• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.719-726
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• 2013

Mitochondrial genomes have been extensively studied for phylogenetic purposes and to investigate intra- and interspecific genetic variations. In recent years, numerous groups have undertaken sequencing of platyhelminth mitochondrial genomes. Haplorchis taichui (family Heterophyidae) is a trematode that infects humans and animals mainly in Asia, including the Mekong River basin. We sequenced and determined the organization of the complete mitochondrial genome of H. taichui. The mitochondrial genome is 15,130 bp long, containing 12 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs, a small and a large subunit), and 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs). Like other trematodes, it does not encode the atp8 gene. All genes are transcribed from the same strand. The ATG initiation codon is used for 9 protein-coding genes, and GTG for the remaining 3 (nad1, nad4, and nad5). The mitochondrial genome of H. taichui has a single long non-coding region between trnE and trnG. H. taichui has evolved as being more closely related to Opisthorchiidae than other trematode groups with maximal support in the phylogenetic analysis. Our results could provide a resource for the comparative mitochondrial genome analysis of trematodes, and may yield genetic markers for molecular epidemiological investigations into intestinal flukes.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.362-366
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• 2009

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most often seen type of cardiomyopathy in cats. The cause is unknown but a genetic basis is thought to underlie some cases. Thromboembolism (TE) is a troubling complication in cats with myocardial disease. Two cats referred to Seoul National University Hospital for Animals with the paralysis of bilateral hindlimbs after vomiting. The cats were depressed and the bilateral hindlimbs were cyanotic, cool and painful. Heart murmur sounds were auscultated in both cases. Through radiographic and echocardiographic evaluation, HCM was diagnosed. TE at the distal aortic trifurcation was also visualized on abdominal ultrasonography. Both cats were expired and HCM and saddle thrombus were confirmed by postmortem examination in one cat.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.258-265
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• 2004

The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of EC and pH of nutrient solution on the growth and quality of the single-stemmed rose grown in a rose factory installed with hydroponic system. The growth and quality of the single-stemmed rose were not significantly different from each other with the EC of the nutrient solutions $1.0\~3.5dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$, which resulted in concluding high concentration of the nutrient solution was not necessary. The optimum range of the EC for single-stemmed rose was $1.5\~2.0dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ considering plant growth, photosynthetic and transpiration rates. The optimum range of the pH for good plant growth without any visible physiological disorder was $4.0\~6.0$. Therefore, to keep the pH of the nutrient solution for rose low compared to other plants was beneficial for plant growth and uptake of the mineral ions.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.54-58
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• 2009

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with several cardiovascular diseases. However, the mechanisms are not completely understood. The measure of common carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) has been extensively used as an early marker of atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that early signs of atherosclerosis are present in patients with OSA and correlate with OSA severity Methods: Eleven male patients with OSA were studied by using full standard overnight polysomnography and high-definition echo-tracking device to measure intima-media thickness and carotid artery diameter. Eight healthy volunteers matched for age and sex were studied by portable respiratory monitoring device. All participants were free of hypertension, diabetes, and were not on any medications. Patients with OSA were naive to treatment. Results: All patients and normal controls were male. There was no significant difference of age between patients and controls ($48.4{\pm}8.85$ and $48.0{\pm}9.77$). Significant differences existed between control subjects and patients with mild to moderate and severe OSA (apnea-hypopnea index, $1.51{\pm}1.15$ and $38.51{\pm}19.13$ respectively) in intima-media thickness ($0.59{\pm}0.064$ and $0.93{\pm}0.16$; P=0.0023), and carotid diameter ($5.79{\pm}0.44$ and $6.47{\pm}0.51$; P=0.0227). Multivariate analyses showed that the apnea-hypopnea index correlated independently with intima-media thickness and carotid diameter (r=0.79, P=0.0008, and r=0.47, P=0.0482). Conclusions: Middle-aged patients with OSA who are free of overt cardiovascular diseases have early signs of atherosclerosis, which further supports the hypothesis that OSA plays an independent role in atherosclerosis progression.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.363-373
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• 1986

We developed a giant colony test system with rapidly growing mycobacteria by stab-culture with a loopful inoculum of cells into Middlebrook 7H10 agar medium containing soluble extracts of the fruits of Gardenia jasminoides(7H10-crocin agar medium) and assessed the significance of the giant colony test with 28 strains of 10 clusters of rapidly growing mycobacteria classified by the simple biological 5-test characters. Of the 10 clusters of mycobacteria tested, some of strains which belonged to cluster No. 1a, 5a and 11a did grow as gravis types, whereas most of other clusters gave mitis or intermedius types in their colonial sizes at 12 days culture. By this test, pathogenic strains of M. fortuitum-chelonei complex which belonged to cluster No. 5a, b, 7a and 8a, b could be divided into gravis, intermedius and mitis colony types and the gravis ones were characterized by bluish-white "mushroom-shaped" colonies with central complexes in the texture, whereas the intermedius gave grayish-white "flower-shaped" colonies with radiated folds, but without any central complexes. The mitis colonies were characterized by grayish-white smooth or smooth mucoid colonies and were common among the clusters in their shapes. The colony of M. chelonei was bluish-white mitis type and was characterized by its hilly rhizoid colony. The gravis colony of cluster No. 1a identified as M. phlei was characterized by yellow "round straw- mat-shaped" or "chrysanthemum-shaped" colony with whole complexes in the texture, and the gravis colonies of the cluster No. 11a gave grayish-white "flower-shaped" colonies with central stamens, radiating trough and fine cup-shaped strands in the texture. The four colony types of pathogenic species of M. fortuitum-chelonei complex on 7H10-crocin agar medium were distinctive from those of other clusters of rapidly growing mycobacteria and these results indicated that the giant colony test, in conjunction with the simple 5-test characters, would be of value in the differentiation of M. fortuitum complex from other clusters of rapidly growing mycobacteria.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.168-173
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• 1982

The present study was carried to observe the total mercury contents in fresh-water fishes which were collected from 24 streams in the South-East area, Korea. These total mercury contents were determined by quartz tube combustion gold amalgamation method. The value of total mercury contents in collected fresh-water fishes ranged from 0.02ppm to 0.12ppm and the mean value were 0.07ppm. The total value of mercury contents differed with the fish species showing 0.09ppm in Carassius auratus, 0.10ppm in Coilia ectenes, 0.11ppm in Moroca lagowskii and Squalidus majime and 0.12ppm in Cobitis taenia which were highly more than the mean value of collected fishes. The mean value of the total mercury contents in the Yeong Il Gun (0.09PPm), Gim Hae Gun (0.08ppm) and Meong Ju Gun (0.08ppm) were highly detected than those of other surveyed areas.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.101-112
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• 1995

In order to construct a feature map-based phoneme classification system for speech recognition, two procedures are usually required. One is clustering and the other is labeling. In this paper, we present a phoneme classification system based on the Kohonen's Self-Organizing Feature Map (SOFM) for clusterer and labeler. It is known that the SOFM performs self-organizing process by which optimal local topographical mapping of the signal space and yields a reasonably high accuracy in recognition tasks. Consequently, SOFM can effectively be applied to the recognition of phonemes. Besides to improve the performance of the phoneme classification system, we propose the learning algorithm combined with the classical K-mans clustering algorithm in fine-tuning stage. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed phoneme classification algorithm, we first use totaly 43 phonemes which construct six intra-class feature maps for six different phoneme classes. From the speaker-dependent phoneme classification tests using these six feature maps, we obtain recognition rate of $87.2\%$ and confirm that the proposed algorithm is an efficient method for improvement of recognition performance and convergence speed.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.112-124
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• 2002

2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) has been reported to exert detrimental toxicities on various organ systems including reproductive, cardiovascular, nervous, or dermal system. Immunomodulatory effects of TCDD is thymic atrophy, downregulation of cytotoxic T or B lymphocyte differentiation and activation, which were demonstrated using experimental animals, whereas immunotoxicity in human has not been investigated well. This study was proceeded to evaluate general immunologic spectrum of the Korean Vietnam War veterans exposed to TCDD during their operation, and compare with that of the non-exposed control subjects with similar age. Regarding composition and quantity, immune cells in peripheral blood collected from the TCDD-exposed was not much different from those of the control except decreased red blood cell, hemoglobin and hematocrit level. Furthermore, plasma IgG2, G3, and G4 isotype distribution was similar between two groups, but IgG1 level was significantly lowered in the TCDD-exposed, indicating a TCDD-mediated functional alteration of B cells. Significantly enhanced level of IgE in plasma, a hallmark of dermal or respiratory allergic response, was also observed in the TCDD-exposed compared with that of the control. Elevated generation of IL-4 and IL-10 was resulted from in vitro stimulation of T cells with PMA plus ionomycin or PHA, respectively, from the TCDD-exposed in comparison to those of the control, suggesting a skewed type-2 response. In addition, the level of IFN${\gamma}$, a multifunctional cytokine for T cell-mediated immunity, was lowered in the TCDD-exposed with upregulation of tumor necrosis factor $\alpha$. The present study suggests that TCDD exposure disturbs immunohomeostasis in humans observed as an aberrant plasma IgE and IgG1 levels and dysregulation of T cell activities.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2013

Purpose: Meckel's diverticulum (MD) has various clinical manifestations, and diagnosis or selectection of proper diagnostic tools is not easy. This study was conducted in order to assess the clinical differences of MD diagnosed by scintigraphic and non-scintigraphic methods and to find the proper diagnostic tools. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review ofthe clinical, surgical, radiologic, and pathologic findings of 34 children with symptomatic MD, who were admitted to Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Inha University Hospital, and The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital between January 2000 and December 2012. The patients were evaluated according to scintigraphic (12 cases; group 1) and non-scintigraphic (22 cases; group 2) diagnosis. Results: The male to female ratio was 7.5: 1. The most frequent chief complaint was lower gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding in group 1 and nonspecific abdominal pain in group 2, respectively. The most frequent pre-operative diagnosis was MD in both groups. Red blood cell (RBC) index was significantly lower in group 1. MD was located at 7 cm to 85 cm from the ileocecal valve. Four patients in group 1 had ectopic gastric tissues causing lower GI bleeding. The most frequent treatment modality was diverticulectomy in group 1 and ileal resection in group 2, respectively. Conclusion: To diagnose MD might be delayed unless proper diagnostic tools are considered. It is important to understand indications of scintigraphic and non-scintigraphic methods according to clinical and hematologic features of MD. Scintigraphy would be weighed in patients with anemia as well as GI symptoms.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.979-992
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• 2018

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the third most important food crop, and breeding drought-tolerant varieties is vital research goal. However, detailed molecular mechanisms in response to drought stress in potatoes are not well known. In this study, we developed EMS-mutagenized potatoes that showed significant tolerance to drought stress compared to the wild-type (WT) 'Desiree' cultivar. In addition, changes to transcripts as a result of drought stress in WT and drought-tolerant (DR) plants were investigated by de novo assembly using the Illumina platform. One-week-old WT and DR plants were treated with -1.8 Mpa polyethylene glycol-8000, and total RNA was prepared from plants harvested at 0, 6, 12, 24, and 48 h for subsequent RNA sequencing. In total, 61,100 transcripts and 5,118 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) displaying up- or down-regulation were identified in pairwise comparisons of WT and DR plants following drought conditions. Transcriptome profiling showed the number of DEGs with up-regulation and down-regulation at 909, 977, 1181, 1225 and 826 between WT and DR plants at 0, 6, 12, 24, and 48 h, respectively. Results of KEGG enrichment showed that the drought tolerance mechanism of the DR plant can mainly be explained by two aspects, the 'photosynthetic-antenna protein' and 'protein processing of the endoplasmic reticulum'. We also divided eight expression patterns in four pairwise comparisons of DR plants (DR0 vs DR6, DR12, DR24, DR48) under PEG treatment. Our comprehensive transcriptome data will further enhance our understanding of the mechanisms regulating drought tolerance in tetraploid potato cultivars.