• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8051-8055
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• 2014

Background: A common genetic variant rs3757318, located in intron of C6orf97, was firstly identified to be associated with breast cancer (BC) risk by a genome-wide association (GWA) study. However, subsequent validation studies with different ethnicities have yielded conflicting results. Materials and Methods: We performed a meta-analysis to synthesize all available data for evaluating the precise effect of this variant on BC susceptibility. Results: A total of 8 articles containing 11 studies with 62,891 cases and 65,635 controls were included in this meta-analysis. When compared to the G allele, the rs3757318-A allele was significantly associated with BC risk with the pooled OR of 1.21 (95% CI=1.15 - 1.29, P<0.001) but with obvious between-study heterogeneity (P=0.040). Stratified analysis suggested that diversity of ethnicity along with control source may explain part of the heterogeneity. Similarly, significant associations were also identified in heterozygote, homozygote, dominant and recessive genetic models. Sensitivity and publication bias analyses indicated robust stability of our results. Conclusions: Our present meta-analysis demonstrated that the variant rs3757318 is associated with increased BC risk. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to clarify the underlying biological mechanisms.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.3877-3880
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• 2013

Objective: To explore the expression and significance of tumor specific growth factor (TSGF), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) in cancer tissue and serum of patients with colon cancer. Materials and Methods: Radical surgery for colon cancer was performed on 43 patients with laparoscopu under conditions of general anesthesia. The Elisa method was used to detect the levels of serum TSGF, CEA and AFP before and after radical operation, and cancer tissue underwent TSGF, CEA and AFP immunohistochemistry staining after laparoscopic surgery. The decreased conditions of serum TSGF, CEA and AFP in patients with colon cancer at different levels of differentiation and clinical stagings were analyzed, and the relationships of expression rates between histological types, colon cancer morphology, lymph node metastasis and TSGF, CEA as well as AFP in cancer tissue were assessed. Results: Compared with before radical surgery, the levels of serum TSGF, CEA and AFP decreased notably in patients after operations (p<0.01). The decreased degree of TSGF and CEA was the largest in patients with poorly differentiated cancer tissue (p<0.01), while that of AFP was noted in patients with moderately differentiated cancer tissue (p<0.01). The decreased degree of TSGF and AFP was the largest in patients at phase Dukes A (p<0.01), while that of CEA in patients at phase Dukes C (p<0.01). There were no significant differences among the positive expression rates of TSGF, CEA and AFP with different histological types and colon cancer morphologies (p>0.05). The positive expression rates of TSGF and CEA in patients with lymph node metastasis were significantly higher than those without lymph node metastasis (p<0.01). Conclusions: TSGF, CEA and AFP can be used to evaluate the effect of radical operation for colon cancer, and the changed levels of different markers are associated with tumor differentiation, clinical stating and presence or absence of lymph node metastasis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.3729-3734
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to evaluate expression of COX-1 in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and its prognostic value. mRNA of COX-1 was detected in 42 paired RCC and adjacent normal tissues with quantitative realtime polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Expression of COX-1 was also evaluated in 196 RCC sections and 91 adjacent normal tissues with immunohistochemistry. Statistical analysis was performed to assess COX-1 expression in RCC and its prognostic significance. The results of qRT-PCR showed mRNA levels of COX-1 in RCC tissues to be significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues (p < 0.001). Immunohistochemical assays also revealed COX-1 to be overexpressed in RCC tissues (p < 0.001). Statistical analysis demonstrated high expression of COX-1 was correlated with tumour size (p = 0.002), pathological stage (p = 0.003), TNM stage (p = 0.003, 0.007, 0.027, respectively), and tumour recurrence (p < 0.001). Survival analysis indicated patients with high expression of COX-1 had shorter survival time (p < 0.001), and COX-1 was an independent predictor. This is the first study to reveal overexpression of COX-1 in RRC and point to use as a prognostic marker in affected patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.3607-3612
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• 2013

Introduction: Reported prognostic roles of hypoxic inducible factor (HIF) expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have varied. This meta-analysis aimed to examine the relationship between HIF expression and clinical outcome in NSCLC patients. Methods: PubMed were used to identify relevant literature with the last report up to December $20^{th}$, 2012. After careful review, survival data were collected from eligible studies. We completed the meta-analysis using Stata statistical software (Version 11) and combined hazard ratio (HR) for overall survival (OS). Subgroup specificity, heterogeneity and publication bias were also assessed. All of the results were verified by two persons to ensure accuracy. Results: Eight studies were finally stepped into this meta-analysis in which seven had available data for HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and three for HIF-$2{\alpha}$. Combined HRs suggested that higher expression of $HIF1{\alpha}$ had a negative impact on NSCLC patient survival (HR=1.50; 95%CI=1.07-2.10; p=0.019). The expression of HIF-$2{\alpha}$ was also relative to a poorer survival (HR=2.02; 95%CI=1.47-2.77; p=0.000). No bias existed in either of the two groups. Conclusion: This study suggests that elevations of HIF-$1{\alpha}$ and HIF-$2{\alpha}$ expression are both associated with poor outcome for patients with NSCLC. The data support further and high quality investigation of HIF expression for predicting poor outcome in patients with NSCLC.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.3575-3579
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• 2013

Background: The 2518 A/G polymorphism in the MCP-1 gene has been extensively studied for association swith cancer; however, results from replication studies have been inconsistent. The aim of this investigation was to determine links with risk of cancer by meta-analysis. Methods: We searched Pubmed, Embase, CNKI, Weipu and Wanfang databases, covering all case-control studies until March, 2013. Statistical analyses were performed using the Revman 5.0 software. Results: A total of 11 case-control studies met our inclusion criteria, including 1,422 cases and 2,237 controls. The results indicated that the MCP-1 2518 gene polymorphism had no association with cancer risk overall (GG vs.GA+ AA: OR = 0.89, 95%CI = 0.61-1.28, P = 0.52). However, in the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, a decrease of cancer risk was found in Asian populations (GG vs.GA+ AA: OR = 0.79, 95%CI = 0.63-0.99, P = 0.04). Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggested that the 2518A/G polymorphism of MCP-1 gene is associated with risk of cancer among Asian, but not in Caucasian populations.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1907-1912
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• 2015

Purpose: The study was designed to: (1) investigate the prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection and cervical neoplasia; and (2) evaluate clinical performance of visual inspection with acetic acid/ Lugol's iodine (VIA /VILI), Pap smear, high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) DNA test for detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN2+) and (3) explore appropriate screening approach in rural areas of Shandong Province. Materials and Methods: A total of 3,763 eligible women from Yiyuan County in Yimeng mountainous areas of rural Shandong, China, were enrolled and underwent Pap smear, HR-HPV DNA testing by Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2), and VIA /VILI tests. Women positive in any test were referred to colposcopy and biopsy as indicated. Results: The prevalence of HR-HPV infection among all enrolled women was 11.1% and that in healthy women was 9.9%. In total 33 cases of CIN1, 16 cases of CIN2, 6 cases of CIN3 but none of cervical cancer were detected and the crude prevalence of CIN2+ was 0.58%. For detecting CIN2+, the sensitivity of HR-HPV DNA testing, VIA/VILI, Pap smear was 90.9%, 77.3%, 81.8%, respectively. Pap smear had the best specificity of 98.2%, followed by HR-HPV DNA testing with specificity of 89.4%, VIA/VILI had the lowest specificity of 81.2%. Colposcopy referral rate of HR-HPV DNA testing, VIA/VILI, Pap smear was 11.1%, 18.5%, 2.3%, respectively. Conclusions: Our results suggest that HR-HPV DNA testing alone might be appropriate for primary cervical cancer screening in rural low-resource areas of Shandong Province, China.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1781-1787
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• 2015

Background: miRNAs are relatively recently discovered cancer biomarkers which have important implications for cancer early diagnosis, treatment and estimation of prognosis. Here we focussed on expression of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines so as to analyse its significance for clinicopathologic characteristics and generate enriched KEGG pathways clustered by target genes for exploring its potential roles as a biomarker in gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: The expression of mir-196a-5p in poorly, moderate and well differentiated gastric cancer cell lines compared with GES-1 was detected by RT-qPCR, and the expression of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer tissues comparing with adjacent non cancer tissues of 58 cases were also assessed by RT-qPCR. Subsequently, an analysis of clinical significance of mir-196a-5p in gastric cancer and enriched KEGG pathways was executed based on the miRWalk prediction database combined with bioinformatics tools DAVID 6.7 and Mirfocus 3.0. Results: RT-qPCR showed that mir-196a-5p was up-regulated in 6 poorly and moderate differentiated gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901, MKN-45, MKN-28, MGC-803, BGC-823, HGC-27 compared with GES-1, but down-regulated in the highly differentiated gastric cancer cell line AGS. Clinical data indicated mir-196a-5p to beup-regulated in gastric cancer tissues (47/58). Overexpression of mir-196a-5p was associated with more extensive degree of lymph node metastasis and clinical stage (P < 0.05; x2 test). Enriched KEGG pathway analyses of predicted and validated targets in miRWalk combined with DAVID 6.7 and Mirfocus 3.0 showed that the targeted genes regulated by mir-196a-5p were involved in malignancy associated biology. Conclusions: Overexpression of mir-196a-5p is associated with lymph node metastasis and clinical stage, and enriched KEGG pathway analyses showed that targeted genes regulated by mir-196a-5p may contribute to tumorgenesis, suggesting roles as an oncogenic miRNA biomarker in gastric cancer.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2016

Purpose - In this paper, the degree of similarity and dissimilarity between pairs of 50 major cities in China can be shown on the basis of three evaluation variables(internet businessman index, internet shopping index and e-commerce development index). Dissimilarity distance matrix is used to analyze both similarity and dissimilarity between each fifty city in China by calculating dissimilarity as distance. Higher value signifies higher degree of dissimilarity between two cities. Cluster analysis is exploited to classify 50 cities into a number of different groups such that similar cities are placed in the same group. In addition, multidimensional scaling(MDS) technique can obtain visual representation for exploring the pattern of proximities among 50 major cities in China based on three development performance attributes. Research design, data, and methodology - This research is performed by the 2013 report provided with AliResearch in China(1/1/2013~11/30/2013) and utilized multivariate methods such as dissimilarity distance matrix, cluster analysis and MDS by using CLUSTER, KMEANS, PROXIMITIES and ALSCAL procedures in SPSS 21.0. Results - This research applies two types of cluster analysis and MDS on three development performances based on the 2013 report of Aliresearch. As a result, it is confirmed that grouping is possible by categorizing the types into four clusters which share similar characteristics. MDS is exploited to carry out positioning of both grouped locations of cluster and 50 major cities belonging to each cluster. Since all the values corresponding to Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou(which belong to cluster 1 among 50 major cities) are very large, these cities are superior to other cities in all three evaluation attributes. Twelve cities(Beijing, ShangHai, Jinghua, ZhuHai, XiaMen, SuZhou, NanJing, DongWan, ZhangShan, JiaXing, NingBo and FoShan), which belong to cluster 3, are inferior to those of cluster 1 in terms of all three attributes, but they can be expected to be the next e-commerce revolution. The rest of major cities, in particular, which belong to cluster 4 are relatively inferior in all three attributes, so that this automatically evokes creative innovation, which leads to e-commerce development as a whole in China. In terms of internet businessman index, on the other hand, Tainan, Taizhong, and Gaoxiong(which belong to cluster 2) are situated superior to others. However, these three cities are inferior to others in an internet shopping index sense. The rest of major cities, in particular, which belong to cluster 4 are relatively inferior in all three evaluation attributes, so that this automatically evokes innovation and entrepreneurship, which leads to e-commerce development as a whole in China. Conclusions - This study suggests the implications to help e-governmental officers and companies make strategies in both Korea and China. This is expected to give some useful information in understanding the recent situation of e-commerce in China, by looking over development performances of 50 major cities. Therefore, we should develop marketing, branding and communication relevant to online Chinese consumers. One of these efforts will be incentives like loyalty points and coupons that can encourage consumers and building in-house logistics networks.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.425-425
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• 2009

그라핀을 금속 촉매를 이용하여 상압 혹은 저진공 CVD로 성장할 경우 대형 기판을 쉽게 얻을 수 있으므로 최근 들어 금속 촉매를 이용한 CVD 기술이 재 각광받고 있다. 최근 MIT의 Jing Kong 그룹, Purdue 대학의 Yong P. Chen 그룹, 국내에서는 성균관대학에서 이에 대한 논문을 발표한 바 있다. CVD 방법의 가장 큰 장점은 그라핀 박막의 가장 큰 문제점 중 하나인 대형 기판에 매우 유리하다는 점이다. 본 연구에서는 결함 없는 대형 그라핀기판을 얻기위해 Si/$SiO_2$/Ni 박막위에 그라핀을 LPCVD로 성장하는 실험을 진행하였다. 우선 시료는 Si위에 $SiO_2$를 Sputtering으로 증착하였고, 그 위에 250nm, 300nm두께의 Ni 박막을 e-beam evaporator로 증착하였다. $0.5-1cm^2$ 크기의 샘플을 Thermal CVD 장비를 이용하여 그라핀을 성장하는 실험을 진행하였다. 성장 압력은 95 torr, 성장온도는 $800^{\circ}C$, $850^{\circ}C$, $900^{\circ}C$에서 Hydrocarbon ($C_2H_2$)을 5min, 10min으로 성장시간을 split하였다. Hydrocarbon을 흘리기 전에 Ni grain을 성장하기 위해 성장온도에서 30~60min정도 $H_2$분위기에서 Ni 산화막의 환원 및 어닐링을 진행하였다. 그림.1은 $850^{\circ}C$, 5분간 성장한 그라핀/Ni 샘플의 광학사진이다. 그림.2는 $850^{\circ}C$에서 5min, 10min 성장한 샘플의 Raman spectrum이다. (파장은 514.532nm). 850C 10min 샘플은 G>G' peak 이지만, 5min으로 성장한 샘플의 경우 G'>G peak 임을 알 수 있고, 따라서 5min의 조건에서는 층 두께가 4층 미만의 그라핀 박막을 얻을 수 있음을 보여준다. 또한 G' peak의 위치가 두께가 감소할수록 내려감을 확인할 수 있다. 다만 D peak가 실험한 대부분의 샘플에서 보여서 아직 성장한 그라핀의 결합이 많은 것으로 보인다. 이러한 이유는 성장온도가 낮은 것이 일차 원인으로 생각되며 박막의 균일도 향상과 결함을 줄이기 위한 추가적인 개선 실험을 진행 중이다.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1703-1712
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• 2015

The in vitro maturation (IVM) efficiency of porcine embryos is still low because of poor oocyte quality. Although brilliant cresyl blue positive (BCB+) oocytes with low glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) activity have shown superior quality than BCB negative (-) oocytes with high G6PDH activity, the use of a BCB staining test before IVM is still controversial. This study aimed to shed more light on the subcellular characteristics of porcine oocytes after selection using BCB staining. We assessed germinal vesicle chromatin configuration, cortical granule (CG) migration, mitochondrial distribution, the levels of acetylated lysine 9 of histone H3 (AcH3K9) and nuclear apoptosis features to investigate the correlation between G6PDH activity and these developmentally related features. A pattern of chromatin surrounding the nucleoli was seen in 53.0% of BCB+ oocytes and 77.6% of BCB+ oocytes showed peripherally distributed CGs. After IVM, 48.7% of BCB+ oocytes had a diffused mitochondrial distribution pattern. However, there were no significant differences in the levels of AcH3K9 in the nuclei of blastocysts derived from BCB+ and BCB- oocytes; at the same time, we observed a similar incidence of apoptosis in the BCB+ and control groups. Although this study indicated that G6PDH activity in porcine oocytes was correlated with several subcellular characteristics such as germinal vesicle chromatin configuration, CG migration and mitochondrial distribution, other features such as AcH3K9 level and nuclear apoptotic features were not associated with G6PDH activity and did not validate the BCB staining test. In using this test for selecting porcine oocytes, subcellular characteristics such as the AcH3K9 level and apoptotic nuclear features should also be considered. Adding histone deacetylase inhibitors or apoptosis inhibitors into the culture medium used might improve the efficiency of IVM of BCB+ oocytes.