• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.265-271
• /
• 1997

Objective : A 4-week, single-blind, parallel group study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tofisopam and lorazepam in 32 outpatients with anxiety disorder. Methods : Patients were randomized to receive either tofisopam(N=17) or lorazepam(N=15). The starting dose of tofisopam was 50mg t.i.d. daily, which could be increased to a maximum of 100mg t.i.d. according to the patient's clinical response and side effect. The starting dose of lorazepam was 0.75mg b.i.d. daily, which could be increased to a maximum of 1.5mg b.i.d. depending on the patient's clinical response and side effect. Efficacy evaluations at baseline, week 1, 2, and 4 used the 14-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety(HAM-A) and Clinical Global Impression(CGI). Tolerability was assessed by response to a nonleading question concerning adverse events. Laboratory parameters including vital sign, EKG, hematological, and biochemical values were measured during trial. Results : No significant differences between HAM-A total scores, two HAM-A factors(psychic, somatic) and CGI severity scores were recorded at any point during tofisopam and lorazepam treatments. However, in each group there was a significant decrease in HAM-A total scores, two HAM-A factor s(psychic, somatic), CGI severity scores over time. The pecentages of patients with tofisopam who at least minimally improved increased from 64.7% at week 1 to 94.1% at week 4. The pecentages of patients with lorazepam who at least minimally improved increased from 40.0% at week 1 to 66.7% at week 4. The pecentages of patients with tofisopam who had not any adverse event increased from 58.8% at week 1 to 87.9% at week 4. The pecentages of patients with lorazepam who had not any adverse event were not changed from 46.7% at week 1 to 46.7% at week 4. Laboratory parameters including vital sign, EKG, hematological, and biochemical values showed no significant changes during the trial in both groups. Conclusion : These data suggest that tofisopam may be effective in reducing anxiety and is a anti-anxiety drug of identical potency with lorazepam. Tolerability of tofisopam was superior to lorazepam. These findings should be confirmed by using double-blind crossover study with a large member of patients.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.45-70
• /
• 2009

This article investigates which types of the strategies announced by the listed firms contribute to enhancing the long-term performance of the companies. Since 2002, Korean Exchange adopted the "faire disclosure policy" which mandates that all publicly traded companies must disclose material information to all investors at the same time. Thanks to the policy, Korean investors can, now, easily access the board's decision on management strategies on the same day the decision is made. If the companies trustfully carry out their announced strategies, we can decide which types of strategies actually enhance or deteriorate the long-term performance, simply by comparing the announced strategies and the firm's performance. The sample companies are confined to 60 firms that became listed in the KOSDAQ market through back-door listing from 2003 to 2005. Using only the newly listed companies, we can avoid the interference on the long-term performance of the strategies pursued before the event date. This often holds true, for many companies radically modify their strategies after the listing. Furthermore, the back-door listing companies serve our purpose better than IPO companies do, because the former tend to have a variety of announcement within a given period of time beginning the listing date. Using these sample companies, this article analyzes the effect on one year buy-and-hold returns and abnormal buy-and-hold returns after the listing of the various types of strategies announced during the same period of time. The results show that those evidences of restructuring such as 'reduction of capital' and 'resignation of incumbent board members', actually contribute to the increase in adjusted long-term stock returns. Those strategies which can be view as evidence of new investment such as 'increase in tangible assets', 'acquisition of other companies', do also helps the stockholders better off. On the contrary, 'increase in bank loans', 'changes of CEO' and 'merger' deteriorate the equity value. The last findings let us to presume that the back-door listing companies appear to use the bank loans for value-reducing activities; the change in CEO is not a sign of restructuring, but rather a sign of failure of the restructuring; another merger carried out after back-door listing itself is also value-reducing activity. This article's findings on reduction of capital, merger and bank loans oppose the results of the former empirical studies which analyze only the short-term effect on stock price. Therefore, more long-term performance studies on public disclosures are in order.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.10
• /
• pp.1366-1376
• /
• 2009

Effect of sulfur (S) on utilization efficiency of fresh cassava foliage and cassava hay in dairy cows was evaluated using thirty-two $1^{st}-2^{nd}$ lactation Holstein-Friesian crossbred dairy cows. The experimental treatment was a 2${\times}$2 factorial arrangement in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) using two roughages (rice straw+fresh cassava foliage (FCF) and rice straw+cassava hay (CH)) and two elemental sulfur (S) levels (0.15 and 0.4% S of dry matter (DM)), respectively. Four dietary treatments (FCF+0.15, FCF+0.4, CH+0.15 and CH+0.4) were offered ad libitum in the form of a total mixed ration (TMR) with concentrate to roughage (chopped rice straw+chopped cassava foliage) ratio at 60:40. Fresh cassava foliage or cassava hay resulted in similar dry mater intake, rumen ecology parameters, total tract digestibility, blood chemistry, milk production and composition. However, HCN intake, blood and milk thiocyanate concentration were significantly higher (p<0.01) in cows fed fresh cassava foliage with no sign of potential toxicity. Dry matter intake, body weight changes, molar percentage of propionate in rumen, neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility and nitrogen (N) retention of cows tended to be increased while DM digestibility (65.6, 72.7, 68.6 and 72.1% of total DM intake for the respective treatments), rumen bacteria population (1.4, 1.7, 1.6 and $1.7{\times}10^{11}$ cell/ml for respective treatments), fungal zoospore population (0.4, 0.6, 0.4 and $0.5{\times}10^{6}$ cell/ml for respective treatments), urinary allantoin (25.3, 28.0, 26.3 and 27.6 g/d for respective treatments), microbial N yield (136.0, 154.6, 142.8 and 151.3 g N/d for respective treatments) and milk protein content (3.4, 3.5, 3.2 and 3.5% for respective treatments) were significantly (p<0.05) higher in cows fed on supplemented sulfur at 0.4% of DM in comparison with 0.15% S-supplemented diets. Based on these results, it is concluded that cassava foliage could be used as a portion of roughage for dairy cows and supplementation of S would be nutritionally beneficial.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.193-199
• /
• 2013

Burkholderia pyrrocinia CAB08106-4 has an anti-bacterial effect on Garlic White Rot caused by Sclereotium cepivorum and Sclereotium sp.. It is an environmentally friendly microbial product that prevents and controls a variety of phytopathogens involving Garlic White Rot caused by Sclereotium cepivorum and Sclereotium sp.. The aim of this study was to assess and to compare the pathogenicity of Burkholderia pyrrocinia CAB08106-4 by single exposure of rats through several routes such as oral, intranasal and intravenous. For the acute toxicity / pathogenicity study, the animals were sacrificed on days 3, 7, 14 and 21, and macroscopically observed their organs to examine the numbers of internally-retained pesticidal microbes. Clinical examinations were performed daily during administration period, and body weight gain was evaluated. In the study, no clinical sign, weight gain and mortality were observed in relation to the administration of test article. The significant changes of internal/external microbes by test article were not detected. The pathological findings in relation to the administration of the test article in the necropsy were not observed. It could be concluded that the microorganism was not toxic or pathogenic in rats via oral, intranasal and intravenous route.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
• /
• v.40 no.6
• /
• pp.47-55
• /
• 2003

In this paper, we propose a new approach to detect peculiar features of license plates using intensity vector and composite color component in order to extract license plates from parking regulation images, which is captured in various locations around the front or the rear of cars at various times and places, and in which complex background is included. We fundamentally use both features that intensity value repeats frequently increasing and decreasing because intensity is obviously different at numerics and background, and that color is uniform in the area of license plates. First, we search each row at regular intervals starting from the bottom of a license-plate image, and we set up a rough region for a certain zone in which tile sign of intensity vector changes frequently enough and color of license plate is detected enough, assuming it as a candidate location of a license plate. And then, we extract an elaborate area of a license plate by projecting vertical edges horizontally and vertically. Here, type of cars, such as the urinate and the public, is easily classified according to the color of extracted plates. We used 200 actual regulation images, which are captured at various times and places, to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. As a result, the proposed method showed extraction rate of 96%, which is 9% higher than the previous method using only intensity vector.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.161-171
• /
• 1990

The study was to examine the effectiveness of the educational program for the parents of autistic children in promoting the development and amelioration of psychopathology. Behavioral pathology and developmental function of autistic children of two parent groups, parents who participated in educational program and parents who did not participate in that program, were compared before and after partent education program. For these purpose, the data were collected from 30 subjects(15 for participant group and 15 for non-participant group) who were diagnosed as Autism according to DSM-III at Child-Psychiatry of Seoul National University Hospital during May 16, 1987 through April 30, 1988. Pre and post tests by Schopler's Psycho-Educational Profile scale were performed for all of the subjects and the data were analyzed by Wilcoxon Rank Sum test, Wilcoxon Sign Rank test and $X^2-test.$ The results obtained were as follows ; 1) The autistic children of participant group were significantly higher than those of non-participant group after education on Imitation, Gross motor and Eye-hand Integration scale of developmental function area (p<0.05) 2) After education, the autistic children of participant group were significantly improved in Affect and Language scale of behavioral pathology area (p<0.05). 3) After education, the autistic children of participant group were significantly improved in developmental function, such as perception, Fine motor, Gross motor, Eye-hand Integration, Cognitive Performance, Cognitive Language (p<0.05). 4) The autistic children of non-participant group were significantly improved in Relating behavior and developmental functions such as Perception, Fine motor and Eye-hand Integration at post test in comparison to pre test (p<0.05). From these results, it might be concluded that the autistic children of participant group were improved much more, and obtained higher score in developmental function area than those of non-participant group. It is suggested that this kind of education program helped and supported the parents to do some more appropriate approach for the development of their children.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.36-41
• /
• 2020

Objectives : Clozapine has been known to increase the possibility of developing cardio/cerebrovascular diseases, and the platelet activation has been deemed to be related to the occurrence of them. In author's previous study, we observed the increase of platelet activity with short-term clozapine administration. This study was conducted, as a follow-up study, to investigate the effect of clozapine on the platelet activity when administered continuously for long-term period of time of 1 year. Methods : The medical records of the patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who were treated with clozapine for 1 year were retrospectively reviewed. The degree of platelet activation was assessed by measuring the mean platelet component. Results : Total of 24 patients were enrolled. 9 of them (37.5%) were male and 15 of them (62.5%) were female. In the Wilcoxon sign-ranks test, no significant change was observed between the mean platelet factor values at the beginning and at the end of one year. Conclusions : No significant changes of mean platelet activity were observed after continued administration of clozapine for 1 year. Considering the author's previous findings that observed a prominent decrease of mean platelet component after short-term clozapine administration, the result of this study suggests the possibility that the activity of the platelet may change depending on the duration of the clozapine administration.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.67-75
• /
• 2010

To investigate the change of vaginal epithelial cell in estrus-induced Shih-tzu bitch, estrus was induced by PMSG (50 IU/kg, for 10 days) and hCG (1,000 IU, on Day 10) in 12 anestrus Shih-tzu bitches. Day-changes of vaginal epithelial cells during the whole period of hormone treatment were investigated in each experimental bitches. The first day of vulvar bleeding and the first day of male acceptant was on $6.72{\pm}1.38$ days ($Mean{\pm}S.D.$), and $10.44{\pm}1.63$ days after the first PMSG treatment. The duration of proestrus and estrus was $4.36{\pm}1.20$ days, and $7.58{\pm}1.43$ days. Characteristic features of vaginal cytology during the estrous cycle were the high proportion of large intermediate cell, superficial cell, anuclear cell and erythrocyte in proestrus, superficial cell and anuclear cell in estrus, and parabasal cell, small and large intermediate cell, and leukocyte in diestrus, respectively. When it was timed from the first day of PMSG administration (Day 0), the cornification index (CI) was the high proportion in proestrus and estrus. The CI peak was maintained above 80% between Day 11~14 (4 days) and CI showed a peak at Day 12. These results indicated that the 12 Shih-tzu bitches showed positive estrus induction by vaginal smear test and observation of clinical estrus sign.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.435-441
• /
• 1998

Alginase$Alginase^{ⓡ}$ (Arginine esterase) is one of the snake venoms which is mainly consisted of arginine esterase and acts as a thrombus -forming inhibitor/thrombus-lysin. These present studies were performed to investigate of the acute and subacute toxicity of the Alginase$Alginase^{ⓡ}$ in rats. In acute toxicity study, rats were single administered intravenously with dosages of 0.001, 0.01. 0.1, 1 and 10U/kg B.W. and examined the number of death, clinical sign, body weight and pathological change for 7days after administration of Alginase$Alginase^{ⓡ}$. At maximum dose level (10U/kg B.W.), Alginase$Alginase^{ⓡ}$ induced symptoms of shock with cyanosis and dyspnea. But these symptoms dissappeared after 30~50 minutes and we could not find any other toxic effect in rats. Therefore, $LD_{50}$ Value of Alginase was over 10U/kg B.W. in rats. In four-week intravenous toxicity study of Alginase$Alginase^{ⓡ}$, rats were administered intravenously seven days per week for 28 days, with dosages of 0, 0.0125, 0.125 and 1.25U/kg B.W./day, respectively. Alginase$Alginase^{ⓡ}$ did not caused any death and showed any clinical signs in rats. No significant Alginase$Alginase^{ⓡ}$ -related changes were found in feed uptake, water consumption, hematology, serum biochemistry, urinalysis, ocular examination, organ weight and histopathological examination. From the results, Alginase$Alginase^{ⓡ}$ seems not to have any toxic effect in rats when it were given daily intravenous injections below the dosage 1.25U/kg B.W./day for four weeks.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.555-561
• /
• 2011

Laparoscopic surgery is a well-established alternative to open surgery across disciplines. However, in veterinary medicine, laparoscopic surgery in dogs was rarely reported because of small abdominal size for multiple ports insertion. The concept of single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) is to perform the entire laparoscopic operation through a single incision rather than conventional multiple small skin incisions. Indirect evidence of potential benefits of SILS, decreases operative morbidity related to reduction in port size, already exists. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of the modified form of SILS using flexible endoscope in Cholecystectomy before clinical adoption. A 2 cm single periumbilical incision was performed, and flexible endoscope was introduced into the abdominal cavity. A laparoscopic grasper was inserted into the abdominal cavity for the traction of gall bladder. Cystic duct and artery were ligated by 5 mm Hem-o-lok$^{(R)}$. Then, gall bladder was dissected and resected from the liver with 5 mm Autonomy Laparo-Angle Maryland dissector and endoscopic needle knife. Resected gall bladder was wrapped by using specimen pouch and was retrieved through abdominal incision from the cavity. All three gall bladders were successfully removed. Hematological changes were not observed during examination periods. No leakage sign was identified at necropsy. The flexible endoscope, as distinct from conventional rigid laparoscope, allows the visualization from various angles and the wide range of motion, result in less crowding.