• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.49 no.6
• /
• pp.691-702
• /
• 2000

Background : Acute lung injury (ALI) is a commonly encountered respiratory disease and its prognosis is poor when the treatment is not provided promptly and properly. However no specific pharmacologic treatment is currently available for ALI, although recently several supportive drugs have been under scrutiny. We studied anti-inflammatory effects of pentoxifylline (PF), a methylated xanthine, and ONO-5046, a synthetic neutrophil elastase inhibitor on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI in vitro. Methods : To establish an in vitro model of LPS-induced ALI, primary rat alveolar macrophages and peripheral neutrophils in various ratios (1:0, 5:1, 1:1, 1:5, 0:1) were co-cultured with transformed rat alveolar epithelial cells (L2 cell line) or vascular endothelial cells (IP2-E4 cell line) under LPS stimulation. Each experiment was divided into five groups-control, LPS, LPS+PF, LPS+ONO, and LPS+PF+ONO. We compared LPS-induced superoxide anion productions from primary rat alveolar macrophages and peripheral neutrophils in various ratios, and the resultant cytotoxicity on L2 cells or IP2-E4 cells between groups. In addition we also compared the productions of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-$\alpha$ interleukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$, monocyte chemotactic protein(MCP)-1, IL-6, and IL-10 as well as mRNA expressions of TNF-$\alpha$ inducible nitric oxide synthetase(iNOS), and MCP-1 from LPS-stimulated primary rat alveolar macrophages between groups. Results : (1) PF and ONO-5046 in each or both showed a trend to suppress LPS-induced superoxide anion productions from primary rat alveolar macrophages and peripheral neutrophils regardless of their ratio, except for the LPS+PF+ONO group with the 1:5 ratio, although statistical significance was limited to a few selected experimental conditions. (2) PF and ONO-5046 in each or both showed a trend to prevent IP2-E4 cells from LPS-induced cytotoxicity by primary rat alveolar macrophages and peripheral neutrophils regardless their ratio, although statistical significance was limited to a few selected experimental conditions. the effects of PF and/or ONO-5046 on LPS-induced L2 cell cytotoxicity varied according to experimental conditions. (3) PF showed a trend to inhibit LPS-induced productions of INF-$\alpha$ MCP-1, and IL-10 from primary rat alveolar macrophages. ONO-5046 alone didnot affect the LPS-induced productions of proinflammatory cytokines from primary rat alveolar macrophages but the combination of PF and ONO-5046 showed a trend to suppress LPS-induced productions of INF-$\alpha$ and IL-10 PF and ONO-5046 in each or both showed a trend to increase LPS-induced IL-$\beta$ and IL-6 productions from primary rat alveolar macrophages. (4) PF and ONO-5046 in each or both showed a trend to attenuate LPS-induced mRNA expressions of TNF-$\alpha$ and MCP-1 from primary rat alveolar macrophages but at the same time showed a trend increase iNOS mRNA expression. Conclusion : These results suggest that PF and ONO-5046 may play a role in attenuating inflammation in LPS-induced ALI and that further study is needed to use these drugs as a new supportive therapeutic strategy for ALI.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.177-198
• /
• 2018

Recently, as economic property it has become necessary to acquire and utilize the framework for water resource measurement and performance management as the property of water resources changes to hold "public property". To date, the evaluation of water technology has been carried out by feasibility study analysis or technology assessment based on net present value (NPV) or benefit-to-cost (B/C) effect, however it is not yet systemized in terms of valuation models to objectively assess an economic value of technology-based business to receive diffusion and feedback of research outcomes. Therefore, K-water (known as a government-supported public company in Korea) company feels the necessity to establish a technology valuation framework suitable for technical characteristics of water resources fields in charge and verify an exemplified case applied to the technology. The K-water evaluation technology applied to this study, as a public interest goods, can be used as a tool to measure the value and achievement contributed to society and to manage them. Therefore, by calculating the value in which the subject technology contributed to the entire society as a public resource, we make use of it as a basis information for the advertising medium of performance on the influence effect of the benefits or the necessity of cost input, and then secure the legitimacy for large-scale R&D cost input in terms of the characteristics of public technology. Hence, K-water company, one of the public corporation in Korea which deals with public goods of 'water resources', will be able to establish a commercialization strategy for business operation and prepare for a basis for the performance calculation of input R&D cost. In this study, K-water has developed a web-based technology valuation model for public interest type water resources based on the technology evaluation system that is suitable for the characteristics of a technology in water resources fields. In particular, by utilizing the evaluation methodology of the Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan to match the expense items to the expense accounts based on the related benefit items, we proposed the so-called 'K-water's proprietary model' which involves the 'cost-benefit' approach and the FCF (Free Cash Flow), and ultimately led to build a pipeline on the K-water research performance management system and then verify the practical case of a technology related to "desalination". We analyze the embedded design logic and evaluation process of web-based valuation system that reflects characteristics of water resources technology, reference information and database(D/B)-associated logic for each model to calculate public interest-based and profit-based technology values in technology integrated management system. We review the hybrid evaluation module that reflects the quantitative index of the qualitative evaluation indices reflecting the unique characteristics of water resources and the visualized user-interface (UI) of the actual web-based evaluation, which both are appended for calculating the business value based on financial data to the existing web-based technology valuation systems in other fields. K-water's technology valuation model is evaluated by distinguishing between public-interest type and profitable-type water technology. First, evaluation modules in profit-type technology valuation model are designed based on 'profitability of technology'. For example, the technology inventory K-water holds has a number of profit-oriented technologies such as water treatment membranes. On the other hand, the public interest-type technology valuation is designed to evaluate the public-interest oriented technology such as the dam, which reflects the characteristics of public benefits and costs. In order to examine the appropriateness of the cost-benefit based public utility valuation model (i.e. K-water specific technology valuation model) presented in this study, we applied to practical cases from calculation of benefit-to-cost analysis on water resource technology with 20 years of lifetime. In future we will additionally conduct verifying the K-water public utility-based valuation model by each business model which reflects various business environmental characteristics.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.37 no.10
• /
• pp.845-855
• /
• 2004

Background: No general consensus has been available regarding the necessity of postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) and its optimal techniques in the patients with chest wall invasion (pT3cw) and node negative (N0) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We did retrospective analyses on the pT3cwN0 NSCLC patients who received PORT because of presumed inadequate resection margin on surgical findings. And we compared them with the pT3cwN0 NSCLC patients who did not received PORT during the same period. Material and Method: From Aug. of 1994 till June of 2002, 22 pT3cwN0 NSCLC patients received PORT-PORT (＋) group- and 16 pT3cwN0 NSCLC patients had no PORT-PORT (-) group. The radiation target volume for PORT (＋) group was confined to the tumor bed plus the immediate adjacent tissue only, and no regional lymphatics were included. The prognostic factors for all patients were analyzed and survival rates, failure patterns were compared with two groups. Result: Age, tumor size, depth of chest wall invasion, postoperative mobidities were greater in PORT (-) group than PORT (＋) group. In PORT (-) group, four patients who were consulted for PORT did not receive the PORT because of self refusal (3 patients) and delay in the wound repair (1 patient). For all patients, overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), loco-regional recurrence-free survival (LRFS), and distant metastases-free survival (DMFS) rates at 5 years were 35.3%, 30.3%, 80.9%, 36.3%. In univariate and multivariate analysis, only PORT significantly affect the survival. The 5 year as rates were 43.3% in the PORT (＋) group and 25.0% in PORT (-) group (p=0.03). DFS, LRFS, DMFS rates were 36.9%, 84.9%, 43.1 % in PORT (＋) group and 18.8%, 79.4%, 21.9% in PORT(-) group respectively. Three patients in PORT (-) group died of intercurrent disease without the evidence of recurrence. Few suffered from acute and late radiation side effects, all of which were RTOG grade 2 or lower. Conclusion: The strategy of adding PORT to surgery to improve the probability not only of local control but also of survival could be justified, considering that local control was the most important component in the successful treatment of pT3cw NSCLC patients, especially when the resection margin was not adequate. Authors were successful in the marked reduction of the incidence as well as the severity of the acute and late side effects of PORT, without taking too high risk of the regional failures by eliminating the regional lymphatics from the radiation target volume.