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Since there are few relics excavated, research on pine oil kilns in Yeongnam Province has been mostly focused on figuring out the historical meaning of them relying on literatures with no precise analysis on the remains. Therefore, it has failed to give clear explanation about the fact that the firing room of pine oil kilns was rebuilt twice with different materials. Based on the awareness of the problem, this author conducted analysis on the relics of pine oil kilns that have been excavated so far. According to the analysis results, at first, the pine oil kiln was similar to the one producing oil made of pine resin collected. Furthermore, this author found the pine oil kiln first devised around 1938 and also two photos showing how the pine oil kiln was working. Along with that, this author suggests the valid possibility of colony Chosun’s traditional masters mobilized to apply their technique and operate the kilns in the background of the pine oil kilns completely equipped to the extent of performing their functions properly after several times of improvements made although they had exhibited many problems before. Next, this author analyzed the attributes related to the standardization of pine oil kilns and learned that building pine oil kilns was led by the colonial government systematically based on thorough planning as part of securing resources they needed. Also, to induce the people to participate in it voluntarily, at first, they encouraged it as a side job for farm families; however, in the end, the colonial government enforced the monopoly system for pine oil to control it. Accordingly, pine oil kilns were built mostly in the foot of a mountain near the village where there were many people residing. In fact, all the colonized people including children got mobilized systematically to collect the byproducts of pines.

This empirical study explored the determinants of exhibition service quality that affect exhibitor satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Four dimensions of exhibition service quality were delineated from the literature. Those exhibition service factors were then included in a structural equation framework to explicate causal relationships between exhibition service quality and exhibitor satisfaction and behavioral intentions. A total of 350 usable responses were collected from exhibitors attending various exhibitions in Hong Kong. The collected data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that three of the four exhibition service quality factors significantly affect exhibitor satisfaction, and exhibitor satisfaction then leads to exhibitors’ behavioral intentions. Detailed findings and implications are discussed.

Metadata registry (MDR) is the international standard, developed by ISO/IEC for exchange and sharing data between databases. Many MDR systems are used in diverse domains such as medical service, bibliography, environment for sharing and integrating data. However, those systems have different physical structures individually because the MDR standard defines only the metamodel for registering and storing metadata. It causes heterogeneity between the system structures and requires additional cost to maintain interoperability. ISO/IEC 13249-8 Metadata Registry Access (MRA) is developing as an international standard to provide a consistent access facility to data stored in different metadata registries. However, MRA does not consider the relationships between the concepts (classes) defined in the MDR specification. It causes that incorrect query results returned from MDR systems. It also requires additional cost of modeling and rewriting queries to reflect each physical model. Therefore, this paper suggests eMRA which considers the relationships between the concepts in MDR. The comparative evaluations are described to show the advantages of eMRA. eMRA has superior performance in query modeling and referential integrity than MRA defined by the relationship between the concept of MDR.

Gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, and gastric cancer are a few of the diverse disease manifestations that have been shown to be associated with infection by Helicobacter pylori . Why some individuals develop more severe forms of disease remains largely unknown. In this study, 225 South Korean strains were genotyped for vacA and then analyzed to determine if particular genotypes varied across disease state, sex, or cagA allele. Of these strains, 206 strains carried an s1/i1/m1 allele, 11 strains carried an s1/i1/m2 allele, and 8 strains carried an s1/i2/m2 allele. By using Fisher's exact test, a statistical association between variations in the cagA and vacA alleles was identified ( P = 0.0007), and by using log linear modeling, this variation was shown to affect the severity of disease outcome ( P = 0.027). Additionally, we present evidence that variation within the middle region of VacA contributes significantly to the distribution of vacA alleles across gender ( P = 0.008) as well as the association with disease outcome ( P = 0.011). In this South Korean population, the majority of H. pylori strains carry the vacA s1/i1/m1 allele and the CagA EPIYA-ABD allele. These facts may contribute to the high incidence of gastric maladies, including gastric cancer.

PURPOSE Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is related to testicular insufficiency, which causes low testosterone levels in serum. Generally, sex hormone levels and bone mineral density (BMD) are lower in patients with KS than normal. We investigated the effects of testosterone replacement on serum testosterone levels and BMD in KS patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS From December 2005 to March 2008, 18 KS patients with a 47, XXY karyotype were treated with initial intramuscular injections of long-acting testosterone undecanoate (Nebido®, 1000 mg/4 mL) at baseline and second injections after six weeks. An additional four injections were administered at intervals of 12 weeks after the second injection. BMD was measured at the lumbar spine (L2-4), the left femoral neck and Ward's triangle, using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Medical histories, physical examinations and prostate specific antigen, hematology and serum chemistry were conducted for each patient. In addition, total testosterone and sex hormone-binding globulin levels were measured. RESULTS Following testosterone replacement, mean serum total testosterone increased significantly from baseline (0.90 vs. 4.51 ng/mL, p

dations: 2 of 3 UA with 3 rbc/hpf. Upper tract imaging consisted of multiphase CT or IVP plus renal ultrasound. All patients underwent cystoscopy. Urologists reported: 1. Hx of gross hematuria in past 6 months; 2. Result of imaging; 3. Cystoscopy findings; 4. Cause of hematuria. UA results, stratified as 0-3, 4-10, 11-25, 26-50, 50 rbc/hpf. Smoking history, and patient demographics were abstracted. Statistical Analysis Multivariable logistic regression models were used to build a predictive risk model. Patient age, sex, degree of hematuria on UA, recent hx of gross hematuria and smoking history were included. The model’s predictive ability was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The resulting risk score was applied to an independent validation cohort and the area under the ROC curve was estimated. RESULTS: The overall CA detection rate was 2.1% in a cohort of 4414. Patients with a recent hx of gross hematuria and age over 50 were at greatest risk of being diagnosed with a urinary tract CA. Smoking hx and male sex were less predictive. Degree of hematuria ( 25rbc/hpf) was least predictive. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.849 and 0.842 for the original and validation cohorts, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that patients under age 50, with no hx of gross hematuria, approximately 1/3 of pts evaluated, may safely avoid unnecessary and potentially hazardous testing for AMH. Microscopic hematuria of any degree should not be the basis to determine diagnostic evaluation.

at interval follow-up visits by the physician. Successful continence was defined as using zero pads at the time of visit. Statistical analyses were performed using the Shapiro-Wilk, t, Mann-Whitney, and 2 tests as well as multivariate regression with SPSS v15.0 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY). RESULTS: Of the 66 men who underwent pre-RALP UDS, 42 (64%) had successful return of continence. The median time to continence was 19 weeks. Baseline characteristics and pathologic stages were similar between the two groups, although mean preoperative IPSS was higher in the continent group (14.1 vs. 8.6, p 0.02, See Table 1). Time to continence was analyzed as a function of baseline characteristics, tumor stage and UDS parameters. The flow at maximum pressure was positively and significantly associated with time to continence (p 0.038, adjusted R2 0.62, See Table 2). CONCLUSIONS: Flow at maximum pressure can be a predictor of time to continence in men undergoing RALP. It is easily measured and can be used to help counsel men regarding recovery of postoperative continence. Larger and prospective studies are needed to further define the role of preoperative UDS in predicting continence outcomes following robotic prostatectomy.

Objective: To investigate the prognostic significance of positive surgical margins (PSM)s among patients who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) for pT2 and pT3a prostate cancer. Patients and methods: We reviewed the records of 658 patients who were revealed to have pT2 and pT3a prostate cancer after undergoing RP without neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment. For our analysis, patients were subgrouped as the following: group 1: 406 (61.7%) with negative surgical margins (NSM)s and no extracapsular extension of tumor (ECE); group 2: 99 (15.0%) with PSMs and no ECE; group 3: 63 (9.6%) with NSMs and ECE; and group 4: 90 (13.7%) with PSMs and ECE. The effects of various variables on biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival were assessed via uni- and multivariate analyses. Results: During median follow-up of 36 months, group 1 had significantly higher BCR-free survival compared with the other 3 groups (P 0.001). However, no significant differences in BCR-free survivals were observed among the group 2, 3, and 4 (all P 0.05). In multivariate analysis, PSM (P 0.009) was observed to be significantly associated with BCR-free survival among groups 1 and 2 combined. Among groups 3 and 4, pathologic Gleason score (P 0.002), but not PSM (P 0.668), was the only significant predictor for BCR-free survival in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: According to our results, PSM is significantly associated with biochemical outcome after RP in pT2 prostate cancer. Meanwhile, patients with pT2 tumor and PSM appear to have comparable biochemical outcome compared with those with stage pT3a tumor

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of sunitinib treatment on blood glucose levels in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. METHODS We reviewed the records of 48 patients who received sunitinib treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma between April 2007 and December 2010 at our institution. Patients' data including diabetic status, diabetes mellitus medication and mean blood glucose levels before, during and after the treatment with sunitinib were assessed. RESULTS In 10 of the 48 (20.8%) patients who were diabetic, the blood glucose level was observed to be significantly decreased after 4 weeks of sunitinib treatment with the mean decrease in blood glucose level being 76.1 ± 29.0 mg/dl (P = 0.002). Subsequently, after a 2-week off-treatment period, the mean blood glucose level rebound and increased (21.9 ± 6.3 mg/dl, P = 0.038) in these 10 patients. With sunitinib treatment, one patient was able to discontinue diabetes mellitus medication completely during a 4-week treatment period, and three other patients had dosages of their oral diabetes mellitus medication reduced. Among 38 non-diabetic patients, no significant changes in blood glucose levels were observed during both the 4-week sunitinib treatment period and the 2-week off-treatment period. No severe hypoglycemic episode was observed among our subjects. CONCLUSIONS Sunitinib treatment in diabetic patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma may result in significantly decreased blood glucose levels. Thus, blood glucose levels should be checked more vigilantly in diabetic patients undergoing sunitinib treatment to adjust diabetes mellitus medications as needed. Further investigation via a larger scaled, prospective study would be needed.

Helicobacter pylori causes diseases ranging from gastritis to peptic ulcer disease to gastric cancer. Geographically, areas with high incidences of H. pylori infection often overlap with areas with high incidences of gastric cancer, which remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Strains of H. pylori that carry the virulence factor cytotoxin-associated gene A ( cagA ) are much more likely to be associated with the development of gastric cancer. Moreover, particular C-terminal polymorphisms in CagA vary by geography and have been suggested to influence disease development. We conducted a large-scale molecular epidemiologic analysis of South Korean strains and herein report a statistical link between the East Asian CagA EPIYA-ABD genotype and the development of gastric cancer. Characterization of a subset of the Korean isolates showed that all strains from cancer patients expressed and delivered phosphorylatable CagA to host cells, whereas the presence of the cagA gene did not strictly correlate to expression and delivery of CagA in all noncancer strains.

Resistance to metronidazole (MTZ) in Helicobacter pylori is associated with mutations in rdxA, encoding an oxygen-insensitive NADPH nitroreductase, and mutations in frxA, encoding a NAD(P)H-flavin oxidoreductase. Despite this association, the strict correlation of MTZ resistance with mutations in rdxA or frxA is still controversial. In this study, rdxA allelic replacement was used to distinguish resistance-associated nucleotide mutations from the natural genetic diversity of H. pylori. Replacement with truncated rdxA resulted in MTZ resistance, whereas replacement with missense-mutated rdxA from resistant clinical isolates failed to yield MTZ resistance. Thus, although truncation of rdxA confers MTZ resistance in G27 H. pylori, MTZ resistance found in other clinical isolates is not due to the identified amino-acid substitutions. Three of our MTZ-resistant clinical isolates expressed functional rdxA and two of these also encoded full-length frxA. Therefore, MTZ resistance can arise in H. pylori possessing functional rdxA, suggesting that other factors are involved in MTZ resistance.