• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.41 no.1 s.112
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• pp.106-120
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• 2006

Natural or man-made disaster has been expected to be one of the potential themes that can integrate human geography and physical geography. Typhoons like Rusa and Maemi caused great loss to insurance companies as well as public sectors. We have implemented a natural disaster management system for a private insurance company to produce better estimation of hazards from high wind as well as calculate vulnerability of damage. Climatic gauge sites and addresses of contract's objects were geo-coded and the pressure values along all the typhoon tracks were vectorized into line objects. National GIS topog raphic maps with scale of 1: 5,000 were updated into base maps and digital elevation model with 30 meter space and land cover maps were used for reflecting roughness of land to wind velocity. All the data are converted to grid coverage with $1km{\times}1km$. Vulnerability curve of Munich Re was ad opted, and preprocessor and postprocessor of wind velocity model was implemented. Overlapping the location of contracts on the grid value coverage can show the relative risk, with given scenario. The wind velocities calculated by the model were compared with observed value (average $R^2=0.68$). The calibration of wind speed models was done by dropping two climatic gauge data, which enhanced $R^2$ values. The comparison of calculated loss with actual historical loss of the insurance company showed both underestimation and overestimation. This system enables the company to have quantitative data for optimizing the re-insurance ratio, to have a plan to allocate enterprise resources and to upgrade the international creditability of the company. A flood model, storm surge model and flash flood model are being added, at last, combined disaster vulnerability will be calculated for a total disaster management system.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 1996

Objectives: Although outbreak of MDR Tb has been a recent problem in western countries, it has been a longstanding problem in Korea. The poor outcome of MDR Tb is mainly due to poor compliance, high rate of side reaction of secondary drugs, and limitation in number of available drugs. Thus, to improve the outcome of MDR Tb, it is crucial to make individualized adequate prescription based on the knowledge of the patterns of resistance to each drugs in the community as well as the natural history. The purpose of present study is to evaluate the clinical features of Korean MDR Tb patients including patterns of drug resistance and success rate of treatment which was prescribed according to the sensitivity tests. Methods: Retroscpective analysis of 71 Korean patients with MDR Tb was made. All strains isolated from patients showed resistence to at least two first line drugs. Patients profile, previous treatment history, patterns of drug resistance, outcome of treatment was analysed. Initial treatment regimen was selected according to the previous treatment history and was modified according to the sensitivity reports. The regimen was composed to include at least 4 sensitive drugs when possible. Results: The patients showed resistance to 4.1 drugs on average. 90% of them were resistant to INH and RFP. Among 71 patients, 35 patients(49%) had cavitary lesions in CXR. Treatment outcome was analysed in 55 patients. 35 patients(67%) were improved after treatment and 18 patients(33%) showed treatment failure. 5 patients showed primary resistance. Treatment outcome could be evaluated in 4 of them and all showed improvement after treatment. 14 patients(20%) had to change their regimens due to drug side effects. The most frequent side effect was elevation of liver enzymes(6 patients). Others included dizziness, hyperuricemia, tinnitus, skin rash, GI troubles. More than 50% of side effects developed within 3 months. In repeated drug sensitivity test, the concordance rate of resistance to INH was 100% and RFP 98%. EMB, PZA showed 80% concordance rate. But in the other drugs, the concordances were less than 50%. Operation was done in 5 patient - 1 patients as a adjunctive means of chemotherapy -. In that case, negative conversion of sputum AFB was done. Conclusion: 2/3 patients of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis were improved by appropriate prescription and regular medication suggesting that more aggressive management and monitoring is indicated in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.2
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• pp.120-125
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• 2011

Background: Although the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis has progressively decreased all over the world, drug-resistant tuberculosis is major obstacle in treating tuberculosis. This study was performed to examine the current prevalence and risk factors of drug resistant tuberculosis in a single tertiary hospital in Busan, Korea. Methods: We enrolled 367 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis on a retrospective basis who had undergone mycobacterium culture and drug sensitivity tests between January 2005 and December 2009. We analyzed all clinical and radiographic parameters to find predictors related to drug resistant tuberculosis. Results: At least one incident of drug resistance was found in 75 (20.4%) patients. Isoniazid (18.8%) was the most frequent resistant drug, followed by rifampin (10.9%), ethambutol (7.1%), streptomycin (4.9%), and fluoroquinolone (2.7%). Resistance to second-line drugs was found in 37 (10.1%) patients. Multidrug resistance and extensively drug resistance was evident in 39 (10.6%) and 4 (1.1%) patients, respectively. Using multiple logistic regression analysis, history of previous treatment including relapse (odd ratio [OR], 11.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.92~26.08; p<0.01), treatment failure (OR, 24.1; 95% CI, 5.65~102.79; p<0.01) and an age of below 46 years-old (OR, 3.8; 95% CI, 1.62~8.65; p<0.01) were found to be independent predictors of multidrug resistant tuberculosis. Conclusion: We found that the prevalence of drug resistant tuberculosis was considerably high. A careful consideration for possible drug resistant tuberculosis is warranted in patients with a history of previous treatment or for younger patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 2013

This study investigated the ability of extracts from Lentinus edodes (LE) and rice with Lentinus edodes mycelium (LEM) to inhibit diabetes and obesity. Lipid accumulation significantly decreased by 78% and 74% upon treatment with 300 ${\mu}g/mL$ of LE and LEM, respectively (p<0.01). Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibition activity increased by 94% and 99% upon treatment with 300 ${\mu}g/mL$ of LE and LEM, respectively. In order to investigate the effect of LE and LEM on diabetes, the inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphate 1B (PTP1B) activity from the LE and LEM extracts at various concentrations (1, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300 ${\mu}g/mL$) was assessed. PTP1B activity by treatment with 10, 30, and 100 ${\mu}g/mL$ of LE, was inhibited at a rate of 7, 9, and 7% respectively. Also, PTP1B activity from treatment with increasing concentration of LEM led to a significant concentration-dependent inhibition of PTP1B activity (p<0.01). LE and LEM were orally administered for 28 days after a high fat diet (HFD). LE and LEM significantly reduced triglyceride, cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels. GOT and GPT were not significantly effected. These results indicate that extracts of LE and rice with LEM have potent activities useful in the treatment of obesity and diabetes mellitus.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2020

To understand the impact of typhoons on Gamji gravel beach Taejongdae in Busan, we carried out beach profiling using a VRS-GPS system and a Drone photogrammetry for the typhoons 'Kong-rey' invaded in October 2018 and 'Danas' in July 2019. In addition, grain sizes are analyzed to investigate the overall distribution pattern of gravels on the beach, and the beach topography is surveyed periodically to confirm the recovery rate of the beach. Grain-size analysis reveals that mean gravel sizes, in general, become finer from -6.2Φ to -5.4Φ towards the east in the seashore line direction. Variation in mean sizes is obviously observed in the cross-shore direction. Gravels in the swash zone are relatively fine about -4.5Φ in size and equant in shape, whereas the coarse and oblate gravels ranged from -5Φ to -6Φ are found in the berm. Gamji gravel beach particularly has two lines of berms: a lower berm situated facing beach and an upper berm about 10 m landward. After the typhoon Kong-rey passed by, about 1.4 m of severe erosion in upper berm occurred, and the berm eventually disappeared. On the backshore of the upper berm about 50 cm of erosion took place so that the elevation became lower. However, tangible erosion was not observed in the lower berm. When typhoon Danas hit, rated as mild storm, both upper and lower berm were eroded out. However, about 50 cm of deposition occurred only in the backshore. Only three days later, the new lower berm was formed, meaning that sedimentation rate must be high. This result indicates that Gamji gravel beach is recovered very fast from erosion caused by the typhoons when it is under the fair-weather condition even though beach morphology changes dramatically in a short period of time. Gravel beach is estimated to be or evaluated very resilient to typhoon erosion.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.63-64
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• 1996

The nature of distant faint blue field galaxies remains a mystery, despite the fact that much attention has been devoted to this subject in the last decade. Galaxy counts, particularly those in the optical and near ultraviolet bandpasses, have been demonstrated to be well in excess of those expected in the 'no-evolution' scenario. This has usually been taken to imply that galaxies were brighter in the past, presumably due to a higher rate of star formation. More recently, redshift surveys of galaxies as faint as B$\~$24 have shown that the mean redshift of faint blue galaxies is lower than that predicted by standard evolutionary models (de-signed to fit the galaxy counts). The galaxy number count data and redshift data suggest that evolutionary effects are most prominent at the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function. While these data constrain the form of evolution of the overall luminosity function, they do not constrain evolution in individual galaxies. We are carrying out a series of observations as part of a long-term program aimed at a better understanding of the nature and amount of luminosity evolution in individual galaxies. Our study uses the luminosity-linewidth relation (Tully-Fisher relation) for disk galaxies as a tool to study luminosity evolution. Several studies of a related nature are being carried out by other groups. A specific experiment to test a 'no-evolution' hypothesis is presented here. We have used the AUTOFIB multifibre spectro-graph on the 4-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and the Rutgers Fabry-Perot imager on the Cerro Tolalo lnteramerican Observatory (CTIO) 4-metre tele-scope to measure the internal kinematics of a representative sample of faint blue field galaxies in the red-shift range z = 0.15-0.4. The emission line profiles of [OII] and [OIII] in a typical sample galaxy are significantly broader than the instrumental resolution (100-120 km $s^{-l}$), and it is possible to make a reliable de-termination of the linewidth. Detailed and realistic simulations based on the properties of nearby, low-luminosity spirals are used to convert the measured linewidth into an estimate of the characteristic rotation speed, making statistical corrections for the effects of inclination, non-uniform distribution of ionized gas, rotation curve shape, finite fibre aperture, etc.. The (corrected) mean characteristic rotation speed for our distant galaxy sample is compared to the mean rotation speed of local galaxies of comparable blue luminosity and colour. The typical galaxy in our distant sample has a B-band luminosity of about 0.25 L$\ast$ and a colour that corresponds to the Sb-Sd/Im range of Hub-ble types. Details of the AUTOFIB fibre spectroscopic study are described by Rix et al. (1996). Follow-up deep near infrared imaging with the 10-metre Keck tele-scope+ NIRC combination and high angular resolution imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope's WFPC2 are being used to determine the structural and orientation parameters of galaxies on an individual basis. This information is being combined with the spatially resolved CTIO Fabry-Perot data to study the internal kinematics of distant galaxies (Ing et al. 1996). The two main questions addressed by these (preliminary studies) are: 1. Do galaxies of a given luminosity and colour have the same characteristic rotation speed in the distant and local Universe? The distant galaxies in our AUTOFIB sample have a mean characteristic rotation speed of $\~$70 km $s^{-l}$ after correction for measurement bias (Fig. 1); this is inconsistent with the characteristic rotation speed of local galaxies of comparable photometric proper-ties (105 km $s^{-l}$) at the > $99\%$ significance level (Fig. 2). A straightforward explanation for this discrepancy is that faint blue galaxies were about 1-1.5 mag brighter (in the B band) at z $\~$ 0.25 than their present-day counterparts. 2. What is the nature of the internal kinematics of faint field galaxies? The linewidths of these faint galaxies appear to be dominated by the global disk rotation. The larger galaxies in our sample are about 2"-.5" in diameter so one can get direct insight into the nature of their internal velocity field from the $\~$ I" seeing CTIO Fabry-Perot data. A montage of Fabry-Perot data is shown in Fig. 3. The linewidths are too large (by. $5\sigma$) to be caused by turbulence in giant HII regions.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.304-313
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• 2006

Background : Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is an inducible enzyme that catalyzes the oxidative degradation of heme to form biliverdin, carbon monoxide (CO), and free iron. The current evidence has indicated a critical role of HO-1 in cytoprotection and also in other, more diverse biological functions. It is known that the high expression of HO-1 occurs in various tumors, and that HO-1 has an important role in rapid tumor growth because of its antioxidative and antiapoptotic effects. Therefore, the role of HO-1 was analyzed in human lung cancer cell lines, and especially in the A549 cell line. Material and Methods : Human lung cancer cell lines, i.e., A549, NCI-H23, NCI-H157 and NCI-H460, were used for this study. The expression of HO-1 in the untreated state was defined by Western blotting. ZnPP, which is the specific HO inhibitor we used, and the viability of cells were tested for by conducting MTT assaysy. The HO enzymatic activity, as determined via the bilirubin level, was also indirectly measured. Moreover, the generation of intracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was monitored fluorimetrically with using a scopoletin-horse radish peroxidase (HRP) assay and 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA). We have also transfected small HO-1 interfering RNA (siRNA) into A549 cells, and the apoptotic effects were evaluated by flow cytometric analysis and Western blotting. Results : The A549 cells had a greater expression of HO-1 than the other cell lines, whereas ZnPP significantly decreased the viability of the A549 cells more than the viability of the other lung cancer cells in a dose-dependant fashion. Consistent with the viability, the HO enzymatic activity also was decreased. Moreover, intracellular H2O2 generation via ZnPP was induced in a dose-dependent manner. Apoptotic events were, then induced in the HO-1 siRNA transfected A549 cells. Conclusion : HO-1 provides new important insights into the possible molecular mechanism of the antitumor therapy in lung cancer.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.293-300
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• 2011

This study is conducted to develop an efficient transformation system via particle bombardment with PLBs (Protocorm-like bodies) in Cymbidium. For this, pCAMBIA3301 vector which carries a herbicide-resistant bar gene and gus gene as a reporter gene was used for transformation with Cymbidium cultivars 'Youngflower ${\times}$ masako' line. To select transformants, proper concentration of herbicide, PPT (phosphinotricin), should be determined. As a result, 5 mg/l of PPT was selected as a proper concentration. Further, proper conditions for particle bombardment were determined to obtain a high frequency of transformation. Results showed that 1.0 ${\mu}g$ of DNA concentration, 1,100 and 1,350 psi for helium gas pressure, 1.0 ${\mu}m$ of gold particle and 6 cm of target distance showed the best result for the particle bombardment experiment. Also, pre-treatment with combination 0.2 M sorbitol and 0.2 M mannitol for 4 hrs prior to genetic transformation increased the transformation efficiency up to 2.5 times. Using transformation system developed in this study, 3.2 ~ 4.0 transgenic cymbidium plants can be produced from 100 bombarded PLBs on average. Putative transgenic plants produced in this system confirmed the presence of the bar gene by PCR analysis. Also, leaves from randomely selected five transgenic lines were applied for Basta solution (0.5% v/v) to check the resistance to the PPT herbicide. As a result, three of them showed resistance and one of them showed the strongest resistance with the maintenance of green color as non-transformed plants showed. Using this established transformation system, more genes of interests can be introduced into Cymbidium plants by genetic transformation in the future.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.389-397
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• 2018

The structure of glycan residues attached to glycoproteins can influence the biological activity, stability, and safety of pharmaceutical proteins delivered from transgenic pig milk. The production of therapeutic glycoprotein in transgenic livestock animals is limited, as the glycosylation of mammary gland cells and the production of glycoproteins with the desired homogeneous glycoform remain a challenge. The ${\beta}$-1,3-N-acetylglucosaminylatransferase1 (B3GNT1) gene is an important enzyme that attaches N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) to galactose (Gal) residues for protein glycosylation; however, there is limited information about pig glycosyltransferases. Therefore, we cloned the pig B3GNT1 (pB3GNT1) and investigated its functional properties that could attach N-acetylglucosamine to galactose residue. Using several different primers, a partial pB3GNT1 mRNA sequence containing the full open reading frame (ORF) was isolated from liver tissue. The ORF of pB3GNT1 contained 1,248 nucleotides and encoded 415 amino acid residues. Organ-dependent expression of the pB3GNT1 gene was confirmed in various organs from adult and juvenile pigs. The pB3GNT1 mRNA expression level was high in the muscles of the heart and small intestine but was lower in the lungs. For functional characterization of pB3GNT1, we established a stable expression of the pB3GNT1 gene in the porcine kidney cell line (PK-15). As a result, it was suggested that the glycosylation pattern of pB3GNT1 expression in PK-15 cells did not affect the total sialic acid level but increased the poly N-acetyllactosamine level. The results of this study can be used to produce glycoproteins with improved properties and therapeutic potential for the generation of desired glycosylation using transgenic pigs as bioreactors.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.135-142
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• 2001

A novel sterategy has been established to determine the origin of the Primordial Germ Cells (PGCs) in avian embryos directly and the developmental fate of the PGCs for the application to Poultry biotechnology. Cells were removed from 1) the centre of area pellucida, 2) the outer of area pellucida and 3) the area opaca of the stage X blastoderm (Eyal-Giladi & Kochav, 1976). When the cells were removed from the centre of area pellucida, the mean number of circulating PGCs in blood was significantly decreased in the embryo at stage 15 (Hamburger & Hamilton, 1951) as compared to intact embryos. When the cells were replenished with donor cells, no reduction in the PGCs number was observed. The removal of cells at the outer of area pellucida or at the area opaca had no effect on the number of PGCs. In case, another set of the manipulated embryos were cultured ex vivo to the hatching and reared to the sexual maturity, the absence of germ cells and degeneration of seminiferous tubules was observed in resulting chickens derived from the blastoderm in which the cells were removed from the centre of the area pellucida. It was concluded that the avian Primordial Germ cells are originated at the center of area pellucida. Developmental ability of the cells to differentiate into somatic cells and germ cells in chimeras were analyzed. Somatic chimerism was detected as black feather attributed from donor cells. Molecular identification by use of female - specific DNA was performed. It was confirmed that the donor cells could be differentiated into chimeric body and erythrocytes. Donor cells retained the ability to differentiate into germline in chimeric gonads. More than 70% of the generated chimeras transmitted donor derived gametes to their offspring indicating that the cells at the center of area pellucida had the high ability to differentiate into germ cells. A molecular technique to identify germline chimerism has been developed by use of gene scan analysis. Strain specific DNA fragments were amplified by the method. It would be greatly contributed for the detection of germline chimerism. Mixed- sex chimeras which contained both male and female cells were produced to investigate the developmental fate of male and female cells in ovary and testes. The sex combinations of donor and recipient of the resulting chimeras were following 4 pairs; (1) chimeras (ZZ/ZZ) produced by a male donor (ZZ) and a male recipient (ZZ), (2) chimeras (ZW/ZW) produced by a female donor (ZW) and a female recipient (ZW), (3) chimeras (ZZ/ZW) Produce by a male donor (ZZ) and a female recipient (ZW), (4) chimeras (ZW/ZZ) produced by a female donor (ZW) and a male recipient (ZZ). It was found that genetically male avian germ cells could differentiate into functional ova and that genetically female germ cells can differentiate into functional spermatozoa in the gonad of the mixed- sex chimeras. An ability for introduction of exogenous DNA into the PGCs from stage X blastoderms were analyzed. Two reporter genes, SV-$\beta$gal and RSV-GFP, were introduced into the PGCs. Expression of bacterial/gal was improved by complexing DNA with liposome detectedcc in 75% of embryos at 3 days embryos. At the embryos incubated for 1 day, expression of the GFP was observed all the embryos. At day 3 of incubation, GFP was detected in about 70% of the manipulated embryos. In case of GFP, expression of the transgene was detected in 30 %e of the manipulated embryos. These results suggested that the cells is one of the most promising vectors for transgenesis. The established strategy should be very powerfull for application to poultry biotechnology.