• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.15-24
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• 2021

Purpose SPECT/CT was noted for its excellent correction method and qualitative functions based on fusion images in the early stages of dissemination, and interest in and utilization of quantitative functions has been increasing with the recent introduction of companion diagnostic therapy(Theranostics). Unlike PET/CT, various conditions like the type of collimator and detector rotation are a challenging factor for image acquisition and reconstruction methods at absolute quantification of SPECT/CT. Therefore, in this study, We want to find out the effect on the radioactivity concentration estimate by the increase or decrease of the total acquisition time according to the number of projections and the acquisition time per projection among SPECT/CT imaging conditions. Materials and Methods After filling the 9,293 ml cylindrical phantom with sterile water and diluting 99mTc 91.76 MBq, the standard image was taken with a total acquisition time of 600 sec (10 sec/frame × 120 frames, matrix size 128 × 128) and also volume sensitivity and the calibration factor was verified. Based on the standard image, the comparative images were obtained by increasing or decreasing the total acquisition time. namely 60 (-90%), 150 (-75%), 300 (-50%), 450 (-25%), 900 (+50%), and 1200 (+100%) sec. For each image detail, the acquisition time(sec/frame) per projection was set to 1.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 15.0 and 20.0 sec (fixed number of projections: 120 frame) and the number of projection images was set to 12, 30, 60, 90, 180 and 240 frames(fixed time per projection:10 sec). Based on the coefficients measured through the volume of interest in each acquired image, the percentage of variation about the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) was determined as a qualitative assessment, and the quantitative assessment was conducted through the percentage of variation of the radioactivity concentration estimate. At this time, the relationship between the radioactivity concentration estimate (cps/ml) and the actual radioactivity concentration (Bq/ml) was compared and analyzed using the recovery coefficient (RC_Recovery Coefficients) as an indicator. Results The results [CNR, radioactivity Concentration, RC] by the change in the number of projections for each increase or decrease rate (-90%, -75%, -50%, -25%, +50%, +100%) of total acquisition time are as follows. [-89.5%, +3.90%, 1.04] at -90%, [-77.9%, +2.71%, 1.03] at -75%, [-55.6%, +1.85%, 1.02] at -50%, [-33.6%, +1.37%, 1.01] at -25%, [-33.7%, +0.71%, 1.01] at +50%, [+93.2%, +0.32%, 1.00] at +100%. and also The results [CNR, radioactivity Concentration, RC] by the acquisition time change for each increase or decrease rate (-90%, -75%, -50%, -25%, +50%, +100%) of total acquisition time are as follows. [-89.3%, -3.55%, 0.96] at - 90%, [-73.4%, -0.17%, 1.00] at -75%, [-49.6%, -0.34%, 1.00] at -50%, [-24.9%, 0.03%, 1.00] at -25%, [+49.3%, -0.04%, 1.00] at +50%, [+99.0%, +0.11%, 1.00] at +100%. Conclusion In SPECT/CT, the total coefficient obtained according to the increase or decrease of the total acquisition time and the resulting image quality (CNR) showed a pattern that changed proportionally. On the other hand, quantitative evaluations through absolute quantification showed a change of less than 5% (-3.55 to +3.90%) under all experimental conditions, maintaining quantitative accuracy (RC 0.96 to 1.04). Considering the reduction of the total acquisition time rather than the increasing of the image acquiring time, The reduction in total acquisition time is applicable to quantitative analysis without significant loss and is judged to be clinically effective. This study shows that when increasing or decreasing of total acquisition time, changes in acquisition time per projection have fewer fluctuations that occur in qualitative and quantitative condition changes than the change in the number of projections under the same scanning time conditions.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.479-489
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• 1998

This work was done for 9 patients having experience of a herb medical treatment after being diagnosed as CVA during a year from January, 1996 to December, 1996 by using an ethnographic research method. The summarized results of this research are following. Ⅰ. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE ILLNESS First, the falling-ill phase is the time that they have the first stroke of paralysis and the decision pattern of medical institution' comes out. The emotional experience in the period is something like 'flustration', 'anxiety', 'despair', and 'expectation'. Second, the active-treatment phase is the time that the patients as well as their family or care giver not only show the positive attitude and actively participate in the illness treatment but also show a lot of interest in medical institutions and activities of health recovery. There is a primary factor of the continuation of treatment as an experience of treatment and being crushed and sensitivity as an experience of the illness. Third, the rehabilitation phase is the time that the patients or their family become tired and insensitive to the treatment and recuperation, and then reduce the treatment activity. There is a primary influence factor of the discontinuance of treatment as an experience of treatment and physical experience and emotional experience as an experience of the illness. The physical experience is divided into 'personal-hygiene care', and 'the sphere of activity' The emotional experiences are 'blaming someone', 'contempt' and 'despair' as a negative experience and 'hope' as a positive experience. Ⅱ. COPING STRATEGY There are a physical coping, an emotional and mental coping, a social coping, and a spiritual coping as a coping strategy used for the patients to overcome their illness and adjust themselves to their altered life. First, the physical coping comes out as 8 categories, 'using an auxiliary tool', 'doing exercise', 'protecting', 'improving their diet', 'taking care of something', 'using subsidiary medicines', 'trying a folk remedy', and 'having interest in their health'. Second, for the emotional and mental coping, there are 'accepting' and 'trying' as a positive coping and a failure of control as a negative coping. Third, the social coping is appeared as 'being supported'. Fourth, the spiritual coping is recognized as' recourse to God' and 'preparation of death'. After all, the elderly CVA patients in an agricultural area choose the act of treatment based on the traditional belief and the relationship with a caretaker. A personal health can be maintained by taking care of themselves and controling their mind, and the overcome of the illness is decided on the basis of traditional concepts and cultural principles in which the patients as well as the family, neigbors and take carers should work out together and cooperate with each other in order to achieve that.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.1279-1291
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• 2000

The main objectives of this study were to analyze the concept of hope, so to provide basic data to develop a valid instrument to measure hope, and to develop hope enhancing nursing intervention a program for cancer patients. The hybrid model approach was applied in three phases, the theoretical phase, the empirical phase, and the analytic phase. The study was developed on universal attributes explaining generalized hope and specific hope, which were revealed in a comprehensive review of the literature. In the empirical phase, eight cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were interviewed to reveal causes, motivation, and their resource of hope according to The Hope Assessment Guide (Farren, Herth, & Popovich, 1995). In the analytical phase, the results of the two previous stages of the study were compared. The results were as follows : In the theoretical phase, six dimensions of hope emerged; affective, cognitive, behavioral, affiliative, temporal and contextual dimension. The antecedent of hope was loss, crisis, uncertainity, and stress. The consequences were renewal, development of new methods, safety, peace and transcendental competence. In the empirical phase, these six dimensions emerged as theoretical phases were verified and specified as these descriptive terms: feeling, intention, expectation, activity, relation, future- orientation, reality and goal-setting. The antecedent factor of hope was occurrence or recurrence of cancer. The consequence of hope was ability to cope with real condition, feeling of safety and comfort, peace, development of new strategy and recovery of disease. The major content of hope in this phase was related to specific hope, but it was also influenced on by general hope. In the analytic phase, general and specific hope was renamed as trait and state hope. All attributes emerged at the empirical phases, and also emerged at the theoretical phase. However, cognitive and contextual dimensions were revised and specified. In conclusion, the concept of hope is divided into trait hope and state hope, and state hope is an anticipatory expectation that occurs at the time of a stressful stimulus, such as being diagnosed with cancer. Hope is a multidimensional dynamic energized mental state which has the dimensions of affective, cognitive, behavioral, affiliative, temporal and contextual. There should be further studies to develope the state and trait hope scale according to definition and attributes of hope investigated in this study. In addition, considering results of the empirical phase, the family is very a important factor as a resource of hope, so it is necessary to consider family in implementing a nursing intervention program to enhance hope.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.159-177
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• 2008

Objectives : Crohn's disease is a severe chronic inflammation that is treated mainly by immunosuppression, which often has serious side effects. There is need to develop new therapeutic methods or drugs that have few side effects in order to treat this disease. Acupuncture with Moxi-tar at Cheonchu (ST25) has anti-inflammatory properties, but the mechanism of its anti-inflammatory actions is unclear. We investigated the protective effects and speculated the mechanisms of acupuncture with Moxi-tar at ST25 on trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) induced colitis in mice which is a well known Crohn's disease animal model. Methods : 5 % TNBS was treated at day 1 and day 7 into rectum of mice. To investigate therapeutic effects of acupuncture with Moxi-tar at ST25, acupuncture was carried out on day 3, and day 6. For the data analysis, we observed macroscopic and microscopic findings of the colon. Weight and width of the colon, degree of damage, changes of body weight, and myeloperoxygenase (MPO) activity were checked. For analysing protein expression, we carried out immunohistochemical staining and Western blot. For analysing mRNA expression, RT-PCR was carried out. Results : TNBS induced damages on the colon of mice, while acupuncture of Moxi-tar at ST25 suppressed TNBS mediated damages similar to those on the colons of mice in the control (not treated with TNBS) group. The average body weight of TNBS treated mice (77.4%) was decreased compared with that of the control mice (105%), and acupuncture with Moxi-tar at ST25 suppressed the loss of body weight caused by TNBS (from 77.4% to 95.3%). TNBS induced infiltration of immune cells in all layers of the colon while acupuncture with Moxi-tar at ST25 suppressed infiltration of immune cells caused by TNBS. Furthermore, acupunctured with Moxi-tar at ST25 suppressed macro-, micro- colonic damages caused by TNBS. Acupunctured with Moxi-tar at ST25 dramatically improved the clinical and histopathological symptoms such as the increase in weight of the distal colon and the MPO activity in TNBS-induced colitis. Acupuncture with Moxi-tar at ST25 down-regulated the nuclear transcription factor kappa B ($NF-{\kappa}B$) activity and suppressed tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-${\alpha}$), interleukin-$1{\beta}$ (IL-1${\beta}$), and intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expressions caused by TNBS. Conclusions : Acupuncture with Moxi-tar at ST25 helps recovery from the TNBS-induced colonic damage by down-regulation of $NF-{\kappa}B$ activity and suppressing of TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-1${\beta}$, and ICAM-1 expressions. This may be an important method for the treatment of Crohn's disease.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of current study was to review the surgical treatment results in patients with a ganglion cyst involving peripheral nerves and to suggest the poor prognostic factor. Materials and Methods: Twelve patients having neurologic symptoms caused by ganglion cyst were treated operatively between 1995 and 2000. The peripheral nerves involved were the tibial nerve in three patients, suprascapular nerve, common peroneal nerve, radial nerve, and ulnar nerve in two patients each, and median nerve in one patient. Pain was present in six patients, sensory disturbance or motor weakness was seen in seven patients each; and sensory disturbance and motor weakness were concurrently present in four patients. Results: In all six patients who complained of preoperative pain, the pain was resolved after surgery. Improvements were seen in five of seven patients who had preoperative sensory disturbance and in all patients who had preoperative motor weakness. Complete sensory recovery was obtained in only two of four patients with preoperative sensory disturbance and motor weakness, indicating a poor prognosis factor. Conclusion: Early accurate diagnosis and early excision of these ganglion cysts causing compression neuropathy could produce excellent clinical results.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.371-392
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• 2015

TS-DP2 is a recombinant human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) manufactured by TS Corporation. We conducted a four-week study of TS-DP2 (test article) in repeated intravenous doses in male and female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Lenograstim was used as a reference article and was administered intravenously at a dose of $1000{\mu}g/kg/day$. Rats received TS-DP2 intravenously at doses of 250, 500, and $1000{\mu}g/kg/day$ once daily for 4 weeks, and evaluated following a 2-week recovery period. Edema in the hind limbs and loss of mean body weight and body weight gain were observed in both the highest dose group of TS-DP2 and the lenograstim group in male rats. Fibro-osseous lesions were observed in the lenograstim group in both sexes, and at all groups of TS-DP2 in males, and at doses of TS-DP2 $500{\mu}g/kg/day$ and higher in females. The lesion was considered a toxicological change. Therefore, bone is the primary toxicological target of TS-DP2. The lowest observed adverse effect level (LOAEL) in males was $250{\mu}g/kg/day$, and no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) in females was $250{\mu}g/kg/day$ in this study. In the toxicokinetic study, the serum concentrations of G-CSF were maintained until 8 hr after administration. The systemic exposures ($AUC_{0-24h}$ and $C_0$) were not markedly different between male and female rats, between the administration periods, or between TS-DP2 and lenograstim. In conclusion, TS-DP2 shows toxicological similarity to lenograstim over 4-weeks of repeated doses in rats.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.589-595
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• 2016

This study evaluated the environmental impacts for landfill treatment of the wastewater treatment sludge (WTS) from petrochemical firms by life cycle assessment (LCA) and reviewed the impact reduction by landfill gas (LFG) utilization. The functional unit was 'landfill of 1 ton of WTS', and the system boundary included the process of input and treatment for WTS in landfill site. The impacts were high at landfill process (LP) and leachate treatment process (LTP). Global warming (GWP) and photochemical oxidants creation (POCP) were high at LP, while abiotic depletion (ADP), acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP), ozone depletion (ODP) were high at LTP. The major substances of various impact categories were crude oil (ADP), $NO_X$ (AP, EP), $CH_4$ (GWP, POCP), $Cl_2$ (ODP), respectively. The major factor of ADP, AP, EP was attributed from the generation of electricity used in LTP, and the methane within uncollected LFG was main factor of GWP and POCP. Therefore, electricity consumption reduction is identified to be an impact improvement option, and the flaring system installation or enhanced LFG recovery could be an alternative to reduce impacts. Among the various categories, GWP accounted the highest impact (${\geq}90%$) followed by ADP, POCP. In the avoidance impact resulted from the utilization of LFG, to substitute B-C oil or LNG showed the impact reduction of 32.7% and 12.0%, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.70-75
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• 2016

The reuse of wastewater is being diffused to manage and develop the water resources. Generally, the treated wastewater is discharged to the river after being treated to meet the effluent quality standard or reused for diverse uses through the reprocessing. And recently, as the reuse of the treated wastewater is activated, the technologies to utilize for the high quality water resources such as industrial water by reusing the wastewater with Membrane Distillation (MD) are under development. In this study, the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process has been applied to treat sewage discharge water for water reuse. The laboratory scale experiment was performed by using a hydrophobic PVDF membrane with the pore size of $0.22{\mu}m$. The influence of operating parameters, such as feed temperature, feed flow rate, feed concentration, on the permeate flux and rejection has been investigated. All filtration tests were conducted till the feed volume reached a concentration factor of 3.0. Thus, the operating period ranged between 19 hr and 49 hr depending on filtration performance. The results showed that above 92% of TN, TP, COD and TOC in the feed could be rejected regardless of an operating condition. The water flux was ranged from 13.8 to 20.3 LMH. The lowest flux was obtained at the operating condition with the feed temperature of $50^{\circ}C$ and feed flow velocity of 500 mL/min while the highest one was measured with $60^{\circ}C$ and 900 mL/min. When the concentration factor reached 3.0, water flux declined by approximately ranged from 14.5% to 33.3%. But the fouling in MD is almost fully reversible, with more than 90% recovery of permeate water flux following a DI water rinse without the addition of chemical cleaning reagents.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2002

Objective: This study was carried out to establish the effectiveness of the vitrification method and the optimal cryoprotectants in the cryopreservation of human embryonic stem cells (ESC). Materials and Methods: Human ESC clumps established at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUhES 1) were cryopreserved with the vitrification method using the EM grid. EDS and EFS40 were used as vitrification solutions. Results: Between the EDS and EFS40 groups, there was no significant difference in the recovery rate after cryopreservation of human ESC. The formation rates of ESC colonies in the vitrified groups were significantly lower than those in the control ESC group (p<0.05, p<0.05). In addition, the formation rate of ESC colonies in the EDS group was significantly higher than that in the EFS40 group (p<0.05). The ESC colonies in the vitrified groups were significantly smaller after culture duration of 2 and 4 days, respectively, compared with the control ESC group (p<0.1, p<0.05). However, these effects could be reduced to nonsignificant level by the additional culture of ESC colonies. The vitrified human ESC retained the properties of pluripotent cells, including the expression of cell surface. markers for the undifferentiated cells such as alkaline phosphatase and SSEA-4 (stage-specific embryonic antigen-4), and the expression of transcription factor Oct-4 (octamer-binding transcription factor-4), and the normal karyotype. Conclusion: The vitrification method using the EM grid and EDS solution was confirmed to be very effective for the cryopreservation of human ESC.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.508-514
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• 2013

2Department of Marine Molecular Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Gangneung-Wonju National University Recently, we reported that diarylheptanoid hirsutenone (HST) effectively inactivated T lymphocytes. However, it has not been evaluated whether HST is involved in calcineurin or calmodulin inactivation. In the present study, cells were treated with T-cell inhibitors with or without HST. Our results revealed that HST successfully inhibited expression of T-helper type I (Th1) and Th2 cytokines. Co-treatment with HST and nuclear factor-activated T cell (NFAT) activation inhibitor III (INCA-6) showed a more sensitive effect than that with other inhibitors, suggesting that HST contributes to inhibition of dephosphorylation of NFAT in the cytosol. HST up-regulated cell cycle arrest genes and inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. These effects were confirmed in an NFAT electrophoretic-mobility shift assay via successful inhibition of NFAT translocation and in the histological recovery in a 2,4-dinitrochloro benzene-induced in vivo model. Taken together, HST was shown to effectively inhibit T-cell activation via inhibition of cytosolic NFAT dephosphorylation, similar to INCA-6.