• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.588-597
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• 2020

Objective: To investigate the value of combined chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) and conventional magnetization transfer imaging (MT) in detecting metabolic and structural changes of renal fibrosis in rats with unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) at 3T MRI. Materials and Methods: Thirty-five Sprague-Dawley rats underwent UUO surgery (n = 25) or sham surgery (n = 10). The obstructed and contralateral kidneys were evaluated on days 1, 3, 5, and 7 after surgery. After CEST and MT examinations, ¹⁸F-labeled fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography was performed to quantify glucose metabolism. Fibrosis was measured by histology and western blots. Correlations were compared between asymmetrical magnetization transfer ratio at 1.2 ppm (MTR_asym(1.2ppm)) derived from CEST and maximum standard uptake value (SUV_max) and between magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) derived from MT and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). Results: On days 3 and 7, MTR_asym(1.2ppm) and MTR of UUO renal cortex and medulla were significantly different from those of contralateral kidneys (p < 0.05). On day 7, MTR_asym(1.2ppm) and MTR of UUO renal cortex and medulla were significantly different from those of sham-operated kidneys (p < 0.05). The MTR_asym(1.2ppm) of UUO renal medulla was fairly negatively correlated with SUV_max (r = -0.350, p = 0.021), whereas MTR of UUO renal medulla was strongly negatively correlated with α-SMA (r = -0.744, p < 0.001). Conclusion: CEST and MT could provide metabolic and structural information for comprehensive assessment of renal fibrosis in UUO rats in 3T MRI and may aid in clinical monitoring of renal fibrosis in patients with chronic kidney disease.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.205-216
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: While many obesity studies have pointed out the importance of meal regularity, few have conducted empirical analyses using data from food diaries. We examined the association between meal regularity (i.e., meal time regularity [MTR] and calorie intake regularity [CIR]) and weight loss. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We collected food diary data from 637 women who had participated in commercial weight loss programs for 28-168 days (4-24 weeks). This study defined "meal regularity" in terms of two concepts: MTR and CIR. MTR refers to how regularly people eat their meals (i.e., at certain times each day), whereas CIR refers to how regularly people consume a certain amount of calories at each meal. We conducted multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: MTR (model 1: β = -2,576.526, P < 0.001; model 2: β = -1511.447, P < 0.05; model 3: β = -1,721.428, P < 0.05) and CIR (model 1: β = -1,231.551, P < 0.01; model 2: β = -2,082.353, P < 0.001; model 3: β = -1,343.490, P < 0.01) turned out to be significant determinants of the amount of weight loss in breakfast, lunch, and dinner contexts. While meal regularity (i.e., MTR and CIR) was significantly associated with weight loss, daily calorie intake from meals was not significantly associated with the amount of weight loss (model 1: β = 0.13, P > 0.05; model 2: β = 0.11, P > 0.05; model 3: β = 0.14, P > 0.05). Subjects who consumed an equal amount of calories per meal throughout the day lost more weight than those who did not (model 4: β = -3,675.51, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Eating each meal (i.e., breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at a certain time every day may increase weight loss success. Also, consuming the same amount of calories at each meal may help weight loss success.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 1999

An advanced mobile technology is described for saturating water with oxygen. The MTR(Mass Transfer Reactor) is 2~10 times more effective in dissolving oxygen in water compared to most other systems used in aquaculture, because it can generate extremely small(0.005~0.05mm) bubbles. New fish farming facilities could make use of this technology to build deeper ponds for raising multiple species with optimized conditions for DO(dissolved oxygen), food, light, etc. The proposed technology offers higher DO levels with minimal operating costs. It is easy to use and maintain, with a high reproducibility. Accordingly, the MTR can be industrially applied in the treatment of fish waste and reduction of water consumption during fish farming.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.37-41
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• 2014

The vector Taylor series (VTS) based method usually employs clean speech Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) when compensating speech feature vectors or adapting the parameters of trained HMMs. It is well-known that noisy speech HMMs trained by the Multi-condition TRaining (MTR) and the Multi-Model-based Speech Recognition framework (MMSR) method perform better than the clean speech HMM in noisy speech recognition. In this paper, we propose a method to use the noise-adapted HMMs in the VTS-based speech feature compensation method. We derived a novel mathematical relation between the train and the test noisy speech feature vector in the log-spectrum domain and the VTS is used to estimate the statistics of the test noisy speech. An iterative EM algorithm is used to estimate train noisy speech from the test noisy speech along with noise parameters. The proposed method was applied to the noise-adapted HMMs trained by the MTR and MMSR and could reduce the relative word error rate significantly in the noisy speech recognition experiments on the Aurora 2 database.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.483-494
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• 1993

Cell surface antigenic relationships between pathogenic mycobacteria have been investigated by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using phenolkilled cells and their rabbits antisera. Homologous and heterologous reactions of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare antisera before and after homologous and heterologous absorption revealed a close antigenic relationship between strains of the same species and between species if they were members of M. avium(MA)-intracellulare(MI)-scrofulaceum(MG) complex. MAI sera showed a considerable reaction with M. kansasii(MK) and tuberculosis(MTB), but not with the other species. MA(K40004) antiserum reacted with other mycobacteria except few strains of MI and 50~89% of homologous reaction was reduced by heterologous absorption with cells of MI or MS. Intraspecific reaction of MI antisera was natural1y stronger than interspecific reaction and different in extent due to a magnitude of antigenic sharing. Antigenic relationships between N-260D, N-260R, N-260T, and K41014 was somewhat closer than that with N-242D, N-257T, N-28ID, and N-275T. M. nonchromogenicum(MNC) antisera showed a strong interspecific reaction with exception of M. chelonei(MC) and triviale(MTV) to which they reacted weakly or none. Antigenic sharing with M. terrae(MTR) and MG(K30003) was next to intraspecific sharing. NC-3 shared antigens considerably with MA, MC, and M. fortuitum(MF) while NC-11 did not. MTR antisera showed a strong cross-reaction with MI but their homologous reaction was not reduced by MI absorption indicating a paucity of shared antigen of MTR surface. Intraspecific antigenic sharing of course was large with on exception between T-8 and T-13. A considerable amount of antigenic sharing was also found with MNC, MC and MF. Unlike T-8 serum, T-13 antiserum strongly cross-reacted with MA, MG, MK, and MTB. In general, antigenic relationships of mycobacteria, that have been elucidated in this study, well conformed to taxons delineated by the various biological and biochemical means.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.139-149
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• 2019

Purpose: With neurodegeneration, the signal intensity of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain increases. The objective of this study was to evaluate chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) signals with and without the contribution of CSF signals in elderly human brains using two different 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences Methods: Full CEST signals were acquired in ten subjects (Group I) with a three-dimensional (3D)-segmented gradient-echo echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence and in ten other subjects (Group II) with a 3D gradient and spin-echo (GRASE) sequence using two different 3T MRI systems. The segmented tissue compartments of gray and white matter were used to mask the CSF signals in the full CEST images. Two sets of magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry (MTR_asym) maps were obtained for each offset frequency in each subject with and without masking the CSF signals (masked and unmasked conditions, respectively) and later compared using paired t-tests. Results: The region-of-interest (ROI)-based analyses showed that the MTR_asym values for both the 3D-segmented gradient-echo EPI and 3D GRASE sequences were altered under the masked condition compared with the unmasked condition at several ROIs and offset frequencies. Conclusions: Depending on the imaging sequence, the MTR_asym values can be overestimated for some areas of the elderly human brain when CSF signals are unmasked. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a method to minimize this overestimation in the case of elderly patients.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.184-193
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• 2012

Gastric cancer is ranked as the most common cancer in Koreans. A recent molecular biological study about the folate pathway gene revealed the correlation with a couple of cancer types. In the folate pathway, several genes are involved, including methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase reductase (MTRR), and methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase (MTR). The MTHFR gene has been reported several times for the correlation with gastric cancer risk. However, the association of the MTRR or MTR gene has not been reported to date. In this study, we investigated the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the MTHFR, MTRR, and MTR genes and the risk of gastric cancer in Koreans. To identify the genetic association with gastric cancer, we selected 17 SNPs sites in folate pathway-associated genes of MTHFR, MTR, and MTRR and tested in 1,261 gastric cancer patients and 375 healthy controls. By genotype analysis, estimating odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI), rs1801394 in the MTRR gene showed increased risk for gastric cacner, with statistical significance both in the codominant model (odds ratio [OR], 1.39; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.85) and dominant model (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.75). Especially, in the obese group (body mass index ${\geq}25kg/m^2$), the codominant (OR, 9.08; 95% CI, 1.01 to 94.59) and recessive model (OR, 3.72; 95% CI, 0.92 to 16.59) showed dramatically increased risk (p < 0.05). In conclusion, rs1801394 in the MTRR gene is associated with gastric cancer risk, and its functional significance need to be validated.

• Carbon letters
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.206-210
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• 2010

Removal of dyes Reactive Blue 221, N Blue RGB and Acid Blue MTR using two different samples of activated carbon by static batch method was studied. Experimental data on optical density of solutions at different concentrations ranging from 10 to 100 mg/L and of solutions after adsorption on activated carbon samples were measured. Calibration curves were plotted and the amount of dye $q_e$ adsorbed was calculated. The data was fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms for two different carbon samples and different concentration and pH values. Constants were calculated from the slope and intercept values of the isotherms. Coefficient of correlation $R_2$ and Standard Deviation SD were also noted. The data fitted well to the isotherms. Carbon sample $C_1$ showed higher potential to adsorb all the three dyes. Adsorption was higher at lower concentrations. Carbon sample $C_2$ showed better adsorption in acidic pH as compared to in alkaline pH. From the analysis of the data capacity of $C_1$ and $C_2$ to remove the dyes from water have been compared.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.467-479
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• 2021

Abstract: A kinetic model was developed for the dehydration of ethanol to ethylene based on two parallel reaction pathways. Kinetic parameters were estimated by fitting experimental data of powder catalysts in a lab-scale test, and the effectiveness factor was determined using data from pellet-type catalysts in bench-scale experiments. The developed model was used to design a multitubular fixed-bed reactor (MTR) and an adiabatic reactor (AR) at a 10 ton per day scale. The two different reactor types resulted in different process configurations: the MTR consumed the ethanol completely and did not produce the reaction intermediate, diethyl ether (DEE), resulting in simple separation trains at the expense of high equipment cost for the reactor, whereas the AR required azeotropic distillation and cryogenic distillation to recycle the unreacted ethanol and to separate the undesired DEE, respectively. Quantitative analysis based on the equipment and annual energy costs showed that, despite high equipment cost of the reactor, the MTR process had the advantages of high productivity and simple separation trains, whereas the use of additional separation trains in the AR process increased both the total equipment cost and the annual energy cost per unit production rate.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.828-837
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• 2024

Vancomycin (VAN) and metronidazole (MTR) remain the current drugs of choice for the treatment of non-severe Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI); however, while their co-administration has appeared in clinical treatment, the efficacy varies greatly and the mechanism is unknown. In this study, a CDI mouse model was constructed to evaluate the therapeutic effects of VAN and MTR alone or in combination. For a perspective on the intestinal ecology, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and non-targeted metabolomics techniques were used to investigate changes in the fecal microbiota and metabolome of mice under the co-administration treatment. As a result, the survival rate of mice under co-administration was not dramatically different compared to that of single antibiotics, and the former caused intestinal tissue hyperplasia and edema. Co-administration also significantly enhanced the activity of amino acid metabolic pathways represented by phenylalanine, arginine, proline, and histidine, decreased the level of deoxycholic acid (DCA), and downregulated the abundance of beneficial microbes, such as Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia. VAN plays a dominant role in microbiota regulation in co-administration. In addition, co-administration reduced or increased the relative abundance of antibiotic-sensitive bacteria, including beneficial and harmful microbes, without a difference. Taken together, there are some risks associated with the co-administration of VAN and MTR, and this combination mode should be used with caution in CDI treatment.