• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1975-1981
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• 2019

Recently, outbreaks of food-borne diseases linked to fresh produce have been an emerging public health concern worldwide. Previous research has shown that when human pathogens co-exist with plant pathogens, they have improved growth and survival rates. In this study, we have assessed whether Escherichia coli O157:H7 benefits from the existence of a phytopathogenic bacterium and the underlying mechanisms were further investigated. When Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst DC3000) and E. coli O157:H7 were co-inoculated by either dipping or infiltration methods, the populations of E. coli O157:H7 increased; however, no effect was observed when type three secretion system (T3SS) mutants were used instead, suggesting that E. coli O157:H7 benefits from the presence of Pst DC3000. In addition, this study confirmed that the E. coli O157:H7 populations increased when they occupied the tomato leaf intercellular space; this colonization of the interior of the leaves was possible due to the suppression of the PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) by Pst DC3000, in particular with the AvrPto effector. In conclusion, our data support a plausible model that E. coli O157:H7 benefits from the presence of Pst DC3000 via AvrPto suppression of the PTI resistance.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.1120-1125
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• 2019

The short-lived nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been used as a model organism for many studies, including lifespan extension. To screen common seaweeds for natural anti-aging agents, the lifespan of C. elegans (N2 wild-type strain) was measured by its hatch rate, growth rate, survival rate, chemotaxis, brood size, and egg-laying time after exposure to nematode growth medium (NGM) containing seaweed extracts. Approximately 30 animals synchronized at the first larval stage were incubated until they reached their adult stages before laying their eggs and were transferred to fresh NGM every 3 days. We also identified the major active compound from the seaweed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and tested its optimal dose for longevity. Of 13 common seaweed species, an ethanol extract of the brown seaweed Hizikia fusiformis showed the greatest effect on hatching, growth, and survival rates. The lifespan of C. elegans was significantly expanded 1.54-fold and 1.23-fold in the presence of the ethanol extract (0.05 mg/ml) and the main active component, fucosterol (0.05 mg/ml), respectively. Exposure to the ethanol extract also increased chemotaxis 1.13-fold, decreased brood size 0.74-fold, and shortened egg-laying time 0.96-fold. These results suggest that the aquaculturable H. fusiformis may be a promising source of a diet supplement to support health care.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.164-170
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• 2019

The absorption and release capacities, survival efficiency, and recovery rates of five kinds of transport media were evaluated based on the swab elution method (Quantitative) of CLSI (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute) M40-A2. Liquid media showed mostly better results than semi-solid media in the three evaluations. The flocked swabs had better ability to absorption and discharge bacteria than the standard swabs. The liquid medium (S4) had the best survival efficiency. Pneumococcal strains with poor growth had a higher survival efficiency and recovery rate in liquid media (S4, S5). The results of microbial recovery showed that S. pyogenes met all the CLSI standards in all media. S. pneumoniae was inadequate in the semi- solid media (S2, S3) and all the remaining media met the criteria. H. influenzae was unsuitable in semi-solid media (S1, S3) and met the criteria in semi-solid medium (S2) and liquid medium (S4, S5). The viability of the H. influenzae, pneumococcal strain causing respiratory disease, was poor in most media. Overgrowth of P. aeruginosa was observed at room temperature. The combination of liquid medium and flocked swab confirmed the best results in the three evaluation methods.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.225-235
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• 2020

The Korean government is attempting to promote technology-based start-ups and venture firms that can lead to new national growth engines being developed. Although government support policies focus on improving survival rates, strategic tools for sustainability management based on a continuing company's assumption are also relevant. Previous studies indicate corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an important strategic tool for the management of corporate sustainability. This research is an exploratory study that seeks to empirically analyze the applicability of such CSR to venture firms. Existing previous studies have been carried out by large companies and surveys, and there are limitations that do not reflect the characteristics of companies. To complement the shortcomings of previous studies and propose practical consequences, this study conducted an empirical analysis using raw data from government approval statistics to identify the growth stages of venture firms. Using the 2018 Survey of Korea Venture Firms, we identified the growth stages of domestic venture firms and used the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to investigate the effect of CSR activities on managerial efficiency. The analysis found that CSR during start-up and early growth cycles did not affect managerial performance. The organization that conducted enthusiastic CSR activities performed better than those that did not perform CSR activities since the rapid growth era. Ultimately, the scale efficiency of venture business was the highest from the rapid growth era when the CSR was not done. This study is a pioneering study that found that after the period of high growth, venture firms' CSR activities can affect managerial performance. Therefore, it is important to advise applicable policies and business decision-makers that CSR practices can be a tactical resource for improving performance of management.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.119-131
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• 2024

In recent years, there has been a significant growth in loan comparson services offered by fintech platforms in South Korea. However, it has been reported that loan comparison platform users tend to have a higher risk of default compared to non-users. This paper investigates the difference in platform-specific credit risk factors using survival analysis models - Kaplan-Meier curves and Accelerated Failure Time (AFT) model. Our findings show that, relative to non-users, users of loan comparison platforms are characterized by elevated default rates, a greater propensity for home ownership, lower credit scores, and shorter loan durations. Furthermore, our AFT models elucidate the variance in default risk among the various loan comparison service platforms, highlighting the imperative for customized strategies that address the unique risk profiles of customers on each platform.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.459-463
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• 2024

Frequent closures among self-employed individuals lead to national economic losses. Given the high closure rates in the restaurant industry, predicting changes in this sector is crucial for business survival. While research on factors affecting restaurant industry survival is active, studies predicting commercial district changes are lacking. Thus, this study focuses on forecasting such alterations, designing a deep learning model for Seoul's administrative district commercial district changes. It collects 2023 and 2022 second-quarter variables related to these changes, converting yearly fluctuations into percentages for augmentation. The proposed deep learning model aims to predict commercial district changes. Future policies, considering this study, could support restaurant industry growth and economic development.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.6991-6996
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• 2015

In the past decade, the incidence and mortality rates of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) have been increasing worldwide. The relatively low responsiveness of CCA to conventional chemotherapy leads to poor overall survival. Recently, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL or Apo2L) has emerged as the most promising anti-cancer therapeutic agent since it is able to selectively induce apoptosis of tumor cells but not normal cells. In this study, we aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of TRAIL in CCA cell lines (M213, M214 and KKU100) compared with the immortal biliary cell line, MMNK1, either alone or in combination with a subtoxic dose of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). We found that recombinant human TRAIL (rhTRAIL) was a potential agent which significantly inhibited cell proliferation and mediated caspase activities (caspases 8, 9 and 3/7) and apoptosis of CCA cells. The combined treatment of rhTRAIL and 5-FU effectively enhanced inhibition of CCA cell growth with a smaller effect on MMNK1. Our finding suggests TRAIL to be a novel anti-cancer therapeutic agent and advantage of its combination with a conventional chemotherapeutic drug for effective treatment of CCA.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.250-254
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• 2002

The anticancer effects of leek (buchu in Korean) kimchi were evaluated in the human cancer cells: AGS gastric adenocarcinoma cells, HT-29 human colon adenocarcinoma cells and HL-60 leukemia cells. The leek kimchi (fermented for 6 days at 15$^{\circ}C$) was fractionated into 7 groups: methanol extract, hexane extract, methanol soluble extract MSE), dichloromethane (DCM) fraction (fr.), ethyl acetate fr., butanol fr. and aqueous fr. Most of the leek kimchi tractions inhibited the growth of AGS and HT-29 cancer cells in a dose dependent manner. In particular, the DCM fr. showed the highest inhibitory effect among the tractions. Treatment with the DCM fr. (0.1 mg/mL) reduced the survival rates of AGS and HT-29 cancer cells to 19% and 37% of the controls, respectively. Moreover the DCM fr. of the leek kimchi arrested G2/M phase in the cell cycle and induced apoptosis in HL-60 human promyelocytic leukemia cells. These results indicate that the leek kimchi exerted an anticancer effect on those human cancer cells, and that the DCM fr. arrested G2/M phase in the cell cycle and induced apoptosis in the leukemia cells.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.98 no.1
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• pp.115-124
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• 2009

New strain needs to maintain desirable characteristics for long term when it was bred, but in lapse of time it degenerates into a bad condition. Therefore the influence of temperature on the viability and survival rates of Lentinula edodes strains were examined after cryopreservation. Also, liquid nitrogen preservation for L. edodes has been proved to be one of the most reliable method. However, a mechanical damage of strain is inevitable during cryopreservation of the fungus because the fungus is very sensitive to stress of cooling rate in the freezing process. So we tried to find out state change of L. edodes with a programmable freezer. L. edodes strains were preserved at $-20^{\circ}C$, $-80^{\circ}C$ and $-196^{\circ}C$ for 50 days. At $-20^{\circ}C$, its mycelial growth became extinct. When thawed, the growth of mycelia which were preserved at $-80^{\circ}C$ was fastest. Attempts were made to investigate viability of L. edodes strains after freezing at $-80^{\circ}C$ and $-196^{\circ}C$, respectively. As the result, more than 90% showed high survival rate of strains tested at $-80^{\circ}C$ and $-196^{\circ}C$. Mycelial growth between apical and basal parts of colony after freezing preservation for 50 days was compared. At apical and basal parts, the survival rates showed 100% at $-80^{\circ}C$, but 98% and 94% at $-196^{\circ}C$, respectively. We confirmed that the ice crystal formation temperatures of L. edodes strains were $-6.0^{\circ}C$ for Sanlim 1, $-5.5^{\circ}C$ for the Sanlim 2, $-4.0^{\circ}C$ for the Sanlim 3 and $-15.5^{\circ}C$ for the Sanzo 302. These results indicated that L. edodes strains showed completely different responses to the ice crystal formation. We knew the fact that even the same species, especially L. edodes, they displayed completely different responses to the same freezing condition. Also, this has nothing to do with the connection between temperature type and freezing point. And a protocol was tried to minimize state change of L. edodes strains using programmable freezer when they are frozen, but it was not effective on them.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.199-205
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• 2009

This study was carried out to investigate the effective genetic resources preservation system using the frozen boar semen. The porcine oocytes were matured for 44 hours in NCSU-23 medium with or without 10% Porcine Follicle Fluid (PFF), 0.5 ${\mu}g/ml$ porcine FSH, 0.5 ${\mu}g/ml$ equine LH, 1.0 ${\mu}g/ml$ 17 $\beta$-estradiol ($E_2$) and 10 ng/ml Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) under mineral oil at $38.5^{\circ}C$ in humidified atmosphere of 5% $CO_2$ in air. After 44 h of culture, the oocytes were inseminated with frozen-thawed semen and fresh semen prepared with mTBM medium for 6 h. Later, set of 50 presumptive zygotes were transferred into 4-well dish (500 ${\mu}l$) of IVC medium. for embryos freezing, slow-freezing and vitrification methods were used as a cryopreservation. Differences among treatments were analyzed using General Linear Model Procedure by SAS Package (version 6.12) differences were considered significant when p<0.05. Following IVF and IVC, the rates of cleavage and blastocysts formation were significantly higher (p<0.05) in hormone supplemented group than that of hormone-free group (25.7 vs, 12.1). The development rates to cleavage and blastocysts were significantly higher in PZM-5 group than NCSU-23 group (60.3%, 46.6% vs 27.4%, 11.1%). Further improvement was achieved when PZM-5 was supplemented with FBS. Cleavage rates was significantly higher in fresh semen source group than frozen semen (66.7% vs 43.7%). However in blastocysts rates was similar two groups. Post-thaw survival rates of embryos were 1.2% and 2.2% in slow-frezing and vitrification groups, respectively. The results of our study suggest that it is still possible to improve the culture conditions and boar semen cryopreservation for enhance reproductive technology and animal genetic resources conservation.