• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.47-59
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• 2023

Purpose: The development and study of hepatitis C virus (HCV) vaccine candidates' individualized responses are of great importance. Here we report on an HCV DNA vaccine candidate based on selected envelope (E1/E2) epitopes. Besides, we assessed its expression and processing in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and in vivo cellular response in mice. Materials and Methods: HCV E1/E2 DNA construct (EC) was designed. The antigen expression of EC was assayed in PBMCs of five HCV-uninfected donors via a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Serum samples from 20 HCV antibody-positive patients were used to detect each individual PBMCs expressed antigens via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Two groups, five Swiss albino mice each, were immunized with the EC or a control construct. The absolute count of lymph nodes' CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-lymphocytes was assessed. Results: Donors' PBMCs showed different levels of EC expression, ranging between 0.83-2.61-fold in four donors, while donor-3 showed 34.53-fold expression. The antigens expressed in PBMCs were significantly reactive to the 20 HCV antibody repertoire (all p=0.0001). All showed comparable reactivity except for donor-3 showing the lowest reactivity level. The absolute count % of the CD4⁺ T-cell significantly increased in four of the five EC-immunized mice compared to the control group (p=0.03). No significant difference in CD8⁺ T-cells % was observed (p=0.89). Conclusion: The inter-individual variation in antigen expression and processing dominance was evident, showing independence in individuals' antigen expression and reactivity levels to antibodies. The described vaccine candidate might result in a promising natural immune response with a possibility of CD4⁺ T-cell early priming.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.430-438
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• 2024

Background/Aims: A poor prognostic factor for Crohn's disease (CD) includes perianal fistulizing disease, including perianal fistula and/or perianal abscess. Currently, a tool to assess perianal symptoms in patients with CD remains nonexistent. This study aimed to develop a perianal fistulizing disease self-screening questionnaire for patients with CD. Methods: This prospective pilot study was conducted at three tertiary referral centers between January 2019 and May 2020. We formulated questions on perianal symptoms, including tenesmus, anal discharge, bleeding, pain, and heat. A 4-point Likert scale was used to rate each question. Patients with CD completed a questionnaire and underwent pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results: Overall, 93 patients were enrolled, with 51 (54.8%) diagnosed with perianal fistulizing disease, as determined by pelvic MRI. The Spearman correlation findings demonstrated that anal pain (p = 0.450, p < 0.001) and anal discharge (p = 0.556, p < 0.001) were the symptoms that most significantly correlated with perianal disease. For anal pain and discharge, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the scores was significantly higher than that of the combined score for all five symptoms (0.855 vs. 0.794, DeLong's test p = 0.04). For the two symptoms combined, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive and negative predictive values were 88.2, 73.8, 80.4, and 83.8%, respectively, with 81.7% accuracy for detecting perianal fistulizing disease. Conclusions: This study indicates that simple questions regarding anal pain and discharge can help accurately identify the presence of perianal fistulizing disease in patients with CD.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권12호
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• pp.7645-7649
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• 2013

Background: Immune functions and their relation to prognosis in breast cancer patients have become areas of great interest in recent years. Correlations between survival outcomes and peripheral blood flow cytometry parameters are therefore of interest. Here we focused on patients with non-metastatic breast cancer (BC). Materials and Methods: A total of 29 patients with pathological confirmed breast carcinoma and flow cytometry data were assessed for overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS). Results: The median age of the patients was 54 years (range, 29-83). Multivariate analysis revealed that OS was significantly associated with absolute cytotoxic T cell count (95%CI, coef 2.26, p=0.035), tumor size (95%CI, coef -14.5, p 0.004), chemotherapy (95%CI, coef 12.9, p 0.0001), MFI of CD4 (95%CI, coef -5.1, P 0.04), MFI of HLA DR (95%CI, coef -5.9, p 0.008) and tumor grade (95%CI, coef -13, P 0.049) with R-Sq(adj)=67%. Similar findings were obtained for PFS. Conclusions: OS and PFS were significantly associated with tumor grade, tumor size, chemotherapy, MFI of CD4, HLA DR and absolute cytotoxic T cell count. The study revealed that MFI of basic CD markers and absolute cytotoxic T cell number may be a prognostic factors in women with non-metastatic BC.

• 자원환경지질
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.465-472
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• 1993

The heavy metal contents are more abundant in stream waters, paddy soils and rice plants in the vicinity of abandoned mines compared to the surrounding areas in the Kyungpook province. However, these contents tend to decrease with distance from mines, and show some variation under different geological and geochemical environments. The Sin-stream waters have high contents of Cu=4.9 ppm, Pb=0.1 ppm, Zn=3.5 ppm and other heavy metals (Ni, Co, Cd) at Dalsung abandoned mine and low contents of Cu=0.4 ppm, Pb=0.1 ppm, Zn=0.1 ppm and other metals= 0.002 ppm in the surrounding area. The high contents decrease in the downstream in the area of calcareous sedimentary rocks. The paddy soils have high contents of approximately Cu=51 ppm, Pb=83 ppm, Zn=211 ppm, and Cd=11.3 ppm in the vicinity of Gunwi abandoned mine but low contents of Cu=4.5 ppm, Pb=2.9 ppm, Zn=60 ppm and Cd=0.4 ppm in the surrounding area. The Dadeog abandoned mine also shows similar trends to Gunwi mine. The contents of heavy metals of rice plants are high in the roots but trends to decrease through stem+leaf and become low in brown rices.

• 한국대기환경학회지
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.72-83
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• 1989

Twenty-five atmospheric particulates were collected using a high volume aerosol sampler from Septermber to December, 1988 on a site located on the West coast of Korea and analysed for twelve elements (Na, Mg, Al, Mn, Fe, Cu, Co, Ni, Zn, Ag, Cd, and Pb) by AAS. The particles being mainly crustal minerals, large quantity of spherical fly ashes were also observed. In order to identify the origin of trace metals in atmospheric particulates, enrichment factor, interelemental correlation and factor analysis were performed. Based upon these analysis, the twelve elements can be classified into three groups; the elements dominantly present in soil particles (Al, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni), those in sea salt aerosols (Na and Mg), and those in air pollution-derived particles (Cu, Cd, Pb, Ag and Zn).

• 한국펄프종이공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국펄프종이공학회 1999년도 Proceedings of Pre-symposium of the 10th ISWPC
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• pp.79-83
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• 1999

A cationic demand(CD) is a very useful indication for determining the optimum dosage rate of retention aids to the papermaking stock at the wet end. Polyelectrolyte titration has been most often used to determine a CD. Highly accurate results can be obtained by this method when the ionic strength of sample is low. But this is accompanied by the serious errors when the ionic strength is higher than that corresponding to 20 milli molar(mM) monovalent, 2 mM divalent or 0.2 mM trivalent ions because of no occurrence of the end point of titration. Therefore, it is very difficult or almost impossible for the conventional method to be applied to the industrial suspensions such as papermaking stock and industrial waste water. Then a novel method using chromophoric labeled cationic polymer which can be applicable to the sample with high ionic strength has been developed.

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제23권55호
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• pp.73-83
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• 2000

Up to the present, ISO 9000 series have contributed which construction of quality management system and improvement of quality competition. Therefore many enterprises have taken an increasing interest in ISO 9000 series and the number certification of it is on the increase every year. In these processes, the side effect has come out. It is of no use to competitive power of enterprise. Because they made an effort for certification without preparation for a short period or there was no continuous system control. In this paper, We review the weakness of existing ISO 9000 series, which have soon ahead of revision. In addition, We propose the considering items or contents in revision for enterprise competition power.

• 한국수정란이식학회지
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.133-139
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of post-activation treatment with cytoskeletal regulators in combination with or without 6-dimethylaminopurine (DMAP) on embryonic development of pig oocytes after parthenogenesis (PA) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). PA and SCNT oocytes were produced by using in vitro-matured pig oocytes and treated for 4 h after electric activation with $0.5{\mu}M$ latrunculin A (LA), $10.4{\mu}M$ cytochalasins B (CB), and $4.9{\mu}M$ cytochalasins D (CD) together with none or 2 mM DMAP. Post-activation treatment of PA oocytes with LA, CB, and CD did not alter embryo cleavage (85.8~88.6%), blastocyst formation (30.7~ 32.4%), and mean cell number of blastocysts (33.5~33.8 cells/blastocyst). When PA oocytes were treated with LA, CB, and CD in combination with DMAP, blastocyst formation was significantly (P<0.05) improved by CB+DMAP (42.5%) compared to LA+DMAP (28.0%) and CD+DMAP (25.1%), but no significant differences were found in embryo cleavage (77.5~78.0%) and mean blastocyst cell number (33.6~35.0 cells) among the three groups. In SCNT, blastocyst formation was significantly (P<0.05) increased by post-activation treatment with LA+DMAP (32.9%) and CD+DMAP (35.0%) compared to CB+DMAP (22.0%) while embryo cleavage (85.5~85.7%) and blastocyst cell number (41.1~43.8 cells) were not influenced. All three treatments (LA, CB, and CD with DMAP) effectively inhibited pseudo-polar body extrusion in SCNT oocytes. The proportions of oocytes showing single pronucleus formation were 89.6%, 83.9%, and 93.3%, respectively with the increased tendency (P<0.1) by LA+DMAP and CD+ DMAP compared to CB+DMAP. Our results demonstrate that post-activation treatment with LA or CD in combination with DMAP improves pre-implantation development of SCNT embryos and the stimulating effect of cytoskeletal modifiers on embryonic development is differentially shown depending on the origin (PA or SCNT) of embryos in pigs.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.83-88
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• 1998

Capsular polymer인 zooglan을 생산하는 Z. ramigera 115와 수용성 slime polymer 생산 변이주인 Z. ramigera l15SLR의 중금속 제거능을 비교하였다. 중금속 5종($Cd^{2+}$, $Co^{2+}$, $Cu^{2+}$, $Ni^{2+}$, $Fe^{2+}$)의 최저 생장저해농도는 두 균주 모두 유사하였다. $Cd^{2+}$을 첨가하지 않은 경우에 비해 $Cd^{2+}$ 500ppm을 첨가한 액체 배지에서의 생체량은 Z. ramigera 115는 24%, Z. ramigera l15SLR은 50%로 감소하였고 동일한 생체량에 대하여 Z. ramigera 115SLR이 Z. ramtgera 115보다 $Cd^{2+}$을 1.5배 더 제거하였다. 세포와 polymer를 분리하여 중금속 흡착능을 비교한 결과 polymer가 세포보다 높은 흡착량을 나타냈으며 최적 중금속 흡착 pH는 7.5였다. Langmuir 흡착등온선과 Freundlich 흡착등온선을 분석한 결과 $Cd^{2+}$에 대하여 Z. ramigera l15SLR polymer는 Z. ramigera 115 및 이온 교환 수지보다 높은 최대흡착량과 흡착안정성을 보여서 홉착제로서 유용할 것으로 판단된다.

• 한국환경농학회지
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.77-83
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• 1991

Cd첨가량(添加量)과 Cd원(源)을 달리하여 조제(調製)한 사료(飼料)로 생쥐를 12주간(週間) 사육(飼育)한 후(後) 체중(體重)과 생쥐내 장기(臟器)의 무게에 따른 성장속도(成長速度)를 조사(調査)하고 생쥐의 장기(臟器)들 즉(卽), 신장(腎臟), 간(肝), 심장(心臟), 허파, 비장(脾臟) 및 전혈중(全血中)에 축적(蓄積)되는 Cd축적작용(蓄積作用)을 분석(分析)한 결과(結果)는 다음과 같다. 1. 사육시기(飼育時期) 9주(週)째에 생쥐의 체중증가(體重增加)는 Cd첨가수준(添加水準)에 따라 달라져서 사료중(飼料中)의 Cd을 많이 첨가(添加)하여 사육(飼育)하는 생쥐일수록 체중(體重)이 적어졌다. 2. 장기(臟器)의 무게는 Cd무첨가(無添加) 사료(飼料)로 사육(飼育)한 생쥐가 신장(腎臟), 간(肝), 심장(心臟), 비장(脾臟) 등(等)의 장기(臟器)의 종류(種類)에 관계(關係)없이 무거웠다. 그러나 Cd을 첨가(添加)하여 생육(生育)한 생쥐에서는 Cd첨가수준차이(添加水準差異)에 따른 장기(臟器)의 무게 차이(差異)를 인정(認定)하기 어려웠다. 3. 장기내(臟器內)에 Cd축적작용(蓄積作用)은 신장(腎臟)과 간(肝)에서 가장 높았고 심장(心臟)이 그 다음이었으며 축적농도(蓄積濃度)는 사료중(飼料中)의 Cd함량(含量)이 많을수록 높아지는 비례적(比例的) 관계(關係)를 나타내었다. 4. 사료중(飼料中) Cd농도(濃度)가 낮을수록 모든 장기(臟器) 및 혈액(血液)에 축적(蓄積)되는 비율(比率)이 높아짐을 알 수 있었다.