This study was attempted to know that the interactions of various fungi, and methionine and MgSO4 introduced as the substrate of culture media for fungi were affected to produce aflatoxins by Asp. flavus. 5 different fungi were isolated from the fermented soybean mash and were cultured in Chemically Defined medium (C.D. media) and soybean mash at 25 degrees for 10 days. (1) It was confirmed that Asp. flavus produced aflatoxins in the C.D. medium and soybean mash, but that Asp. niger, Asp. oryzae, Asp. awamori and Asp. terreus did not produced them respectively. (2) Asp. flavus cultured with Asp. niger did not produce aflatoxins in C.D. medium, but produced in soybean mash, in other hand, Asp. flavus with other fungi except Asp. niger produced aflatoxins in C.D. medium and soybean mash. (3) The growth of fungi were more prosperous in the separate culture than in the mixed culture. (4) In the C.D. medium added 20% of cultured medium of Asp. niger, Asp. flavus did not produce aflatoxins but other cultured medium did not prohibit the production of aflatoxins by Asp. flavus. (5) On the contrary, MgSO4 increasing the productivity of aflatoxins by Asp. flavus in the C.D. medium methionine known as one of precurser of aflatoxins did not affected the increasing productivity with significance.
Aflatoxins* ; Culture Media ; Efficiency* ; Fungi* ; Hand ; Methionine ; Niger ; Oryza ; Soybeans ; Viperidae*

This report is based on analysis of admissions to the department of pediatric at the Wonju Christian Hospital during the 3 3/4-year period from January 1989 to September 1993 with an Isolated ostium secundum ASD. Several methods of assessment of ASD size, namely, echographic, pulmonary-to-systemic flow ratio(Qp:Qs), and angiographic measures, were undertaken in a group of 37 patients, who were being evaluated for transcatheter closure of ASD; the results were compared with the operation diameter. The result of study was as follows : 1) The (Qp:Qs) ratio have no significant(p>0.01) correlation with the operation diameter(r= 0.342) 2) The angiographic size have a significant(p<0.01) correlation with the operation diameter (r=0.842) 3) The echo diameter has the best correlation with the operation diameter(r=0.935; p<0.01) The operation diameter can be estimated by the equation: 1.05 x echo diameter in millimeters+0.93mm. It is concluded that operation diameter of ASD can be estimated accurately by two-dimensional subcostal echo measurements, which in turn could be used for selection of device size for occlusion of the ASD.
Angiocardiography ; Echocardiography* ; Gangwon-do ; Humans

PURPOSE: Malnutrition is a major concern in patients with gynecologic cancer receiving chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of malnutrition in patients with gynecologic cancer undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: A prospective, observational study was conducted on a total of 99 subjects who were treated at a tertiary hospital in Korea. Data regarding demographic, clinical, nutritional, and psychological characteristics at baseline and survival were obtained. RESULTS: Performance status, nutritional status, depression, and annual income were significantly different between survivors and non-survivors. Multivariate Cox modeling after adjusting for other factors showed that a malnourished status in patients with gynecologic cancer undergoing chemotherapy was a significant and independent negative influencing factor for survival. CONCLUSION: These findings provide evidence that adequate nutritional assessment and intervention may assist in improving survival in patients with gynecologic cancer undergoing chemotherapy.
Depression ; Drug Therapy* ; Female ; Genital Neoplasms, Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Malnutrition* ; Nutrition Assessment ; Nutritional Status ; Observational Study ; Prospective Studies ; Survivors ; Tertiary Care Centers

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Eating-out among Korean people has become an important part of modern lifestyle due to tremendous growth of the food service industry and various social and economic changes. This study examined trends in meal patterns and meal sources while eating-out among Korean adults aged 19 years and older. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Data were from the 1998-2012 KNHNES (Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) by the 24-hour dietary recall method. This study included 55,718 adults aged 19 years and older. For analysis of eating-out frequency, data were categorized by source of meals and serving place. RESULTS: Average frequency of meals consumed away from home increased from 1998 to 2012, although it remained lower than that of meals at home. In addition, male, unmarried, employed, higher educated, and high income individuals more frequently consumed meals away from home. Moreover, sodium intake while eating-out significantly increased from 2,370 mg in 1998 to 2,935 mg in 2012. Lastly, percentage contributions of daily total protein intake, fat intake, and sodium intake from eating-out increased to more than half (53-55%) in 2012 compared with 47-48% in 1998. CONCLUSIONS: As eating-out has grown in popularity, greater recognition of public health and nutritional education aimed at promoting healthy food choices is needed. In addition to developing consumer education for overall healthier eating patterns, individuals who are younger, unmarried, higher educated, and males are especially at risk and require attention.
Adult* ; Eating ; Education ; Food Services ; Humans ; Korea ; Life Style ; Male ; Meals ; Nutrition Surveys* ; Public Health ; Single Person ; Sodium

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the dietary quality of food consumed away from home among Korean children and adolescents. METHODS: Data were obtained from the 2010~2012 KNHANES (Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) and included 3,583 subjects aged 7 to 18 years old. The frequency of food consumed away from home was dichotomized into more than once or less than once per day. RESULTS: Thirty percent of subjects were shown to consume food away from home more than once per day, and older children from higher income households showed a higher frequency of food consumed away from home compared to other children. The percentage of children and adolescents cited as regularly skipping breakfast was 19%. Individuals who ate out more than once per day showed higher consumption of energy and sodium than those who ate out less than once per day. CONCLUSION: Excessive intakes of energy and sodium are associated with obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity-related diseases. Thus, there is a need for nutritional intervention and educational efforts to improve child nutrition and prevent obesity.
Adolescent* ; Breakfast ; Child* ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Korea* ; Nutrition Surveys* ; Obesity ; Sodium

BACKGROUND: Anemia is a most common complication of chronic renal failure and erythropoietin has proven to be a effective treatment for anemia in dialysis patient. However, in patients with pre-dialysis chronic renal failure, Use of erythropoietin is usually limited because of its high cost and frequent administration. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of low dose erythropoietin treatment in patient with pre-dialysis chronic renal failure. METHODS: We administered erythropoietin 2000U weekly to 25 patients with pre-dialysis chronic renal failure untill hemoglobin and hematocrit reached to 11g/dl, 33% respectively. After then we administered erythropoietin 1000U weekly as a maintenance dose. We measured the level of hemoglobin, hematocrit, reticulocyte count, serum creatinine, BUN, serum iron, ferritin, total iron binding capacity every two weeks for 12 months. RESULTS: 1) In 25 patients treated for 16 weeks, hemoglobin and hematocrit level increased from 8.2g/dl,24.2% to 8.8g/dl,28.2%(p< 0.05) respectively. After 28 weeks treatment, 23 patients(92%) reached target hemoglobin and hematocrit value(11g/dl,33%). 2) Serum iron level increased from 180.2ug/dl to 165.1ug/dl(p< 0.05) after 16 weeks treatment. But there were no significant changes in serum ferritin and total iron binding capacitiy. 3) There was no significant change in reciprocal serum creatinine value before and after erythropoietin treatment. 5) There was no significant side effect except mild exacerabation of hypertension(2 cases) during erythropoietin treatment. CONCLUSION: This result show that relatively low dose erythropoietin treatment in patient with pre-dialysis chronic renal failure can be used as a effective treatment for anemia despite of slow and gradual response.
Anemia ; Creatinine ; Dialysis ; Erythropoietin* ; Ferritins ; Hematocrit ; Humans* ; Iron ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Reticulocyte Count

The human chromosome analysis is widely used to diagnose genetic disease and various congenital anomalies. Many researches on automated chromosome karyotype analysis has been carried out, some of which produced commercial systems. However, there still remains much room for improving the accuracy of chromosome classification. In this paper, We propose an optimal pattern classifier by neural network to improve the accuracy of chromosome classification. The proposed pattern classifier was built up of multi-step multi-layer neural network(MMANN). We reconstructed chromosome image to improve the chromosome classification accuracy and extracted three morphological features parameters such as centromeric index(C.1.), relative length ratio(R.L.), and relative area ratio(R.A.). This Parameters employed as input in neural network by preprocessing twenty human chromosome images. The experiment results show that the chromosome classification error is reduced much more than that of the other classification methods.
Chromosomes, Human ; Classification* ; Humans ; Karyotype*

Short umbilical cord syndrome, also known as the limb-body wall malformation complex and the body stalk anomaly, is a poorly defined sporadic group of congenital anomaly charaterized by a complex set of disruptive abnormalities having in common the failured closure of the ventral body wall. This disorder is charaterized by a short or absent umbilical cord and disruption of the lateral body wall, spine, limbs, face, and cranium, isolated or in combination. Recently, we present a case of short umbilical cord syndrome which found in a term baby, so we report a case of short umbilical cord syndrome with brief review of literature.
Extremities ; Skull ; Spine ; Umbilical Cord*

Exploring the risk factors of adolescent suicide is important for effective suicide prevention. This study explored the clustering of adolescent suicides based on six risk factors: mental disorder, broken family, depression, anxiety, previous suicide attempts, and deviant behaviors. Using 173 student suicide reports obtained from the Ministry of Education, we evaluated the associations between suicide and variables related to mental disorders; dysfunctional family life; depression and anxiety; previous suicide attempts; deviant behaviors such as drinking and smoking; and school life characteristics, including attendance and discipline, problems within the past year, and incidents prior to suicide. In addition, reports of warning signs just before suicide were included in the analysis. The two-stage cluster analysis classified the students into three clusters: the silent type (cluster 1; 48.55%), in which no risk factors were observed; environmental-risk type (cluster 2: 24.28%), which featured a high frequency of broken households, deviant behaviors such as smoking/drinking and running away from home; and depressive type (cluster 3: 27.17%), which featured a high frequency of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts. Identifying the sub-types of adolescent suicide may help to inform tailored suicide prevention and intervention strategies in school.

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of diabetes mellitus and fibroblast growth factor(FGF) on healing process of nerve defect in rat. Sixty-three adult female Wistar rats weighing between 200 and 250g were divided into a control group(32) and a diabetic group(31). To make diabetic rats, Streptozotocin(50mg/kg) was injected into tail vein after dissolution in saline solution. Each group was further divided into two subgroups respectively, FGF and non-FGF, according to the filling material of the silicone tube. A 5mm segmental defect was made at right sciatic nerve. Both proximal and distal nerve ends were connected with 9mm long silicone tube with internal diameter of 1.57mm. The defect was filled with 10ul FGF(recombinant bovine basic-fibroblast growth factor: final concentration 400ng/ml)-collagen solution(FGF group) or 10ul collagen(Vitrogen 100: final concentration 2.4mg/ml) solution(non-FGF group). After 2 and 4 weeks, electromyographic studies including the latency and the amplitude of action potentials in soleus muscle of the operated limb were checked. After the sacrifice, the regenerated nerves were examined histologically after toluidine blue staining. Cross-sectional area, the number of myelinated axons, non-neuronal cells and vessels were recorded at mid-chamber cross section. Statistical analysis was carried out with the results. From these results, it would be suggested that diabetes mellitus retarded the healing process of sciatic nerve defect in rat, however FGF prompted and accelerated the healing process both in control and diabetic groups so as to overcome the adverse effect of diabetes mellitus.
Action Potentials ; Adult ; Animals ; Axons ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Extremities ; Female ; Fibroblast Growth Factors ; Fibroblasts ; Humans ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Myelin Sheath ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Sciatic Nerve ; Silicon ; Silicones ; Sodium Chloride ; Tail ; Tolonium Chloride ; Veins