• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.171-178
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• 2007

Purpose : We investigated clinical characteristics of real-time PCR proven EBV viremia patients who were not serologically diagnosed but clinically suspected, and compared it to serologically proven EBV infected patients. Methods : The study population consisted of 45 patients, who were suspected acute EBV infection at Wonju Christian Hospital Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine from Jan. 2004 to Dec. 2006. real-time PCR of cell free serum was performed to prove EBV viremia. Then we chose $102.5copies/{\mu}g$ DNA as a suitable cutoff level for EBV associated diseases. Results : There are 4 patients diagnosed as EBV infection by serologically and 15 patients diagnosed as EBV viremia by real-time PCR quantitative measurement. The most common presenting symptoms and signs of EBV viremia was fever in 11 cases (73%). Atypical lymphocytosis was found in 4 cases (27%). Increased AST, ALT levels were observed in 13 cases (87%), 12 cases (80%), respectively. We could diagnose 5 cases of EBV viremia younger than one year of age. They revealed clinical symptoms which could be found in EBV infection. The serologically diagnosed patients had hepatomegaly and splenomegaly in 3 cases (75%). All serologically confirmed patients have leukocytosis above $20,000/mm^3$, among them 2 cases (50%) had higher percentage (>15%) of atypical lymphocytes. The AST/ALT level above 50 IU/L were demonstrated in all cases. Conclusion : Serologically unproven real-time PCR EBV viremia patients revealed similar clinical findings with that of serologically proven EBV infected patients. So, it is meaningful to perform EBV real-time PCR for the diagnosis of EBV infection especially for the cases younger than 1 year of age.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2006

In Korea, a resident registration card has various personal information such as a present address, a resident registration number, a face picture and a fingerprint. A plastic-type resident card currently used is easy to forge or alter and tricks of forgery grow to be high-degree as time goes on. So, whether a resident card is forged or not is difficult to judge by only an examination with the naked eye. This paper proposed an automatic recognition method of a resident card which recognizes a resident registration number by using a refined ART2-based RBF network newly proposed and authenticates a face picture by a template image matching method. The proposed method, first, extracts areas including a resident registration number and the date of issue from a resident card image by applying Sobel masking, median filtering and horizontal smearing operations to the image in turn. To improve the extraction of individual codes from extracted areas, the original image is binarized by using a high-frequency passing filter and CDM masking is applied to the binaried image fur making image information of individual codes better. Lastly, individual codes, which are targets of recognition, are extracted by applying 4-directional contour tracking algorithm to extracted areas in the binarized image. And this paper proposed a refined ART2-based RBF network to recognize individual codes, which applies ART2 as the loaming structure of the middle layer and dynamicaly adjusts a teaming rate in the teaming of the middle and the output layers by using a fuzzy control method to improve the performance of teaming. Also, for the precise judgement of forgey of a resident card, the proposed method supports a face authentication by using a face template database and a template image matching method. For performance evaluation of the proposed method, this paper maked metamorphoses of an original image of resident card such as a forgey of face picture, an addition of noise, variations of contrast variations of intensity and image blurring, and applied these images with original images to experiments. The results of experiment showed that the proposed method is excellent in the recognition of individual codes and the face authentication fur the automatic recognition of a resident card.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2011

Purpose : Acinetobacter baumannii is an aerobic, gram negative coccobacillus. Due to its pathogenicity and ability to accumulate diverse mechanisms of resistance, the importance of this organism is increasing. Many reports have targeted adults, and studies of pediatric patients are limited. This study aims to investigate the current status of A. baumannii infection in children. Methods : From January 2001 to December 2008, 505 patients hospitalized with A. baumannii infection were enrolled. Admission records for underlying disease, duration of hospitalization, previous antibiotic use, location of admission, presence of ventilator care, and resistance to antibiotics were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Results : Hemato-oncological disease and neurological disease were 30.6% and 24.3% of all cases; therefore, these were the most common underlying diseases of patients with A. baumannii infection. Prevalence of A. baumannii infection was 78.1% in patients with previous antibiotic use, which was higher than that of the group not using previous antibiotic. And prevalence of multi-drug resistant and pan-drug resistant A. baumannii infection was 76.4% and 38.3% in patients with ICU care, 76.8% and 38.9% with ventilator care, and these were higher than the others. Rate of resistance to all groups of antibiotics showed a gradual increase to over 50% in 2008. Multi-drug resistant A. baumannii was 63.5% and pan-drug resistant A. baumannii was 48.2% of all cases. Conclusion : Prevalence of A. baumannii infection and resistance to antibacterial agents of A. baumannii is increasing. Adequate use of antibiotics and infection control should be emphasized in pediatric patients.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.248-256
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• 2008

To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of 68 Listeria monocytogenes isolates, including 11 reference strains and 57 isolates from imported US beef, domestic meats(beef, pork, chicken meat), raw milk, and milk plants. L. monocytogenes was to evaluate the production of virulence proteins, such as hemolysin(LLO) and lecithinase(LCP), the adsorption of Congo red(CRA), and to detect virulence genes using the polymerase chain reaction(PCR). In the study of virulence protein production, 68(100%), 62(91.2%), and 54(79.4%) of the 68 L. monocytogenes strains were positive for LLO production, the LCP test, and the CRA test, respectively, while strains of other species, such as L. innocua, L. gray, L. murrayi, and L. welshimeri, were not. There were no significant differences between L. monocytogenes serotypes and the ability to produce LLO or LCP. L. monocytogenesstrains had very high hemolytic titers(2 to 16 fold), while the other Listeria species, other than L. ivanovii and L. seeligeri, did not. The hemolysin activities of L. monocytogenes, L. ivanovii, and L. seeligeri usually exceeded 1.0 HU/mg, while those of other Listeria spp. were less than 0.04 HU/mg. In the PCR assay, all of the L. monocytogenes strains contained the hlyA, plcA, plcB, inlA, and inlB virulence genes and produced a product of the expected size. In the PCR of the actA gene, the expected 385-bp product was seen in 39(57.4%) L. monocytogenesstrains, while an unexpected 268-bp product was seen in 29(42.6%) strains. Most L. monocytogenes strains isolated from Hanwoo beef produced the 385-bp actA gene product, while strains of imported US beef usually produced the 268-bp actA gene product. By contrast, no virulence gene products were amplified in the other Listeria spp.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 2017

The study was conducted for safety evaluation of 208 kinds of residue pesticides on 200 dried agricultural products, which are distributed in Gwangju. The method of monitoring was the second of Multi Class Pesticide Multi-residue Methods in Korean Food Code, and GC-ECD, GC-NPD, GC-MSD, and LC-MS/MS were used as evaluation equipment to analyze. The residue level in pesticides were 15.5% (31 of 200 samples) and 4 samples exceeded MRLs. 4.5 mg/kg of pyraclostrobin (MRL; 3.0 mg/kg) was detected in red pepper, 1.49 mg/kg of chlorpyrifos (MRL; 0.13 mg/kg) in daikon leaves, 38.26 mg/kg of pyridalyl (MRL; 0.25 mg/kg) in pepper leaves, 0.98 mg/kg of chlorpyrifos (MRL; 0.05 mg/kg), respectively. Pesticides were found on the 15 samples among the 21 samples of red pepper which is a fruit vegetable, and this resulted in high detection rate of 71%. In addition, pesticides were detected on chwinamul, shitake, siler divaricata, daikon leaves and others within MRLs. The frequent detected kinds of pesticides were insecticide (47.6%), fungicide (33.3%), acaricide (14.3%), nematicide (4.8%) in the order named, and pesticides were methoxyfenozide > pyraclostrobin > azoxystrobin, chlorantraniprole > novaluron, trifloxystrobin in frequent order.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.228-234
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• 2006

Background : Acinetobacter baumannii is an important pathogen associated with nosocomial infections in intensive care units, and is responsible for nosocomial pneumonia, UTI, bacteremia, etc. The main concern is that this pathogen is often resistant to many antimicrobial agents, particularly to carbapenem. This study compared the clinical those of ICU admitted patients with the carbapenem resistant A. baumannii isolated from the sputum with characteristics of patients with carbapenem sensitive A. baumannii. Methods : A total of 49 patients with A. baumannii from a sputum culture who were admitted to the ICU from January to December 2003 were enrolled in this study. This study evaluated the demographic variables, mortality, APACHE II score, comorbidity, antibiotics used, hospital and ICU stay, Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score, and mechanical ventilation. A retrospective analysis was made by a review of the patients' medical records. Results : Carbapenem sensitive and resistant A. baumannii was isolated from 23 patients and 26 patients respectively. Univariate analysis revealed renal disease, the use of carbapenem and aminoglycoside to be statistically significant factors for carbapenem resistance. Multivariate analysis revealed carbapenem use(p=0.024; OR, 8.17; CI 1.32 to 50.68) to be positively associated with carbapenem resistance, and aminoglycoside use(p=0.026; OR, 0.18; CI, 0.04 to 0.82) to be negatively associated with carbapenem resistance. There was no significant difference in mortality between the carbapenem sensitive and resistant group(30 vs 42%. P=0.39). Conclusion : The occurrence of carbapenem resistant A. baumannii is positively associated with carbapenem use and negatively associated with aminoglycoside use. Carbapenem resistance in the sputum culture did not affect the mortality rate.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.85-95
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• 1996

To examine the contamination in Ulsan coastal area, some heavy metal concentrations in sea water and Mytilus coruscus have been measured. Sea water samples were collected on April 6 in 1995 and Mytilus coruscus samples were collected on April 2 in 1995. Total number of sea water samples was 26 and that of Mytilus coruscus was 54. The sites where the samples collected were same in sea water and Mytilus coruscus. The method of analysis was atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results indicated that the heavy metal concentrations of sea water were varied according to the sampling stations. The concentrations of cadmium, manganese, zinc in sea water collected in the coastal area near Mipo complex were higher than those of other coastal areas, and the concentrations of lead in sea water collected in the coastal area near petrochemical complex were higher than those of others. In general the concentrations of lead, zinc, copper in sea water were proportionate to those in Mytilus coruscus. The mean concentration rates of lead, cadmium, manganese in Mytilus coruscus inhabiting in Ulsan coastal area were similar, 1070, 1370 and 1300, respectively. The concentration rate of mercury was 80, the lowest value of other heavy metals, and that of copper was 6940, the highest value. Consequently it seems to be more desirable to use Mytilus coruscus as a sample to examine the contamination of coastal area than sea water.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.45 no.3 s.144
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• pp.293-299
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• 2006

A survey was conducted to find out the major plant parasitic nematode in Chrysanthemum morifolium fields in Korea from May to June in 2005. A genus of Pratylenchus was determined as the most important plant parasitic nematode based on analysis of total 50 samples from 8 cities of chrysanthemum field. Pratylenchus showed 86% occurrence rate and average numbered 1,095 per 200cc soils and 1g root. Five Pratylenchus isolates, 'Muan', 'Masan', 'Tean', 'Gumi', 'Jeongup', were selected for the molecular identification of the species of Pratylenchus, and ITS and D3-28S ribosomal DNA were amplified by PCR. For the ITS, only 'Muan' isolate was differentiated by total 1 kb PCR amplification, which was 200 bp larger than all the other isolates. There was no size variation in amplified D3-28S rDNA and all isolate represented approximately 320 bp of PCR product. Sequence data of D3-28S rDNA were analysed by MegAlign program in DNASTAR software and phylogenetic tree was constructed. Sequence homology was 100% between 'Gumi' isolate and 'Tean' isolate and 'Jeongup' isolate was also close to these isolates by 99.7% sequence homology. 'Gumi', 'Tean' group and 'Jeongup' isolate were determined to be closely related to Pratylenchus vulnus by 96.7% and 96.3% similarity in respectively. D3 sequence of 'Masan' isolate was 100% identical to P. penetrans, and 'Muan' isolate showed 99.7% similarity to P. brachyurus. This result was congruent with the branch divergence pattern shown in phylogenetic tree.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2003

Purpose : Streptococcus pneumoniae is part of the normal flora but is also responsible for causing many invasive diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis in addition to noninvasive diseases such as otitis in children. Multi-drug resistant strains has raised a lot of concern worldwide and thus the importance of prevention has been emphasized. We have analyzed the current serotypes and antibiotic sensitivity of each serotype as a baseline study to estimate the efficacy of the pneumococcal vaccine in Korean children. Methods : One hundred sixteen cases of pneumococcus cultured at Yonsei Medical Center from September 2001 to January 2003 were analyzed. The serotyping was done with the Quellung reaction and penicillin resistance was tested using the oxacillin disc diffusion method. Results : Pneumococcus were cultured from the sputum in 76 cases(65.5%), from the blood in 13 cases(11.2%), from the ear discharge in 12 cases(10.3%), from the throat in 7 cases(6.0%), from the nasal cavity in 2 cases(1.7%), and one case(0.9%) each from the cerebrospinal fluid, eye discharge, peritoneal fluid, post-operational wound, brain abscess, and catheter tip. Serotyping was possible with 98 cases and the following serotypes were found; 15 cases of type 19F(15.3%), 11 cases of 19A(11.2%), 8 cases of 11A(8.2%), 7 cases each of 6A, 14 and 3(7.1%), 6 cases each of 35, 6B and 23F(6.1%). Eighty two cases(70.7%) out of 116 cases were penicillin resistant and serotypes 19F, 19A, 11A, 23F, 6A, 9V constituted the majority, 48 cases(59.8%). These serotypes showed resistance to cotrimoxazole (74.4%), tetracycline(69.5%), and erythromycin(90.3%) as well. In the 22 cases cultured from children, 19A and 19F were found in 25.0%, 6A, 6B, and 23F in 10.0%, 11A, 14, 19, and 29 in 5.0%. Fifty percent(10/20) of the clinical isolates were represented in the current 7-valent pneumococcal protein conjugate vaccine, and 85%(17/20) when the cross-reacting serotypes were included. Penicillin resistance was found in 86.4%(19/22). Conclusion : The percentage of serotypes included in the 7 valent pneumococcal protein conjugate vaccine found in our study was 40.8% which was less than other prior studies. In anticipation of a change of pneumococcal serotypes, a nationwide multicenter study is needed before the initiation of pneumococcal vaccines in Korea.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.178-183
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• 2010

Purpose : The aim of this study was to identify mutations associated with macrolide resistance in Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) and to establish a cultural method to determine antimicrobial susceptibility. Methods : Nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPAs) were collected from 62 children diagnosed with MP pneumonia by a serologic method or polymerase chain reaction. The 23S rRNA and L4 ribosomal protein genes of MP were amplified and sequenced. To identify mutations in these 2 genes, their nucleotide sequences were compared to those of the reference strain M129. MP cultivation was carried out for 32 (28 frozen and 5 refrigerated) NPAs and M129 strain using Chanock's glucose broth and agar plate in a 5% $CO_2$ incubator at $37^{\circ}C$ and examined at 2-3 day intervals for 6 weeks. Results : Among the 62 specimens, 17 had M144V mutations in ribosomal protein L4. The A2064G mutation was observed in 1 specimen; its 23S rRNA gene was successfully sequenced. Culture for MP was successful from the M129 strain and 2 of the 5 NPAs that were refrigerated for no longer than 3 days. However, MP did not grow from the 28 NPAs that were kept frozen at $-80^{\circ}C$ since 2003. Conclusion : We found the M144V mutation of L4 protein to be common and that of domain V of 23S rRNA gene was relatively rare among MP. Studies on the prevalence of macrolide-resistant MP and the relationship between the mutations of 23S rRNA gene and ribosomal protein L4 will aid in understanding the mechanism of macrolide resistance in MP.