• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.17-23
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to assess activation and contribution of muscles of the elderly according to increased loading during the arm flexion extension resistance exercise. Surface electromyographic signals were acquired from biceps brachii, triceps brachii, deltoid posterior, pectoralis major and latissimmus dorsi to determine the difference of the activation of specific muscles between the elderly and young. Five elderly and five young males with no musculoskeletal disease volunteered for the study. Electromyographic activities in the muscles were measured during resistance exercise and normalized to the maximum EMG activity recorded in the maximal voluntary static contraction (MVC). Against the increased loading during arm flexion/extension resistance exercises, the young uses muscles evenly but the elderly uses one specific muscle frequently. Contribution of triceps brachii during extension and deltoid posterior during flexion was principal in the elderly.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.809-815
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• 2012

Recently, as the interest in improving energy efficiency has grown, the demand for vehicle and machine parts that are resistant in high temperature corrosive conditions and abrasive environments has increased. Pack chromizing treatment of sintered steels is a profitable method that satisfies both corrosion resistance and low friction properties. Since austenitic stainless steels have good corrosion resistance but low mechanical hardness, if they are replaced by sintered steel parts with pack chromizing treatment, all the desirable properties such as low price, easy molding, high hardness, low frictional coefficient, and high corrosion resistance, can be obtained. The higher corrosion resistance of the chromized parts over that of the austenitic stainless steels was acquired by coating chromium carbides and a thin chromium oxides layer on the surface. Moreover, the surface morphology of chromized parts, which were composed of chromium rich phases and hardened chromium carbides by diffusing and alloying, had a peak-and-valley shape so that the dimple effect by the wrinkled morphology and high hardness induced a low friction coefficient.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.733-739
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• 2021

Acinetobacter strains are widely present in the environment. Some antimicrobial-resistant strains of this genus have been implicated in infections acquired in hospitals. Genetic similarities have been reported between Acinetobacter strains in nosocomial infections and those isolated from foods. However, the antimicrobial resistance of Acinetobacter strains in foods, such as meat, remains unclear. This study initially aimed to isolate Campylobacter strains; instead, strains of the genus Acinetobacter were isolated from meat products, and their antimicrobial resistance was investigated. In total, 58 Acinetobacter strains were isolated from 381 meat samples. Of these, 32 strains (38.6%) were from beef, 22 (26.5%) from pork, and 4 (4.8%) from duck meat. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests revealed that 12 strains were resistant to more than one antimicrobial agent, whereas two strains were multidrug-resistant; both strains were resistant to colistin. Cephalosporin antimicrobials showed high minimal inhibitory concentration against Acinetobacter strains. Resfinder analysis showed that one colistin-resistant strain carried mcr-4.3; this plasmid type was not confirmed, even when analyzed with PlasmidFinder. Analysis of the contig harboring mcr-4.3 using BLAST confirmed that this contig was related to mcr-4.3 of Acinetobacter baumannii. The increase in antimicrobial resistance in food production environments increases the resistance rate of Acinetobacter strains present in meat, inhibits the isolation of Campylobacter strains, and acts as a medium for the transmission of antimicrobial resistance in the environment. Therefore, further investigations are warranted to prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance in food products.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.67-72
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• 2008

The use of doxorubicin, which is one of the most effective anticancer agents, is often limited by occurrence of acquired resistance in tumor cells. GSH has been shown to be involved in the development of this drug resistance. Transcription factor Nrf2 governs the expression of GSH synthesizing glutamylcysteine ligase (GCL), as well as multiple phase 2 detoxifying enzymes. Here we show that Nrf2 is one of factors determining doxorubicin sensitivity. Nrf2-deficient fibroblasts (murine embryonic fibroblasts, MEF) were more susceptible to doxorubicin mediated cell death than wild-type cells. Doxorubicin treatment elevated levels of Nrf2-regulated genes including NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase (Nqo1) and GCL in wild-type fibroblasts, while no induction was observed in Nrf2-deficient cells. Doxorubicin resistance in human ovarian SK-OV cells was reversed by treatment with L-buthionine-sulfoxamine (BSO), which is depleting intracellular GSH. Finally, transfection of SK-OV cells with Nrf2 siRNA resulted in exacerbated cytotoxicity following doxorubicin treatment compared to scrambled RNA control. These results indicate that the Nrf2 pathway, which plays a protective role in normal cells, can be a potential target to control cancer cell resistance to anticancer agents.

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.233-238
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• 1997

Salicylic acid (SA) is involved in the establishment of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in many plant including tobacco. Considering the important role of SA in disease resistance, biosynthetic and metabolic pathways of SA in tobacco have been studied extensively: The initial step for biosynthetic pathway of SA is conversion of phenylalanine to trans-cinnamic acid, followed by decarboxylation of trans-cinnamic acid to benzoic acid and ie subsequent ring hydroxylation at the C-2 position to form SA. In TMV inoculated tobacco, most of the newly synthesized SA is glucosylated or methylated. Methyl salicylate has been identified as a biologically active, volatile signal. In contrast, the two glucosylated forms accumulate in the vicinity of lesions and consist of SA glucoside, a major metabolite, and SA glucose ester, a relatively minor from. Two enzymes involved in SA biosynthesis and metabolism have been purified and characterized : benzoic acid 2-hydroxylase which catalyzes conversion of benzoic acid to SA; UDP-Glucose: SA 1-O-D glucosyltransferase which converts SA to SA glucose ester. Further studies of the biosynthetic and metabolic pathways of SA will help to elucidate the SAR signal transduction pathway and provide potential tools for the manipulation of disease resistance.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2005

Purpose : S. pneumoniae is one of major pathogens of community-acquired respiratory infections. The rate of antibiotic resistance to this organism has increased, and resistance to multiple antimicrobial agents in a single strain of S. pneumoniae may compromise the efficacy of empiric antimicrobial treatment commonly used for respiratory infections. We did this study to find out the penicillin resistant distributions and oral antibiotics susceptibility patterns against S. pneumoniae, isolated from pediatric patients with community-acquired respiratory infections in Korea. Methods : One hundred fifty six pneumococcal isolates obtained from pediatric patients with community-acquired respiratory infections such as acute otitis media(AOM), sinusitis and pneumonia between May 2000 to June 2003. And MICs of penicillin and oral antibiotics(amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanate, cefaclor) were performed by broth microdilution methods according to the NCCLS(2003a). Results : Seventy eight percent of the isolates were resistant to penicillin. The isolates, collected from AOM patients showed the highest penicillin resistance(92.7%). The resistant rates of amoxicillin (16.7%) and amoxicillin-clavulanate(9.6%), based on susceptibility breakpoints established by the NCCLS, were markedly lower than these of penicillin. But, the resistant rate of cefaclor was very high, above 95%. Conclusion : We concluded that pneumococci isolated from study cases may be one of the world's highest penicillin resistant rates. But, amoxicillin and amoxicillin-clavulanate can be used as a first-line antibiotics. Finally, we hope that a continuous surveillance study to monitor resistant patterns of pneumococcal respiratory infections will be needed for the standard guidelines of empiric antibiotic treatment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7421-7426
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• 2013

Background: Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related death. FOLFOX is the most common regimen used in the first-line chemotherapy in advanced colorectal cancer, but only half of the patients respond to this regimen and we have almost no clue in predicting resistance in such first-line application. Methods: To explore the potential molecular biomarkers predicting the resistance of FOLFOX regimen as the first-line treatment in advanced colorectal cancer, we screened microRNAs in serum samples from drug-responsive and drug-resistant patients by microarrays. Then differential microRNA expression was further validated in an independent population by reverse transcription and quantitative real-time PCR. Results: 62 microRNAs expressing differentially with fold-change >2 were screened out by microarray analysis. Among them, 5 (miR-221, miR-222, miR-122, miR-19a, miR-144) were chosen for further validation in an independent population (N=72). Our results indicated serum miR-19a to be significantly up-regulated in resistance-phase serum (p=0.009). The ROC curve analysis showed that the sensitivity of serum miR-19a to discriminate the resistant patients from the response ones was 66.7%, and the specificity was 63.9% when the AUC was 0.679. We additionally observed serum miR-19a had a complementary value for cancer embryonic antigen (CEA). Stratified analysis further revealed that serum miR-19a predicted both intrinsic and acquired drug resistance. Conclusions: Our findings confirmed aberrant expression of serum miR-19a in FOLFOX chemotherapy resistance patients, suggesting serum miR-19a could be a potential molecular biomarker for predicting and monitoring resistance to first-line FOLFOX chemotherapy regimens in advanced colorectal cancer patients.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2020

Clostridial bacteria are zoonotic agents, which cause severe necrotizing enteritis, pseudo-membrane colitis, enterotoxemia to both humans and animals. The objective of this study was to monitor the antibiotic resistance of Clostridium isolates on clinical specimens from wild animals in Seoul zoo for 5 years. Clostridium isolates were verified by using Vitek2 compact machine. Antibiotic susceptibility was assessed by antibiotic disc diffusion test, which was followed by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion test method. The frequency of Antimicrobial resistance of Clostridium isolate was the greatest in gentamicin (87%), then in order of amikacin (80%). There were 55.6% of Clostridium isolates showed multiple drug resistance (MDR). These results showed that a lot of Clostridial bacteria from wild animals in Seoul zoo were acquired antibiotic resistance. Because of the wild animal's aggressive manner, it has been hard to collect clinical samples from wild animals in a zoo to exam antibiotic susceptibility. For these reasons, empirical use of antibiotics has been performed in frequently. It may cause to increase the emergence of antibiotic resistance bacteria. In addition, the antibiotic resistance bacteria from zoo animals can be spread to other wild animals which inhabit around the zoo. Therefore, regular monitoring of antibiotic resistance Clostridial bacteria is important to protect animals and humans from Clostridial diseases.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.80 no.2
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• pp.187-193
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• 2017

Background: Third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR-TKIs) have proved efficacious in treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with acquired resistance resulting from the T790M mutation. However, since almost 50% patients with the acquired resistance do not harbor the T790M mutation, retreatment with first- or second-generation EGFR-TKIs may be a more viable therapeutic option. Here, we identified positive response predictors to retreatment, in patients who switched to a different EGFR-TKI, following initial treatment failure. Methods: This study retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 42 NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations, whose cancers had progressed following initial treatment with gefitinib or erlotinib, and who had switched to a different first-generation EGFR-TKI during subsequent retreatment. To identify high response rate predictors in the changed EGFR-TKI retreatment, we analyzed the relationship between clinical and demographic parameters, and positive clinical outcomes, following retreatment with EGFR-TKI. Results: Overall, 30 (71.4%) patients received gefitinib and 12 (28.6%) patients received erlotinib as their first EGFR-TKI treatment. Following retreatment with a different EGFR-TKI, the overall response and disease control rates were 21.4% and 64.3%, respectively. There was no significant association between their overall responses. The median progression-free survival (PFS) after retreatment was 2.0 months. However, PFS was significantly longer in patients whose time to progression was ${\geq}10months$ following initial EGFR-TKI treatment, who had a mutation of exon 19, or whose treatment interval was <90 days. Conclusion: In patients with acquired resistance to initial EGFR-TKI therapy, switched EGFR-TKI retreatment may be a salvage therapy for individuals possessing positive retreatment response predictors.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.908-917
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• 2022

Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is a form of systemic immunity that prevents secondary infections of distal uninfected parts of plants by related or unrelated pathogens. SAR is mediated by several SAR-inducing chemicals or mobile signals that accumulate after pathogen infection. Several chemicals that move systemically have already been identified as SAR-inducing factors, despite the fact that the early mobile signal remains unclear. These chemicals can be transported into either the apoplastic or symplastic compartments. Many of the chemicals associated with SAR remain unknown in terms of their transport routes. There is recent evidence that azelaic acid (AzA) and glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) are transported via plasmodesmata (PD) channels, which regulate the symplastic route. In contrast, salicylic acid (SA) is preferentially transported from pathogen-infected to uninfected parts via the apoplast. The pH gradient and SA deprotonation lead to apoplastic accumulation of SA before it accumulates in the cytosol. Moreover, there is evidence that the mobility of SA over a long distance is crucial for SAR and that the partitioning of SA into the symplast and cuticles is controlled by transpiration. Further research has shown that a portion of the total SA in leaves is partitioned into cuticular waxes. The purpose of this review is to discuss the role of SAR-inducing chemicals and the regulation of transport in SAR.