• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.4
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• pp.889-902
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• 2021

Purpose To assess the diagnostic performance of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) for additional MR-detected enhancing lesions and to determine whether or not kinetic pattern results comparable to dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) of the breast can be obtained using the quantitative analysis of CEUS. Materials and Methods In this single-center prospective study, a total of 71 additional MR-detected breast lesions were included. CEUS examination was performed, and lesions were categorized according to the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS). The sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of CEUS were calculated by comparing the BI-RADS category to the final pathology results. The degree of agreement between CEUS and DCE-MRI kinetic patterns was evaluated using weighted kappa. Results On CEUS, 46 lesions were assigned as BI-RADS category 4B, 4C, or 5, while 25 lesions category 3 or 4A. The diagnostic performance of CEUS for enhancing lesions on DCE-MRI was excellent, with 84.9% sensitivity, 94.4% specificity, and 97.8% positive predictive value. A total of 57/71 (80%) lesions had correlating kinetic patterns and showed good agreement (weighted kappa = 0.66) between CEUS and DCE-MRI. Benign lesions showed excellent agreement (weighted kappa = 0.84), and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) showed good agreement (weighted kappa = 0.69). Conclusion The diagnostic performance of CEUS for additional MR-detected breast lesions was excellent. Accurate kinetic pattern assessment, fairly comparable to DCE-MRI, can be obtained for benign and IDC lesions using CEUS.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.315-323
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• 2024

This study aims to confirm the anti-inflammatory activities of acemannan and aloesin, which have been studied for various efficacies at various mixed sample ratios. The mixed samples were mixed at a ratio of 1:1 (AA-1), 1:2 (AA-2), 1:3 (AA-3), 2:1 (AA-4), and 3:1 (AA-5). Seven samples were evaluated for their cytotoxic ability on macrophages, and the results showed that all cell viability was over 90% at a concentration of 100 ㎍/mL. First, due to the NO production inhibitory activity, a better inhibitory effect was achieved when using a mixed sample rather than a single material. Afterward, the activity of inhibiting the production of PGE₂, TNF-α, and IL-6 was confirmed using a mixed sample. It was confirmed that AA-2 had the best inhibitory activity on producing PGE2, TNF-α, and IL-6 rather than AA-1, AA-3, AA-4, and AA-5. For this reason, experiments were conducted using AA-2 to determine the protein expression levels of iNOS and COX-2, which are inflammation-related proteins. It was confirmed that AA-2 inhibited iNOS and COX-2 protein expression by 25.01% and 27.27%, respectively, compared to the LPS-alone treatment group. In conclusion, the mixed sample of acemannan and aloesin is judged to have anti-inflammatory activity and can potentially to be used as a functional material.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.3
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• pp.654-669
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• 2021

Purpose To evaluate the accuracy of MRI in predicting the pathological complete response (pCR) and the residual tumor size of breast cancer after neoadjucant chemotherapy (NAC), and to determine the factors affecting the accuarcy. Materials and Methods Eighty-eight breast cancer patients who underwent surgery after NAC at our center between 2010 and 2017 were included in this study. pCR was defined as the absence of invasive cancer on pathological evaluation. The maximum diameter of the residual tumor on post-NAC MRI was compared with the tumor size of the surgical specimen measured pathologically. Statistical analysis was performed to elucidate the factors affecting pCR and the residual tumor size-discrepancy between the MRI and the pathological measurements. Results The pCR rate was 10%. The diagnostic accuracy of MRI and the area under the curve for predicting pCR were 90.91% and 0.8017, respectively. The residual tumor sizes obtained using MRI and pathological measurements showed a strong correlation (r = 0.9, p < 0.001), especially in patients with a single mass lesion (p = 0.047). The size discrepancy between MRI and the pathological measurements was significantly greater in patients with the luminal type (p = 0.023) and multifocal tumors/non-mass enhancement on pre-NAC MRI (p = 0.047). Conclusion MRI is an accurate tool for evaluating pCR and residual tumor size in breast cancer patients who receive NAC. Tumor subtype and initial MRI features affect the accuracy of MRI.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.287-297
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• 2024

It was confirmed that complex fermentation (CF) was more efficient than single-strain fermentations in inducing changes in the contents of phenolic compounds of Maclura tricuspidate and Pyrus Montana Nakai. A mixture of Maclura tricuspidata, Pyrus montana Nakai, Platycodon grandiflorum and Codonopsis lanceolata were fermented in CF using Aspergillus shirousamii (koji), yeast, and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) for 24 days, and the pH, °Brix, total acidity, anti-oxidant activity, polyphenol content, nitric oxide (NO), and Western blotting of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2), and tumor necrosis factor-𝛼 (TNF-𝛼) of the sample were determined. There was no significant change in pH and total acidity. °Brix significantly decreased from day 6 onwards. HPLC confirmed that the concentrations of chlorogenic acid, 4-hydrobenzoic acid, vanillic acid, and caffeic acid significantly increased from day 18 during the fermentation. Additionally, DPPH, ABTS radical scavenging activity, total phenol, and total flavonoid were confirmed to be increased until 18 days. NO was significantly inhibited from day 6, along with significant inhibition of iNOS, COX-2, and TNF-a. In conclusion, this study confirmed that CF of low-use (or underutilized) wild vegetables enhances phenolic compounds. It effectively suppresses NO, iNOS, COX-2, and TNF-𝛼, markers of inflammation-related pathogenesis. Altogether, our results suggest that CF of the above plants has a potential anti-inflammatory effect.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.82 no.5
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• pp.1258-1273
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• 2021

Purpose The balloon-stent technique (BST) has certain strengths as an assisted technique for the treatment of complex aneurysms. After Atlas release, the BST can be executed without an exchange maneuver of the balloon to the stent-delivery catheter. The purpose of this article is to share our experience with the BST using the Scepter-Atlas combination. Materials and Methods Device inspection led us to a simple method to avoid failure in loading Atlas to the Scepter. From March 2018 to December 2019, 57 unruptured distal internal carotid artery (dICA) aneurysms were treated with coil embolization; among which, 25 aneurysms in 23 patients were treated with BST. Clinical and angiographic data were retrospectively collected and reviewed. Results The technical success rate of the Scepter-Atlas combination increased from 50% to 100% after careful inspection. BST angiographic results were comparable to the stent-assisted coil (SAC) group treated during the immediately post-embolization same period (modified Raymond-Roy classification [MRRC] 1 & 2 84% in BST, 96.3% in SAC) and during short-term follow-up (MRRC 1 & 2 95.8% in BST, 88.4% in SAC). A small number of patients showed periprocedural complications, but none had clinical consequences. Conclusion BST using the Scepter-Atlas combination can provide an effective and safe method for the treatment of dICA aneurysms. Scepters can be used as delivery catheters for Atlas.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.163-169
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• 2024

India is a developing nation and has come with comprehensive way in modernizing its reducing poverty, economy and rising living standards for an outsized fragment of its residents. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education plays an important role in it. STEM is an educational curriculum that emphasis on the subjects of "science, technology, engineering, and mathematics". In traditional education scenario, these subjects are taught independently, but according to the educational philosophy of STEM that teaches these subjects together in project-based lessons. STEM helps the students in his holistic development. Youth unemployment is the biggest concern due to lack of adequate skills. There is a huge skill gap behind jobless engineers and the question arises how we can prepare engineers for a better tomorrow? Now a day's Industry 4.0 is a new fourth industrial revolution which is an intelligent networking of machines and processes for industry through ICT. It is based upon the usage of cyber-physical systems and Internet of Things (IoT). Industrial revolution does not influence only production but also educational system as well. IoT in academics is a new revolution to the Internet technology, which introduced "Smartness" in the entire IT infrastructure. To improve socio-economic status of the India students must equipped with 21st century digital skills and Universities, colleges must provide individual learning kits to their students which can help them in enhancing their productivity and learning outcomes. The major goal of this paper is to present a low cost, effective learning mechanism for STEM implementation using Raspberry Pi 3+ model (Single board computer) and Node Red open source visual programming tool which is developed by IBM for wiring hardware devices together. These tools are broadly used to provide hands on experience on IoT fundamentals during teaching and learning. This paper elaborates the appropriateness and the practicality of these concepts via an example by implementing a user interface (UI) and Dashboard in Node-RED where dashboard palette is used for demonstration with switch, slider, gauge and Raspberry pi palette is used to connect with GPIO pins present on Raspberry pi board. An LED light is connected with a GPIO pin as an output pin. In this experiment, it is shown that the Node-Red dashboard is accessing on Raspberry pi and via Smartphone as well. In the final step results are shown in an elaborate manner. Conversely, inadequate Programming skills in students are the biggest challenge because without good programming skills there would be no pioneers in engineering, robotics and other areas. Coding plays an important role to increase the level of knowledge on a wide scale and to encourage the interest of students in coding. Today Python language which is Open source and most demanding languages in the industry in order to know data science and algorithms, understanding computer science would not be possible without science, technology, engineering and math. In this paper a small experiment is also done with an LED light via writing source code in python. These tiny experiments are really helpful to encourage the students and give play way to learn these advance technologies. The cost estimation is presented in tabular form for per learning kit provided to the students for Hands on experiments. Some Popular In addition, some Open source tools for experimenting with IoT Technology are described. Students can enrich their knowledge by doing lots of experiments with these freely available software's and this low cost hardware in labs or learning kits provided to them.

• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.23-36
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• 2018

This research has been conducted from June 1, 2017 to August 25, 2017 for the dental hygienists working in Busan and Gyeongnam area, to provide necessary basic data for the purpose of revision of the relating laws from the analysis of their understanding and perspective on such laws through 262 subjects' questionnaire. Its analysis of their perspectives are as follows. 1. The common characteristics of the subjects are that 40.1% of them are under 25, and their working period was under three years with the 38.9%, and as for their marital status, 70.2% were single, the final education of 80.2% were associated degrees. Their working areas are centered in Gyeongsangnam-do province with 91.2%, the workplace type is for the dental clinic with 80.2%. 2. The comparison of the view point of the medical(technician) law according to the characteristics of the research subjects differed only whether or not the completion of the education, and as a result of the comparison according to the characteristics of those subjects understanding the details of the medical(technician) law, there was a significant difference saying "the current law has clear job description" depending on the working area or "the job duty is definite" depending on the job experience and job details. As for those saying "the job duty is definite", there was also significant difference depending upon marital status, final education and work details. There was no significant difference in all characteristics from findings of the necessity of legal system according to the subjects not understanding the medical(technician) law. 3. As a result of comparing the necessity of the medical(technician) law according to the characteristics of the research subjects, it was found that all the subjects accepted the necessity of the medical law revision including the dental hygienist in the medical person. The "necessity of the professional dental hygienist system" showed a significant difference depending upon the final education and medical institution type. Among the triggering factors in its amendment, there showed significant difference in the "cooperation of other organizations" and "solution of medical law problems" only in the final education. 4. As a result of comparison of the needs of the medical(technician) law revision according to the characteristics of the research subjects, it was found that the significant traits related to the age and job details showed "Legal responsibility would be increased" when the medical law is revised, in case that "it will help broaden the job extension", there showed a significant difference in career, final education, and working institution, and job details. "Legal protection is possible" showed significant difference except the age group and working area, and "it help the system settlement" showed in the final education. There was a significant difference in career, final education, and job details that "I can regulate the education and field practice", and the same in "my status will be improved" depending upon the final education, work area, and job details. Accordingly, in this research, for the establishment of more professional and comprehensive dental health service as suggested from the demand and necessity toward the medical(technician) Law by the dental hygienists.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.86-93
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• 2024

Since replication of plasmids must be strictly controlled, plasmids that generally perform rolling circle replication generally maintain a constant copy number by strictly controlling the replication initiator Rep at the transcriptional and translational levels. Plasmid pJB01 contains three orfs (copA, repB, repC or repABC) consisting of a single operon. From analysis of amino acid sequence, pJB01 CopA was homologous to the Cops, as a copy number control protein, of other plasmids. When compared with a CopG of pMV158, CopA seems to form the RHH (ribbon-helix-helix) known as a motif of generalized repressor of plasmids. The result of gel mobility shift assay (EMSA) revealed that the purified fusion CopA protein binds to the operator region of the repABC operon. To examine the functional role of CopA on transcriptional level, 3 point mutants were constructed in coding frame of copA such as CopA R16M, K26R and E50V. The repABC mRNA levels of CopA R16M, K26R and E50V mutants increased 1.84, 1.78 and 2.86 folds more than that of CopA wt, respectively. Furthermore, copy numbers owing to mutations in three copA genes also increased 1.86, 1.68 and 2.89 folds more than that of copA wt, respectively. These results suggest that CopA is the transcriptional repressor, and lowers the copy number of pJB01 by reducing repABC mRNA and then RepB, as a replication initiator.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.85 no.3
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• pp.581-595
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• 2024

Purpose The present study aimed to investigate the frequency and extent of compensatory common bile duct (CBD) dilatation after cholecystectomy, assess the time between cholecystectomy and CBD dilatation, and identify potentially useful CT findings suggestive of obstructive CBD dilatation. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 121 patients without biliary obstruction who underwent multiple CT scans before and after cholecystectomy at a single center between 2009 and 2011. The maximum short-axis diameters of the CBD and intrahepatic duct (IHD) were measured on each CT scan. In addition, the clinical and CT findings of 11 patients who were initially excluded from the study because of CBD stones or periampullary tumors were examined to identify distinguishing features between obstructive and non-obstructive CBD dilatation after cholecystectomy. Results The mean (standard deviation) short-axis maximum CBD diameter of 121 patients was 5.6 (± 1.9) mm in the axial plane before cholecystectomy but increased to 7.9 (± 2.6) mm after cholecystectomy (p < 0.001). Of the 106 patients with a pre-cholecystectomy axial CBD diameter of < 8 mm, 39 (36.8%) showed CBD dilatation of ≥ 8 mm after cholecystectomy. Six of the 17 patients with long-term (> 2 years) serial follow-up CT scans (35.3%) eventually showed a significant (> 1.5-fold) increase in the axial CBD diameter, all within two years after cholecystectomy. Of the 121 patients without obstruction or related symptoms, only one patient (0.1%) showed IHD dilatation > 3 mm after cholecystectomy. In contrast, all 11 patients with CBD obstruction had abdominal pain and abnormal laboratory indices, and 81.8% (9/11) had significant dilatation of the IHD and CBD. Conclusion Compensatory non-obstructive CBD dilatation commonly occurs after cholecystectomy to a similar extent as obstructive dilatation. However, the presence of relevant symptoms, significant IHD dilatation, or further CBD dilatation 2-3 years after cholecystectomy should raise suspicion of CBD obstruction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.84 no.1
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• pp.170-184
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• 2023

Purpose To assess the magnitude of differences between attenuation values of the true non-contrast image (TNC) and virtual non-contrast image (VNC) derived from twin-beam dual-energy CT (tbDECT) and dual-source DECT (dsDECT). Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 62 patients who underwent liver dynamic DECT with tbDECT (n = 32) or dsDECT (n = 30). Arterial VNC (AVNC), portal VNC (PVNC), and delayed VNC (DVNC) were reconstructed using multiphasic DECT. Attenuation values of multiple intra-abdominal organs (n = 11) on TNCs were subsequently compared to those on multiphasic VNCs. Further, we investigated the percentage of cases with an absolute difference between TNC and VNC of ≤ 10 Hounsfield units (HU). Results For the mean attenuation values of TNC and VNC, 33 items for each DECT were compared according to the multiphasic VNCs and organs. More than half of the comparison items for each DECT showed significant differences (tbDECT 17/33; dsDECT 19/33; Bonferroni correction p < 0.0167). The percentage of cases with an absolute difference ≤ 10 HU was 56.7%, 69.2%, and 78.6% in AVNC, PVNC, and DVNC in tbDECT, respectively, and 70.5%, 78%, and 78% in dsDECT, respectively. Conclusion VNCs derived from the two DECTs were insufficient to replace TNCs because of the considerable difference in attenuation values.