• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2011

To investigate the toxicological effects of ${\beta}$-glucan, we performed basic studying on ${\beta}$-glucan in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Standard endpoints in this study included mortality, clinical observations, changes of body weights, analysis on food consumption, ophthalmoscopic examination, hematologic examination, serum biochemistry, analysis of organ weights, gross anatomic pathology and histopathology. No clinical signs and mortality were observed in animals treated with beta-glucan throughout the experimental period. The average body weight of each treatment groups showed similar levels at end of experiment. There were no treatment-related changes in mortality, body weights changes, food consumption, ophthalmoscopic examination. Although there were statistically significant differences between the control and treated groups in some relative and absolute organ weights, and hematological and biochemical analysis, the data were in biologically normal ranges and did not show a dose-dependent manner. In the morphological change, hepatic tissue were not showed ballooning degeneration and irregular arrangement of hepatic cell in ${\beta}$-glucan treatment groups with control group. Also, organs weights (liver, heart, kidney and stomach) and hematological indices (WBC, RBC, Hb, Hct and Platelet) did not show statistically significant differences among the experimental groups. In summary of these results, there were no changes in mortality, mean body weight, clinical signs, food consumption. There were no changes in ophthalmological examination, hematology, blood chemistry, necropsy and histopathology. In conclusion, although further investigation of glucan should be performed in the functions registered in many ancient literatures, ${\beta}$-glucan is physiologically safe and may have potential as candidate food for human health.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.45-72
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• 2005

C. neoformans-associated cryptococcosis is primarily a disease of immunocompromised persons, has a world-wide distribution, and is often spread by pigeons in the urban environment. In contrast, C. gattii causes infection in normal hosts, has only been described in tropical and semi-tropical areas of the world, and has a unique niche in river gum Eucalyptus trees. Cryptococcosis is acquired through inhalation of the yeast propagules from the environment. C. gattii has been identified as the cause of an emerging infectious disease centered on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. No cases of C. gattii-disease were diagnosed prior to 1999; the current incidence rate is 36 cases per million population. A search was initiated in 2001 to find the ecological niche of this basidiomycetous yeast. C. gaftii was found in the environment in treed areas of Vancouver Island. The highest percentage of colonized-tree clusters were found around central Vancouver Island, with decreasing rates of colonization to the north and south. Climate, soil and vegetation cover of this area, called the Coastal Douglas fir biogeoclimatic zone, is unique to British Columbia and Canada. The concentration of airborne C. gattii was highest in the dry summer months, and lowest during late fall, winter, and early spring, months which have heavy rainfall. The study of the emerging colonization of this organism and subsequent cases of environmentally acquired disease will be informative in planning public health management of new routes of exposure to exotic agents in areas impacted by changing climate and land use patterns. Cryptococcosis is an infection associated with an encapsulated, basidiomycetous yeast Cryptococcus neoformans. The route of entry for this organism is through the lungs, with possible systemic spread via the circulatory system to the brain and meninges. There are four cryptococcal serogroups associated with disease in humans and animals, distinguished by capsular polysaccharide antigens. Cryptococcus neoformans: variety grubii (serotype A), variety neoformans (serotype D), and variety gattii (serotypes B and C) (Franzot et at. 1999). C. neoformans variety gattii has recently been elevated to species status, C. gattii. C. neoformans val. grubii and var. neoformans have a world-wide distribution, and are particularly associated with soil and weathered bird droppings. In contrast, C. gattii (CG) is not associated with bird excrement, is primarily found in tropical and subtropical climates, and has a restricted environmental niche associated with specific tree species. (Ellis & Pfiffer 1990) Ellis and Pfeiffer theorize that, as a basidiomycete, CG requires an association with a tree in order to become pathogenic to mammals. In Australia, CG has been found to be associated with five species of Eucalypts, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, E. tereticornis, E. blakelyi, E. gomphocephala, and E. rudis. Eucalypts, although originally native to Australia, now have a world-wide distribution. CG has been found associated with imported eucalypts in India, California, Brazil, and Egypt. In addition, in Brazil and Columbia, where eucalypts have been naturalized, native trees have been shown to harbour CG (Callejas et al. 1998; Montenegro et al. 2000). In British Columbia, Canada, since the beginning of 1999, there have been 120 confirmed cases of cryptococcal mycoses associated with CG in humans, including 4 fatalities (data from British Columbia Centre for Disease Control), and over 200 cases in animal pets in BC (data from Central Laboratory for Veterinarians). What is remarkable about the BC outbreak of C. gattii-cryptococcosis is that all of the cases have been residents of, or visitors to, a narrow area along the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, BC, from the tip of the island in the south (Victoria) to Courtenay on the north-central island as illustrated in Figure 1. Of the first 38 human cases, 58% were male with a mean age of 59.7 years (range 20 - 82): 36 cases (95%) were Caucasian. Ten cases (26%) presented with meningitis, the remainder presented with respiratory symptoms. Cultures recovered from cases of cryptococcosis associated with the outbreak were typed as serogroup B, which is specific to CG (Bartlett et al. 2003). This was the first reported outbreak of CVG in Canada, or indeed, the world. Where infection with CG is endemic, for example, Australia, the incidence of cryptococcosis ranges from 1.8 - 4.7 per million between the southern and northern states (Sorrell 2001). However, the overall incidence of cryptococcosis in immunocompenent individuals has been estimated at 0.2 per million population per year (Kwon-Chung et al. 1984). The population of Vancouver Island is approximately 720,000,consequently, even if the organism were endemic, one would expect a maximum of 0.15 cases of cryptococcal disease annually.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.114-118
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• 1997

Purpose: Functional MR imaging is the method of demonstrating changes in regional cerebral blood flow produced by sensory, motor, and any other tasks. Functional MR of visual cortex is performed as a patient stares a photic stimulation, so adaptable photic stimulation is necessary. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the size of photic stimulator can affect the degree of visual cortex activation. Materials and Methods: Functional MR imaging was performed in 5 volunteers with normal visual acuity. Photic stimulator was made by 39 light-emitting diodes on a plate, operating at 8Hz. The sizes of photic stimulator were full field, half field and focal central field. The MR imager was Siemens 1.5-T Magnetom Vision system, using standard head coil. Functional MRI utilized EPI sequence (TR/TE= 1.0/51. Omsec, matrix $No.=98{\times}128$, slice thickness=8mm) with 3sets of 6 imaging during stimulation and 6 imaging during rest, all 36 scannings were obtained. Activation images were obtained using postprocessing software(statistical analysis by Z-score), and these images were combined with T-1 weighted anatomical images. The activated signals were quantified by numbering the activated pixels, and activation a index was obtained by dividing the pixel number of each stimulator size with the sum of the pixel number of 3 study using 3 kinds of stimulators. The correlation between the activation index and the stimulator size was analysed. Results: Mean increase of signal intensities on the activation area using full field photic stimulator was about 9.6%. The activation index was greatest on full field, second on half field and smallest on focal central field in 4. The index of half field was greater than that of full field in 1. The ranges of activation index were full field 43-73%(mean 55%), half field 22-40 %(mean 32%), and focal central field 5-24%(mean 13%). Conclusion: The degree of visual cortex activation increases with the size of photic stimulator.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.664-672
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• 2012

As an artificial light source, light-emitting diode (LED) with a short wavelength range can be used in closed-type plant production systems. Among various wavelength ranges in visible light, individual light spectra induce distinguishing influences on plant growth and development. In this study, we determined the effects of monochromatic LEDs on leaf shape index, growth and the accumulation of phytochemicals in a red leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. 'Sunmang') and a green leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. 'Grand rapid TBR'). Lettuce seedlings grown under normal growing conditions ($20^{\circ}C$, fluorescent lamp + high pressure sodium lamp, $130{\pm}5{\mu}mmol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$, 12 hours photoperiod) for 18 days were transferred into incubators at $20^{\circ}C$ equipped with various monochromatic LEDs (blue LED, 456 nm; green LED, 518 nm; red LED, 654 nm; white LED, 456 nm + 558 nm) under the same light intensity and photoperiod ($130{\pm}7{\mu}mmol{\cdot}m^{-2}{\cdot}s^{-1}$, 12 hours photoperiod). Leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots, shoot/root ratio, SPAD value, total phenolic concentration, antioxidant capacity, and the expression of a key gene involved in the biosynthesis of phenolic compounds, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), were measured at 9 and 23 days after transplanting. The leaf shape indexes of both lettuce cultivars subjected to blue or white LEDs were similar with those of control during whole growth stage. However, red and green LEDs induced significantly higher leaf shape index than the other treatments. The green LED had a negative impact on the lettuce growth. Most of growth characteristics such as fresh and dry weights of shoots and leaf area were the highest in both cultivars subjected to red LED treatment. In case of red leaf lettuce plants, shoot fresh weight under red LED was 3.8 times higher than that under green LED at 23 days after transplanting. In contrast, the accumulation of chlorophyll, phenolics including antioxidants in lettuce plants showed an opposite trend compared with growth. SPAD value, total phenolic concentration, and antioxidant capacity of lettuce grown under blue LED were significantly higher than those under other LED treatments. In addition, PAL gene was remarkably activated by blue LED at 9 days after transplanting. Thus, this study suggested that the light quality using LEDs is a crucial factor for morphology, growth, and phytochemicals of two lettuce cultivars.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.109-121
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• 2016

To verify the accuracy of the image guided radiotherapy using ExacTrac 6D couch, the error values in six directions are randomly assigned and corrected and then the corrected values were compared with CBCT image to check the accurateness of ExacTrac. The therapy coordination values in the Rando head Phantom were moved in the directions of X, Y and Z as the translation group and they were moved in the directions of pitch, roll and yaw as the rotation group. The corrected values were moved in 6 directions with the combined and mutual reactions. The Z corrected value ranges from 1mm to 23mm. In the analysis of errors between CBCT image of the phantom which is corrected with therapy coordinate and 3D/3D matching error value, the rotation group showed higher error value than the translation group. In the distribution of dose for the error value of the therapy coordinate corrected with CBCT, the restricted value of dosage for the normal organs in two groups meet the prescription dose. In terms of PHI and PCI values which are the dose homogeneity of the cancerous tissue, the rotation group showed a little higher in the low dose distribution range. This study is designed to verify the accuracy of ExacTrac 6D couch using CBCT. It showed that in terms of the error value in the simple movement, it showed the comparatively accurate correction capability but in the movement when the angle is put in the couch, it showed the inaccurate correction values. So, if the body of the patient is likely to have a lot of changes in the direction of rotation or there is a lot of errors in the pitch, roll and yaw in ExacTrac correction, it is better to conduct the CBCT guided image to correct the therapy coordinate in order to minimize any side effects.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.157-164
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• 2014

Objective of this research was to develop root media containing expanded rice hull (ERH) and carbonized rice hull (CRH). To achieve this, the physico chemical properties of two materials were analysed and blended with peatmoss (PM) or coir dust (CD) with various ratio. Based on the physical properties of the blended materials, 4 root media were selected for future experiment. After the analysis of pH and EC of the selected root media, the kinds and amount of pre-planting nutrient charge fertilizers (PNCF) incorporated into each root medium were varied, and then, final chemical properties of the root media were analysed. The total porosity (TP), container capacity (CC), and air-filled porosity (AFP) were 81.3%. 39.9%, and 41.4% in ERH and 77.6%, 64.1%, and 13.5% in CRH, respectively. The percentage of easily available water (EAW, from CC to 4.90 kPa tension) and buffering water (BW, 4.91-9.81 kPa tension) were 11.37% and 5.27%, in ERH and 17.26% and 14.28% in CRH, respectively. The pH of ERH was 7.1, but it was extremely high in CRH such as 11.2. The EC and CEC were $1.31dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ and $12.1meq{\cdot}100g^{-1}$ in ERH and $6.53dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ and CEC 7.79 $meq{\cdot}100g^{-1}$ in CRH, respectively. The ranges of TP, CC and AFP in 4 selected media (PM + ERH, 6:4, v/v; CD + ERH, 8:2; PM + CRH, 7:3; CD+CRH 6:4) were 89.2-90.3%, 67.3-81.8%, and 8.3-21.9%, respectively. The pHs and ECs in root media containing peatmoss such as PM + ERH (6:4) and PM + CRH (7:3) were 4.0-4.3 and $0.33-0.365dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$, whereas those of CD + CRH were 7.4-7.9 and $1.282dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$. The pHs and ECs, however, analysed before and after the incorporation of PNCF in each root medium were not significant different. This result indicated that the incorporated fertilizers in PNCF to adjust medium pH did not dissolve enough to influence medium pH, but it is very normal in root media containing dolomitic lime and sulfur powder in adjusting pH. The Information obtained in this study may facilitate an effective formulation of root media containing rice hulls.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2011

Purpose: This study is designed to investigate radiotherapic valuation of Paraffin Wax, which is newly formed for this study and generally utilized in dentistry, and Mouth Piece and Putty impression, which are commonly used in radiotherapy, for oral cavity as a compensator. Materials and Methods: Each compensator was formed by $10{\times}10{\times}1cm$ and measured radiation dose attenuation ratio with reference of water phantom which is made of tissue-equivalent materials. Two patients with oral cancer underwent DRR (Digitally Reconstructed Radiogrph) of Offline Review Program of Aria System and Portal vision for 5 times for each material to evaluate reproducibility by each filling materials. Moreover, MU (monitor unit) changes by dose absorption were considered in the case of inevitable implication of an filling materials in the range for radiotherapy. Results: Radiation dose attenuation ratios were shown -0.7~+3.7% for Mouth Piece, +0.21~+0.39% for Paraffin Wax and -2.71~-1.76% for Putty impression. Error ranges of reproducibility of positions were measured ${\pm}3mm$ for Mouth Piece, ${\pm}2mm$ for Paraffin Wax and ${\pm}2mm$ mm for Putty impression. Difference of prescription MU from dose absorption with an filling material increased +7.8% (250 MU) in Putty impression and -0.9% (230 MU) in Paraffin Wax as converted into a percentage from the standard phantom, Water 232 MU. Conclusion: Dose reduction of boundary between cavity and tissue was observed for Mouth Piece. Mouth Piece also had low reproducibility of positions as it had no reflection of anatomy of oral cavity even though it was a proper material to separate Maxilla and Mandible during therapy. On the other hand, Putty impression was a suitable material to correctly re-position oral cavity as before. However, it risked normal tissues getting unnecessary over irradiation and it caused radiation dose decrease by -2.5% for 1cm volume in comparison of it of water phantom. Dose reduction in Paraffin Wax, Fat Tissue-Equivalent Material, was smaller than other impressions and position reproducibility of it was remarkable as it was possible to make an anatomy reflected impression. It was also well fitted to oral cavity to transfer radiation dose planned in radiotherapy. Thus, Paraffin Wax will be an ideal material in radiotherapy for patients with oral cancer.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1751-1758
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• 2012

Capillary blood sampling on the forearm reduces pain caused by skin puncture. The present study compared the blood glucose test results performed at different sampling sites of the forearm, finger, and vein to evaluate clinical validity of this alternative site blood sampling technique. Subjects numbered 555 including 61 diabetic patients participated to measure the glucose concentration on the finger ($G_F$) and the forearm ($G_A$) with a portable glucometer under overnight fasting state. Then, the venous glucose concentration ($G_V$) was measured in 514 subjects in less than 1 hour. The test results were analyzed by simple linear regression, intraclass correlation, and Passing-Bablok regression techniques. $G_A$ was highly correlated with $G_F$ or $G_V$ showing the correlation coefficients (r) of approximately 0.97 (P<0.0001) in the normal group. The patient group also resulted similarly high correlation with only slightly lower r value. The mean differences in glucose concentration were less than ${\pm}10mg/dL$ regardless of the sampling sites. Intraclass correlation coefficients were slightly smaller than r but very much similar in value in both groups. The 95% confidence intervals of the slope as well as the intercept in the Passing-Bablok regression analysis were < ${\pm}20%$ and < ${\pm}20mg/dL$, respectively, which were within the clinically acceptable ranges. These three statistical techniques introduced in the present study well demonstrated the consistency of $G_A$ with $G_F$ and $G_V$. Therefore, the forearm blood glucose test could be considered as clinically valid under fasting condition.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.227-240
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• 2011

New concepts and ideas often result from extensive recombination of existing concepts or ideas. Both researchers and developers build on existing concepts and ideas in published papers or registered patents to develop new theories and technologies that in turn serve as a basis for further development. As the importance of patent increases, so does that of patent analysis. Patent analysis is largely divided into network-based and keyword-based analyses. The former lacks its ability to analyze information technology in details while the letter is unable to identify the relationship between such technologies. In order to overcome the limitations of network-based and keyword-based analyses, this study, which blends those two methods, suggests the keyword network based analysis methodology. In this study, we collected significant technology information in each patent that is related to Light Emitting Diode (LED) through text mining, built a keyword network, and then executed a community network analysis on the collected data. The results of analysis are as the following. First, the patent keyword network indicated very low density and exceptionally high clustering coefficient. Technically, density is obtained by dividing the number of ties in a network by the number of all possible ties. The value ranges between 0 and 1, with higher values indicating denser networks and lower values indicating sparser networks. In real-world networks, the density varies depending on the size of a network; increasing the size of a network generally leads to a decrease in the density. The clustering coefficient is a network-level measure that illustrates the tendency of nodes to cluster in densely interconnected modules. This measure is to show the small-world property in which a network can be highly clustered even though it has a small average distance between nodes in spite of the large number of nodes. Therefore, high density in patent keyword network means that nodes in the patent keyword network are connected sporadically, and high clustering coefficient shows that nodes in the network are closely connected one another. Second, the cumulative degree distribution of the patent keyword network, as any other knowledge network like citation network or collaboration network, followed a clear power-law distribution. A well-known mechanism of this pattern is the preferential attachment mechanism, whereby a node with more links is likely to attain further new links in the evolution of the corresponding network. Unlike general normal distributions, the power-law distribution does not have a representative scale. This means that one cannot pick a representative or an average because there is always a considerable probability of finding much larger values. Networks with power-law distributions are therefore often referred to as scale-free networks. The presence of heavy-tailed scale-free distribution represents the fundamental signature of an emergent collective behavior of the actors who contribute to forming the network. In our context, the more frequently a patent keyword is used, the more often it is selected by researchers and is associated with other keywords or concepts to constitute and convey new patents or technologies. The evidence of power-law distribution implies that the preferential attachment mechanism suggests the origin of heavy-tailed distributions in a wide range of growing patent keyword network. Third, we found that among keywords that flew into a particular field, the vast majority of keywords with new links join existing keywords in the associated community in forming the concept of a new patent. This finding resulted in the same outcomes for both the short-term period (4-year) and long-term period (10-year) analyses. Furthermore, using the keyword combination information that was derived from the methodology suggested by our study enables one to forecast which concepts combine to form a new patent dimension and refer to those concepts when developing a new patent.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.25-41
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• 2011

Recently, support vector machines (SVMs) are being recognized as competitive tools as compared with other data mining techniques for solving pattern recognition or classification decision problems. Furthermore, many researches, in particular, have proved them more powerful than traditional artificial neural networks (ANNs) (Amendolia et al., 2003; Huang et al., 2004, Huang et al., 2005; Tay and Cao, 2001; Min and Lee, 2005; Shin et al., 2005; Kim, 2003).The classification decision, such as a binary or multi-class decision problem, used by any classifier, i.e. data mining techniques is so cost-sensitive particularly in financial classification problems such as the credit ratings that if the credit ratings are misclassified, a terrible economic loss for investors or financial decision makers may happen. Therefore, it is necessary to convert the outputs of the classifier into wellcalibrated posterior probabilities-based multiclass credit ratings according to the bankruptcy probabilities. However, SVMs basically do not provide such probabilities. So it required to use any method to create the probabilities (Platt, 1999; Drish, 2001). This paper applied AdaBoost algorithm-based support vector machines (SVMs) into a bankruptcy prediction as a binary classification problem for the IT companies in Korea and then performed the multi-class credit ratings of the companies by making a normal distribution shape of posterior bankruptcy probabilities from the loss functions extracted from the SVMs. Our proposed approach also showed that their methods can minimize the misclassification problems by adjusting the credit grade interval ranges on condition that each credit grade for credit loan borrowers has its own credit risk, i.e. bankruptcy probability.