• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.1114-1119
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• 2012

Bacteria are frequently contaminated during the collection and processing procedures of boar semen. Of the contaminants, Stenotrophomonas (S.) maltophilia is a Gram-negative bacterium that is widely distributed in a variety of habitats. Although PCR assays have been developed for the detection of S. maltophilia, they cross-react with some species of Xanthomonas. In this study, we designed a primer set for the detection of S. maltophilia in order to target the chiA (GenBank accession no. NC_010943) gene. The specific PCR products were amplified from S. maltophilia only, not from other tested strains that are frequently found in semen. The detection limit of the PCR was $1.5{\times}10^3$ CFU/ml with pure-cultured S. maltophilia and $1.5{\times}10^4$ CFU/ml with S. maltophilia spiked in semen. Twenty-six (5.9%) S. maltophilia were isolated from 440 semen samples. The PCR results exhibited 98.9% agreement with a comparison of S. maltophilia isolation. Also, the sensitivity and specificity of the PCR were 100% and 98.7%, respectively. In the antimicrobial susceptibility test, S. maltophilia isolates were highly susceptible to enrofloxacin and florfenicol, while the majority of them were resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, apramycin, ceftiofur, penicillin, and spectinomycin. These results indicated that the PCR using the chiA gene was proven to be reliable and effective for the detection of S. maltophilia with high levels of sensitivity and specificity.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1383-1391
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• 2016

Anti-estrogen drugs such as tamoxifen have been used for treating patients with ER-positive, early breast cancer. However, resistance to anti-estrogen treatment is inevitable in most patients. Breast cancer anti-estrogen resistance-3 (BCAR3) has been identified as the protein responsible for the induction of tamoxifen resistance in estrogen-dependent human breast cancer. We have previously reported that BCAR3 regulates the cell cycle progression and the signaling pathway of EGF and insulin leading to DNA synthesis. In this study, we investigated the functional role of BCAR3 in regulating c-Jun transcription in non-tumorigenic human breast epithelial MCF-12A cells. A transient transfection of BCAR3 increased both the mRNA and protein of c-Jun expression, and stable expression of BCAR3 increased c-Jun protein expression. The overexpression of BCAR3 directly activated the promoter of c-jun, AP-1, and SRE but not that of $NF-{\kappa}B$. Furthermore, single-cell microinjection of BCAR3 expression plasmid in the cell cycle-arrested MCF-12A cells induced c-Jun protein expression, and co-injection of dominant negative mutants of Ras, Rac, and Rho suppressed the transcriptional activity of c-Jun in the presence of BCAR3. Furthermore, stable expression of BCAR3 increased the proliferation of MCF-12A cells. The microinjection of inhibitory materials such as anti-BCAR3 antibody and siRNA BCAR3 inhibited EGF-induced c-Jun expression but did not affect IGF-1 induced upregulation of c-Jun. Taken together, we propose that BCAR3 plays a crucial role in c-Jun protein expression and cell proliferation and that small GTPases (e.g., Ras, Rac, and Rho) are required for the BCAR3-mediated activation of c-Jun expression.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2020

Macrophages are initiators for regulating a host's defenses to eliminate pathogens and trigger tissue repair. Macrophages are classified into two types: classically (M1) activated macrophages and alternatively (M2) activated macrophages. M1-phenotype macrophages directly or indirectly kill infectious organisms and tumor cells via pro-inflammatory responses, whereas M2-phenotype macrophages remodel wounded tissue through anti-inflammatory responses. In this paper, we investigated how Phellinus linteus hot water extract passed from Diaion HP-20 resin (PLEP) regulates polarization of M1-like or M2-like macrophages in human THP-1 cells. PLEP did not have cytotoxicity at a high concentration of 300 ㎍/ml. We observed morphological alteration of the THP-1 cells, which are stimulated by PLEP, LPS/INF-γ (M1 stimulators) or IL-4/IL13 (M2 stimulators). PLEP exposure induced morphology contiguous with LPS/INF-γ. qPCR was also performed to determine whether PLEP influences M1 or M2 polarization-related genes. M1-phenotype macrophage-specific genes, such as TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, CXCL10 and CCR7, were enhanced by PLEP in a dose-dependent manner similar to LPS/INF-γ. Conversely, M2-phenotype-specific genes, such as MRC-1, DC-SIGN, CCL17 and CCL22, were suppressed by PLEP. PLEP also significantly up-regulated secretory inflammation cytokines related to M1 polarization of macrophages, including TNFα, IL-1β and IL-6, which was similar to the gene expression. Further, MAPK and NF-κB signaling were increased by treatment with PLEP, resulting in enhancement of cytokine secretion. PLEP might therefore be used as a promising booster of pro-inflammatory responses through M1 polarization of human THP-1 cells.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.344-350
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• 2004

This study was conducted to develop and assess the applicability of mixed-bed ion exchange resin capsules for water quality monitoring in small agricultural watershed. Recoveries of resin capsules for inorganic N and P ranged from 96 to 102%. The net activation energies and pseudo-thermodynamic parameters, such as ${\Delta}G^{o\ddag},\;{\Delta}H^{o\ddag},\;and\;{\Delta}S^{o\ddag}$ for ion adsorption by resin capsules, exhibited relatively low values, indicating the process might be governed by chemical reactions such as diffusion. However, those values increased with temperature coinciding with the theory. The reaction reached pseudo-equilibrium within 24 hours for $NH_4-N\;and\;NO_3-N$, and only 8 hours for $PO_4-P$, respectively. The selectivity of resin capsules were in the order of $NO_3\;^-\;>\;NH_4\;^+\;>\;PO_4\;^{3-}$, coinciding with that of encapsulated Amberlite IRN-150 resin. At the initial state of equilibrium, the resin adsorption quantity was linearly proportional to the mass of ions in the streams, but the rate of movement leveled off, following Langmuir-type sorption isotherm. The overall results demonstrated that the resin capsule system was suitable for water quality monitoring in small agricultural watershed, judging from the reaction mechanism(s) of the resin capsule and the significance of model in field calibration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2016

Due to the characteristics of microwave signals, Radar satellite image has been used for flood detection without weather and time influence. The more methods of flood detection were developed, the more detection rate of flood area has been increased. Since flood causes a lot of damages, flooded area should be distinguished from non flooded area. Also, the detection of flood area should be accurate. Therefore, not only image resolution but also the filtering process is critical to minimize resolution degradation. Although a resolution of radar images become better as technology develops, there were a limited focused on a highly suitable filtering methods for flood detection. Thus, the purpose of this study is to find out the most appropriate filtering method for flood detection by comparing three filtering methods: Lee filter, Frost filter and NL-means filter. Therefore, to compare the filters to detect floods, each filters are applied to the radar image. Comparison was drawn among filtered images. Then, the flood map, results of filtered images are compared in that order. As a result, Frost and NL-means filter are more effective in removing the speckle noise compared to Lee filter. In case of Frost filter, resolution degradation occurred severly during removal of the noise. In case of NL-means filter, shadow effect which could be one of the main reasons that causes false detection were not eliminated comparing to other filters. Nevertheless, result of NL-means filter shows the best detection rate because the number of shadow pixels is relatively low in entire image. Kappa coefficient is scored 0.81 for NL-means filtered image and 0.55, 0.64 and 0.74 follows for non filtered image, Lee filtered image and Frost filtered image respectively. Also, in the process of NL-means filter, speckle noise could be removed without resolution degradation. Accordingly, flooded area could be distinguished effectively from other area in NL-means filtered image.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.317-326
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• 2019

Salinity which is often detected on reclaimed land is a major detrimental factor to crop growth. It would be advantageous to develop an approach for assessment of salinity and drought damages using a non-destructive method in a large landfills area. The objective of this study was to examine applicability of the decision tree classifier using imagery for classifying for spring potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) damaged by salinity or drought at vegetation growth stages. We focused on comparing the accuracies of OA (Overall accuracy) and KC (Kappa coefficient) between the simple reflectance and the band ratios minimizing the effect on the light unevenness. Spectral merging based on the commercial band width with full width at half maximum (FWHM) such as 10 nm, 25 nm, and 50 nm was also considered to invent the multispectral image sensor. In the case of the classification based on original simple reflectance with 5 nm of FWHM, the selected bands ranged from 3-13 bands with the accuracy of less than 66.7% of OA and 40.8% of KC in all FWHMs. The maximum values of OA and KC values were 78.7% and 57.7%, respectively, with 10 nm of FWHM to classify salinity and drought damages of spring potato. When the classifier was built based on the band ratios, the accuracy was more than 95% of OA and KC regardless of growth stages and FWHMs. If the multispectral image sensor is made with the six bands (the ratios of three bands) with 10 nm of FWHM, it is possible to classify the damaged spring potato by salinity or drought using the reflectance of images with 91.3% of OA and 85.0% of KC.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.999-1006
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• 2020

The suppression of neuroinflammatory responses in microglial cells, well known as the main immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS), are considered a key target for improving the progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. Teleogryllus emma is widely consumed around the world for its broad-spectrum therapeutic effect. In a previous work, we performed transcriptome analysis on T. emma in order to obtain the diversity and activity of its antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). AMPs are found in a variety of species, from microorganisms to mammals. They have received much attention as candidates oftherapeutic drugs for the treatment of inflammation-associated diseases. In this study, we investigated the anti-neuroinflammatory effect of Teleogryllusine (VKWKRLNNNKVLQKIYFVKI-NH₂) derived from T. emma on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced BV-2 microglia cells. Teleogryllusine significantly inhibited nitric oxide (NO) production without cytotoxicity, and reducing pro-inflammatory enzymes expression such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). In addition, Telegryllusine also inhibited the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) through down-regulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway. These results suggest that T. emma-derived Teleogryllusine could be a good source of functional substances that prevent neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2004

Stage 1 sleep provides important information regarding interpretation of nocturnal polysomnography, particularly sleep onset. It is a short transition period from wakeful consciousness to sleep. Lack of prominent sleep events characterizing stage 1 sleep is a major obstacle in automatic sleep stage scoring. In this study, we attempted to utilize simultaneous EEC and EOG processing and analyses to detect stage 1 sleep automatically. Relative powers of the alpha waves and the theta waves were calculated from spectral estimation. Either the relative power of alpha waves less than 50％ or the relative power of theta waves more than 23％ was regarded as stage 1 sleep. SEM (slow eye movement) was defined as the duration of both eye movement ranging from 1.5 to 4 seconds and regarded also as stage 1 sleep. If one of these three criteria was met, the epoch was regarded as stage 1 sleep. Results f ere compared to the manual rating results done by two polysomnography experts. Total of 169 epochs was analyzed. Agreement rate for stage 1 sleep between automatic detection and manual scoring was 79.3％ and Cohen's Kappa was 0.586 (p＜0.01). A significant portion (32％) of automatically detected stage 1 sleep included SEM. Generally, digitally-scored sleep s1aging shows the accuracy up to 70％. Considering potential difficulties in stage 1 sleep scoring, the accuracy of 79.3％ in this study seems to be robust enough. Simultaneous analysis of EOG provides differential value to the present study from previous oneswhich mainly depended on EEG analysis. The issue of close relationship between SEM and stage 1 sleep raised by Kinnariet at. remains to be a valid one in this study.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.267-274
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• 2014

High pressure processing (HPP) is a non-thermal method used to prevent bacterial growth in the food industry. Currently, pasteurization is the most common method in use for most milk processing, but this has the disadvantage that it leads to changes in the milk's nutritional and chemical properties. Therefore, the effects of HPP treatment on the microbiological and chemical properties of milk were investigated in this study. With the treatment of HPP at 600 MPa and $15^{\circ}C$ for 3 min, the quantity of microorganisms and lactic acid bacteria were reduced to the level of 2-3 log CFU/ml, and coliforms were not detected during a storage period of 15 d at $4^{\circ}C$. An analysis of milk proteins, such as ${\alpha}$-casein, ${\beta}$-casein, ${\kappa}$-casein, ${\alpha}$-lactalbumin, ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin by on-chip electorophoresis revealed that the electrophoretic pattern of the proteins from HPP-treated milk was different from that of conventionally treated commercial milk. While the quantities of vitamins and minerals in HPP-treated milk were seen to be comparable to amounts found in raw milk, the enzyme activity of lipase, protease and alkaline phosphatase after HPP treatment was reduced. These results suggest that HPP treatment is a viable method for the control of undesirable microorganisms in milk, allowing for minimal nutritional and chemical changes in the milk during the process.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.232-247
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• 2005

Purpose. The purposes of this investigation were to discover the possibility of clinical application in the areas of dental implants and bone grafts by investigating the bone formation histologically around specimen which was depending on the intensity of magnetic field of neodymium magnet inside of the specimens. Material and method. 1. Measurement of magnetic intensity - placed the magnet inside of the specimen, and measured the intensity of magnetic field around the 1st thread and 3rd thread of specimen 20 times by using a Gaussmeter(Kanetec Co., Japan). 2. Surgical Procedure - Male rabbit was anesthetised by constant amount of Ketamine (0.25ml/kg) and Rompun (0.25ml/kg). After incising the flat part of tibia, and planted the specimens of titanium implant, control group was stitched without magnet, while experimental groups were placed a magnedisc 500(Aichi Steel Co., Japan) or magnedisc 800(Aichi Steel Co., Japan) into it, fixed by pattern resin and stitched. 3. Management after the surgery - In order to prevent it from the infection of bacteria and for antiinflammation, Gentamycin and Ketopro were injected during 1 week from operation day, and dressed with potadine. 4. Preparation of histomorphometric analysis - At 2, 4 and 8 weeks after the surgery, the animals were sacrificed by excessed Ketamine, and then, specimens were obtained including the operated part and some parts of tibia, and fixed it to 10% of PBS buffer solution. After embedding specimens in Technovit 1200 and B.P solution, made a H-E stain. Samples width was 75$\mu$m . In histological findings through the optical microscope and using Kappa image base program(Olympus Co. Japan), the bone contact ratio and bone area ratio of each parts of specimens were measured and analyzed. 5. Statistical analysis - Statistical analysis was accomplished with Mann Whitney U-test. Results and conclusion. 1. In histomorphometric findings, increased new bone formation was shown in both control & experimental groups through the experiment performed for 2, 4 & 8 weeks. After 4 weeks, more osteoblasts and osteoclasts with significant bone remodeling were shown in experimental groups. 2. In histomorphometric analysis, the bone contact ratios were 38.5% for experimental group 1, 29.5% for experimental group 2 and 11.9% for control group. Experimental groups were higher than control group(p<0.05) (Fig. 6, Table IV). The bone area ratios were 60.9% for experimental group 2, 46.4% for experimental group 1 and 36.0% for control group. There was no significantly statistical difference between experimental groups and control group(p<0.05) (Fig. 8, Table VII) 3. In comparision of the bone contact ratios at each measurement sites according to magnetic intensity, experimental group 2(5.6mT) was higher than control group at the 1st thread (p<0.05) and experimental group 1 (1.8mT) was higher than control group at the 3rd thread(p<0.05) (Fig. 7, Table V, VI). 4. In comparision of the bone area ratios at each measurement sites according to magnetic intensity, experimental group 2(5.6mT) was higher than control group and experimental group 1 (4.0mT) at the 1st thread(p<0.1) and experimental group 2(4.4mT) was higher than experimental group 1 (1.8mT) at the 3rd thread(p<0.1) (Fig. 9, Table IX, X). Experiment group 2 was largest, followed by experiment group l and control group at the 3rd thread of implant. There was a significant difference at the 1st thread of control group & experiment group 2, and at 1st thread & 3rd thread of experiment group 1 & 2, and not at control group experiment group 1.(p<0.1)