels due to increased insulin resistance. Thus, WD would lead to increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus when increased insulin resistance could not be compensated by insulin secretion in the case of elevated blood glucose levels. (Korean J Nutriton 34(5) : 485~492, 2001)

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.325-331
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• 2013

In this study, a complex eigenvalue analysis is implemented to verify the unstable mode of a brake system using ABAQUS software. The component participation factors and component modal participation factors are used to analyze the total contributions from each component and each component mode to a particular unstable system mode. This study shows that the 1.4-kHz unstable system mode comes from mode coupling between the 2nd nodal diametric mode and 3rd lateral axial mode (LAM) in the baseline model. A sensitivity analysis with a linking index is performed to prevent the mode coupling of the component modes. This linking index analysis shows the optimum mass loading position to move away the natural frequency of the 3rd LAM, which contributes to the unstable mode. Finally, a complex eigenvalue analysis is implemented with mass loading in the tie bar position, and no unstable system mode is generated in the low-frequency range (below 2 kHz).

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.312-319
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• 2013

Our understanding of the sensitivities of crop responses to changes in carbon dioxide, temperature, and water is limited, which makes it difficult to fully utilize crop models in assessing the impact of climate change on future agricultural production. Genetic coefficients of CERES-Barley model for major domestic cultivars in South Korea (Olbori at Suwon, Albori at Milyang, Saessalbori at Iksan, and Samdobori at Jinju) were estimated from the observed data for daily weather and field trials for more than 10 years by using GenCalc in DSSAT. Data from 1997-2002 annual crop status report (Rural Development Administration, RDA) were used to validate the crop coefficients. The sitecalibrated CERES-Barley model was used to perform crop growth simulation with the 99 treatments of step change combinations in temperature, precipitation and carbon dioxide concentration with respect to the baseline climate (1981-2010) at four sites. The upper boundary corresponds to the 2071-2100 climate outlook from the RCP 8.5 scenario. The response surface of grain yield showed a distinct pattern of model behavior under the combined change in environmental variables. The simulated grain yield was most sensitive to $CO_2$ concentration, least sensitive to precipitation, and showing a variable response to temperature depending on cultivar. The emulated impacts of response surfaces are expected to facilitate assessment of projected climate impacts on a given cultivar in South Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.260-266
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• 2015

To examine the changes in resistance to benomyl of Fusarium species causing bakanae disease, Fusarium isolates were collected in Korea, and pathogenicity tests were performed using rice seeds in vitro. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and effective concentration of 50% ($EC_{50}$) values of isolates were examined using the agar dilution method. High frequency distribution of MIC values to benomyl against isolates collected in 2006~2007 and 2013~2014 years were $1.5625{\sim}3.125{\mu}g/mL$ and more than $25{\mu}g/mL$, respectively. The mean $EC_{50}$ value of isolates to benomyl increased from $1.6397{\mu}g/mL$ in 2006~2007 to $2.4892{\mu}g/mL$ in 2013~2014. Based on MIC and $EC_{50}$ values of isolates, the moderate resistance of benomyl were determined as more than $25{\mu}g/mL$ of MIC and less $2.4{\mu}g/mL$ of $EC_{50}$ value, and resistant isolates to benomyl were determined as more than $2.4{\mu}g/mL$ of $EC_{50}$ value. Compared with the ratio of resistant isolates in 2006~2007, the ratio of resistance isolates in 2013~2014 increased from 12.5% to 36.4%. In addition, multiple resistant isolates to prochloraz as well as benomyl increased to 20.3% in 2013~2014.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.60-69
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• 2013

Objective : This case series study was designed to assess the effect of Gamisungmagalguntang for chronic urticaria identified as "Wind-Heat" pattern by retrospective methods. Methods : We treated 19 patients for chronic urticaria with Gamisungmagalguntang(加味升麻葛根湯), who visited to care chronic urticaria at the department of Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology and Dermatology of Korean Medicine at Kyunghee University Korean Medical Center from 1st January 2013 to 31st August 2013. We analyzed information and body conditions of 19 patients. And by using Urticaria Activicy Score(UAS), frequency and number of wheals, itch severity and total score on a 4-point(0-3) scale were assessed in 19 patients. The change of each criterion and total scores between baseline and follow up were analyzed using paired t-test and Wilcoxon test(p<0.05). Results : 1. UAS improvement was statistically significant(p<0.001). Effects of symptom improvement were excellent(31.58%) that means symptom remission and good(42.10%) that means symptom improved over 50%. 2. Heat sensitivity as suspected provocation factor could be a marker for the Wind-Heat pattern urticaria. 3. Among the Wind-Heat pattern urticaria patients, normal digestion(52.63%) and no thirst(78.95%) were higher than abnormal conditions. Whereas about sweat item, abnormal conditions(57.89%) were higher than normal. That means abnormal sweat conditions could be a marker for a defense qi(衛氣) dysfunction of the Wind-Heat pattern urticaria. Conclusions : Our findings suggest that Gamisungmagalguntang could be effective on the Wind-Heat pattern urticaria.