• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.175-182
• /
• 2009

Purpose : A number of countries have experienced an increase in pertussis during the past decade. In particular, there has been an increase in the incidence rate among adolescents and adults. To learn more about the current epidemiology of pertussis, we studied the prevalence and clinical characteristics of pertussis in children in Cheonan, South Korea. Methods : We collected nasopharyngeal aspirates of 118 patients who were treated for respiratory symptoms at Dankook Univeristy Hospital between March 2008 and September 2009. We performed multiplex PCR for detection of Bordetella pertussis in those aspirates. Results : Of the 118 patients, 10 (8%) were positive by PCR for B. pertussis. Six episodes occurred during the period July to September 2009. Nine of the 10 patients were less than 3 months old. Seven of them had not received DTaP vaccine. The mean duration of coughing before diagnosis was 10.9${\pm}$5.2 days. Ten patients (100%) had paroxysmal cough and 8 (80%) had post-tussive vomiting. Only one patient had fever. One who had complications that include pneumonia, atelectasis and pneumomediastinum developed an absolute increase in leukocyte count (84,400/$mm^3$). There was a statistically significant relation between vaccine being received and development of complications (P =0.033). Conclusion : We suspect that there was an epidemic of pertussis between July and September 2009. Further investigation by a pediatric or nationwide surveillance system is needed to monitor the changing epidemiology for pertussis.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.207-216
• /
• 2009

Three distinct types of fluid inclusions in amethyst and quartz crystals are associated with metamorphic events in the Korea Amethyst deposit from Uljin-Gun, Gyeongbuk Province. The amethyst displays bimodal grain size distribution in fine-grained, strain-free equigranular quartz with coarse-grained quartz grains with kink bands and undulose extinction. Type I inclusions are liquid-rich and salinity is 0~7 wt% NaCl and the homogenization temperatures ($T_h$) $91{\sim}231^{\circ}C$ with eutectic temperatures ($T_e$) $-52{\sim}-20^{\circ}C$. Type II inclusions are vapor-rich (80~90 vol%). The salinity and $T_h$ ranges 3~6 wt% NaCl and $230{\sim}278^{\circ}C$, respectively with $T_e$ $-56{\sim}-23^{\circ}C$. Type III inclusions contain a daughter mineral other than NaCl. The salinity ranges 32~36 wt% NaCl and $T_h$ $210{\sim}271^{\circ}C$. The textural and fluid inclusion evidences suggest that the host Buncheon granite gneiss and Amethyst pegmatite experienced dynamic recrystallization and the studied fluid inclusions are metamorphic in origin. The metamorphic event possibly occurred at higher temperature than $271{\sim}278^{\circ}C$. The amethysts from Uljin Korea Amethyst can be distinguished from the synthetic amethyst on basis of the distinctive two and three-phases fluid inclusions. Furthermore, it is noticeable that Korea amethyst do not contain NaCl-bearing and $CO_2$-rich fluid inclusions unlike those compared to those from Eonyang and Samcheonpo deposits related to unmetamorphosed granitic rocks.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.373-384
• /
• 2003

This study analyses the soil loss due to cropland increase in the Hoeryeung area of northeast Korea, using Landsat images of 1987 TM and 2001 ETM, together with DTED, soil and geological maps, and rainfall data of 20 years. Items of land cover and land use were categorized as cropland, settlement, forest, river zone, and sand deposit by supervised classification with spectral bands 1, 2 and 3. RUSLE model is used for estimation of soil loss, and AML language for calculation of soil loss volumes. Fourier transformation method is used for unification of the geographical grids between Landsat images and DTED. GTD was selected from 1:50,000 topographic map. Main sources of soil losses over 100 ton/year may be the river zone and settlement in the both times of 1987 and 2001, but the image of the 2001 shows that sources areas have developed up to the higher mountain slopes. In the cropland average, increases of hight and gradient are 24m and $0.8^{\circ}$ from 1987 to 2001. In the case of new developed cropland, average increases are 75m and $2.5^{\circ}$, and highest soil loss has occurred at the elevation between 300 and 500m. The soil loss 57 ton of 1987 year increased 85 ton of 2001 year. Soil loss is highest in $30{\sim}50^{\circ}$ slope zones in both years, but in 2001 year, soil loss increased under $30^{\circ}$ zones. The size of area over 200 ton/year, indicating higher risk of landslides, have increased from $28.6km^2$ of 1987 year to $48.8km^2$ of 2001 year.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.73-78
• /
• 2006

Attempts were made to investigate the physiological and genetic changes when two different shiitake (Lentinula edodes) strains are mixed. Mycelial growth of KFRI 180 strain and KFRI 1 strain were investigated 82 mm and 80 mm, respectively. Concerning the weight loss percentage of medium, KFRI 1 strain decreased 2.4% and KFRI 180 strain 1.6%. Plug-shaped spawn had no-problem to incubate and there were no differences among the ratios of mixture. Also, conditions of plug-shaped spawns were similar, When the isolated mycelia from plugshaped spawns was incubated again, KFRI 1 50%-KFRI 180 50% showed decreased growth of mycelia compared with other treatments. The same results were obtained from test tubes filled with sawdust. When surface of spawn bottles were observed, KFRI 1 50%-KFRI 180 50% showed spots, but other treatments were not different from KFRI 1 and KFRI 180. Test was made to confirm the strains by confrontation culture. The mixture of two strains was proved to be KFRI 1 regardless the ratios of mixture. However, by the RAPD primer analysis, when KFRI 1 was mixed with KFRI 180, KFRI 180 was stronger. Thus, the confrontation line on PDA was different from the bands analysis by primers. Attempts were made whether the fruit-bodies were made at the generating condition of spawn bottles. The results were that KFRI 1 100%, KFRI 1 90%-KFRI 180 10%, KFRI 1 80%-KFRI 180 20%, KFRI 1 50%-KFRI 180 50% treatment showed fruit-body formation. The shape of fruit-body was deformed, but the gill was made normally.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2013

Niphon spinosus, Epinephelus bruneus, and Epinephelus septemfasciatus are involved in the Perciformes Order and Serranidae Family. When E. bruneus and E. septemfasciatus are fully grown, the striped pattern on the body gradually disappears. Therefore, morphological classification of adult fishes is quite difficult to identify the differences to N. spinosus. In this study, we investigate the method to differentiate those using PCR. To design the primers, 16S rRNA region of N. spinosus, E. bruneus, and E. septemfasciatus registered in the GeneBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) have been used and for the analysis, Bio Edit ver. 7.0.9.0 was used. As a result, it was design NS-003-F/NS-005-R (136 bp), EB-001-F/EB-002-R (181 bp), and ES-001-F/ES-001-R (123 bp) primers for the differentiation of each 3 different fishes. Therefore, the species-specific primer sets would be a useful tool for scientific and speedy differentiation against the illegal distribution for consumer protection.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.466-472
• /
• 2012

In this study, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (rbcL), RNApolymeraseC (rpoC1), intergenic spacer (psbA-trnH), and second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) as identification markers for discrimination of P. mirifica in foods were selected. To be primer design, we obtained 719 bp, 520 bp, 348 bp, and 507 bp amplicon using universal primers from selected regions of P. mirifica. The regions of rbcL, rpoC1, and psbA-trnH were not proper for design primers because of high homology about P. mirifica, P. lobata, and B. superba. But, we had designed 4 pairs of oligonucleotide primers from ITS2 gene. Predicted amplicon from P. mirifica were obtained 137 bp and 216 bp using finally designed primers SFI12-miri-6F/SFI12-miri-7R and SFI12-miri-6F/SFI12-miri-8R, respectively. The species-specific primers distinguished P. mirifica from related species were able to apply food materials and processed foods. The developed PCR method would be applicable to food safety management for illegally distributed products in markets and internet shopping malls.

• Laboratory Medicine Online
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.13-19
• /
• 2017

Background: We evaluated a sensitive and quantitative method utilizing fragment analysis of the fms-like tyrosine kinase 3-internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD), simultaneously measuring mutant allele burden and length, and verified the analytical performance. Methods: The number and allelic burden of FLT3-ITD mutations was determined by fragment analysis. Serial mixtures of mutant and wild-type plasmid DNA were used to calculate the limit of detection of fragment analysis, conventional PCR, and Sanger sequencing. Specificity was evaluated using DNA samples derived from 50 normal donors. Results of fragment analysis were compared to those of conventional PCR, using 481 AML specimens. Results: Defined mixtures were consistently and accurately identified by fragment analysis at a 5% relative concentration of mutant to wild-type, and at 10% and 20% ratios by conventional PCR and direct sequencing, respectively. No false positivity was identified. Among 481 AML specimens, 40.1% (193/481) had FLT3-ITD mutations. The mutant allele burden (1.7-94.1%; median, 28.2%) and repeated length of the mutation (14-153 bp; median, 49 bp) were variable. The concordance rate between fragment analysis and conventional PCR was 97.7% (470/481). Fragment analysis was more sensitive than conventional PCR and detected 11 additional cases: seven had mutations below 10%, three cases represented conventional PCR failure, and one case showed false negativity because of short ITD length (14 bp). Conclusions: The new fragment analysis method proved to be sensitive and reliable for the detection and monitoring of FLT3-ITD in patients with AML. This could be used to simultaneously assess ITD mutant allele burden and length.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.408-413
• /
• 2008

Rice blast resistance is considered one of the most important traits in rice breeding and the disease, caused by Magnaporthe grisea Barr, has brought significant crop losses annually. Moreover, breakdown of resistance normally occurs in two to five years after cultivar release, thus a more durable resistance is needed for better control of this disease. We developed a new variety, Keumo3, which showed strong resistance to leaf blast. It was tested in 2003 to 2007 at fourteen blast nursery sites covering entire rice-growing regions of South Korea. It showed resistance reactions in 12 regions and moderate in 2 regions without showing susceptible reactions. Durability test by sequential planting method indicated that this variety had better resistance. Results showed that Keumo3 was incompatible against 19 blast isolates with the exception of KI101 by artificial inoculation. To understand the genetic control of blast resistance in rice cultivar Keumo3 and facilitate its utilization, recombinant inbred lines (RIL) consisting of 290 F5 lines derived from Akidagomachi/Keumo3 were analyzed and genotyped with Pizt InDel marker zt56591. The recombination value between the marker allele of zt56591 and bioassay data of blast nursery test was 1.1%. These results indicated that MAS can be applied in selecting breeding populations for blast resistance using zt56591 as DNA marker.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.34 no.6_2
• /
• pp.1165-1178
• /
• 2018

Collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf and its flow velocity changes has the potential to reduce the restraining stress to the seaward flow of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, which can cause sea level rising. In this study, variations in ice velocity from 2000 to 2017 for the Nansen Ice Shelf in East Antarctica that experienced a large-scale collapse in April 2016 were analyzed using Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images. To extract ice velocity, image matching based on orientation correlation was applied to the image pairs of blue, green, red, near-infrared, panchromatic, and the first principal component image of the Landsat multispectral data, from which the results were combined. The Landsat multispectral image matching produced reliable ice velocities for at least 14% wider area on the Nansen Ice Shelf than for the case of using single band (i.e., panchromatic) image matching. The ice velocities derived from the Landsat multispectral image matching have the error of $2.1m\;a^{-1}$ compared to the in situ Global Positioning System (GPS) observation data. The region adjacent to the Drygalski Ice Tongue showed the fastest increase in ice velocity between 2000 and 2017. The ice velocity along the central flow line of the Nansen Ice Shelf was stable before 2010 (${\sim}228m\;a^{-1}$). In 2011-2012, when a rift began to develop near the ice front, the ice flow was accelerated (${\sim}255m\;a^{-1}$) but the velocity was only about 11% faster than 2010. Since 2014, the massive rift had been fully developed, and the ice velocity of the upper region of the rift slightly decreased (${\sim}225m\;a^{-1}$) and stabilized. This means that the development of the rift and the resulting collapse of the ice front had little effect on the ice velocity of the Nansen Ice Shelf.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.15-20
• /
• 2011

Poly[2,3-dimethyl-5,8-dithiophene-2-yl-quinoxaline-alt-9,9-dihexyl-9H-fluorene] (PFTQT) and poly[2,3-dimethyl-5,8-dithiophen-2-yl-quinoxaline-alt-10-hexyl-10H-phenothiazine (PPTTQT) based on 2,3-dimethyl-5,8-dithiophen-2-yl-quinoxaline weresynthesized by Suzuki coupling reaction. All polymers were soluble in common organic solvents such as chloroform, chlorobenzene, o-dichlorobenzene, tetrahydrofuran (THF) and toluene. The maximum absorption wavelength and band gap of PFTQT were 440 nm and 2.30 eV, and PPTTQT were 445 nm and 2.23 eV, respectively. The HOMO and LUMO energy level of PFTQT were -6.05 and -3.75 eV, and PPTTQT were -5,89 and -3.66 eV, respectively. The organic photovoltaic devices based on the blend of polymer and PCBM (1 : 2 by weight ratio) were fabricated. Efficiencies of devices were 0.24% (PFTQT) and 0.16% (PPTTQT), respectively. The short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$), fill factor (FF), and open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) of the device with PFTQT were $0.97mA/cm^2$, 29% and 0.86 V, and the device based on PPTTQT were $0.80mA/cm^2$, 28% and 0.71 V, 31% and 0.71 V, respectively, under air mass (AM) 1.5 G and 1 sun condition ($100mA/cm^2$).