• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2007

To develop an efficient screening method for detection of the transgene in Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa spp. pekinensis) utilizing Basta spray, optimal conditions for Basta application were examined in this study. Two transgenic Chinese cabbage lines were obtained through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and used as transgenic positive controls in the Basta screening experiment. Differential concentrations of glufosinate-ammonium were sprayed into three different growth stages of 12 commercial Chinese cabbage cultivars. The results showed that no plants could survive higher than 0.05% glufosinate-ammonium, and plants at the 2-3 leaf stage were most vulnerable to glufosinate-ammonium. On the other hand, no damage was observed in the transgenic control plants. Reliability of the Basta spray method was proven by showing perfect co-segregation of the tolerance to glufosinate-ammonium and the presence of the bar gene in T₁ segregating populations of the transgenic lines, as revealed by both PCR and Southern blot analyses. Using the developed Basta screening method, we tried to investigate the transgene flow through pollen dispersal, but failed to detect any transgene-containing non-transgenic Chinese cabbages whose parents had been planted adjacent to transgenic Chinese cabbages in field conditions. However, the transgene was successfully detected using Basta spray from the non-transgenic plants bearing the transgene introduced by hand-pollination. Since the Basta spray method developed in this study is easy to apply and economical, it will be a valuable tool for understanding the mechanism of gene flow through pollen transfer and for establishing a biosafety test protocol for genetically modified (GM) Chinese cabbage cultivars.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.79-87
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• 2024

Purpose: Recently, the prevalence of eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease (EGID) has shown an increasing trend worldwide. As the diagnosis of EGID requires invasive endoscopy with biopsy, noninvasive markers for detecting EGID in suspected patients, particularly children, are urgently needed. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of serum eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) beyond peripheral eosinophil counts in pediatric patients with EGID. Methods: Overall, 156 children diagnosed with EGID were enrolled and 150 children with functional abdominal pain disorder (FAPD) were recruited as controls. All participants underwent endoscopic biopsy in each segment of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and serum ECP measurement, as well as peripheral eosinophil percent and absolute eosinophil count. Results: Comparing EGID (n=156) with FAPD (n=150) patients, serum ECP levels were significantly higher in pediatric patients with EGID than in those with FAPD (25.8±28.6 ㎍/L vs. 19.5±21.0 ㎍/L, p=0.007), while there was no significant difference in peripheral eosinophil percent and absolute eosinophil counts between the two groups. Serum ECP levels were correlated with peripheral eosinophil percent (r=0.593, p<0.001) and the absolute eosinophil count (r=0.660, p<0.001). The optimal cutoff value of serum ECP for pediatric EGID was 10.5 ㎍/mL, with a sensitivity of 69.9% and a specificity of 43.4% with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.562. Conclusion: The combination of serum ECP levels and peripheral eosinophil counts, when employed with appropriated thresholds, could serve as a valuable noninvasive biomarker to distinguish between EGID and FAPD in pediatric patients manifesting GI symptoms.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.224-229
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• 2024

Background: Wound healing is a complex process influenced by a variety of environmental factors. Dressing materials play a critical role in creating barriers against contaminants, maintaining optimal moisture levels, and absorbing wound exudate. Therefore, selecting materials tailored to wound characteristics is crucial for enhancing outcomes. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a natural biocompatible polymer that supports healing by regulating inflammation and promoting tissue repair. This study compared HA- and hydrocolloid-based hydrogels in a rat model to optimize wound care strategies. Methods: Full-thickness dermal wounds (diameter, 8 mm) were created on the dorsal skin of 12 Sprague-Dawley rats under sevoflurane anesthesia. The wounds were treated with HA/silver sulfadiazine gel (group A), hydrocolloid gel (group B), or left untreated (control), all covered with a transparent dressing. Biopsy specimens on days 3, 7, and 21 were used to assess histological parameters: inflammatory cell infiltration, fibroblast infiltration, collagen deposition, neovascularization, and epithelial thickness, using a semi-quantitative scoring system. Histological analyses were conducted blindly, and statistical analyses were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test (p< 0.05). Results: On day 3, group A showed significantly higher inflammatory cell infiltration and collagen deposition than other groups, indicating extracellular matrix formation. By day 7, angiogenesis was highest in group A, followed by group B and controls. By day 21, all wounds had completely healed. Epithelial layer thickness, reflecting inflammation and fibroblast maturity, was significantly higher in group A. Conclusion: This study compared HA-based hydrogel and hydrocolloid-based dressings through histological analyses to elucidate wound healing mechanics. HA-based hydrogel dressings significantly enhanced wound recovery. However, generalizing these outcomes requires future studies to expand the range of effective wound treatment materials. These findings underscore the potential of HA-based dressings to enhance clinical outcomes in wound management, suggesting avenues for improving therapeutic strategies.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.141-147
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• 2024

Progressive photon mapping is a widely adopted rendering technique that conducts a kernel-density estimation on photons progressively generated from lights. Its hyperparameter, which controls the reduction rate of the density estimation, highly affects the quality of its rendering image due to the bias-variance tradeoff of pixel estimates in photon-mapped results. We can minimize the errors of rendered pixel estimates in progressive photon mapping by estimating the optimal parameters based on gradient-based optimization techniques. To this end, we derived the gradients of pixel estimates with respect to the parameters when performing progressive photon mapping and compared our estimated gradients with finite differences to verify estimated gradients. The gradient estimated in this paper can be applied in an online learning algorithm that simultaneously performs progressive photon mapping and parameter optimization in future work.

• International Journal of Stem Cells
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.384-394
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• 2022

Background and Objectives: Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) play an important role in the repair of tooth injuries. Electrogenic sodium bicarbonate cotransporter 1 (NBCe1) is a Na⁺-coupled HCO₃^- transporter encoded by the solute carrier 4A4 (SLC4A4) gene and plays a crucial role in maintaining the pH of DPSCs. Our previous research confirmed that NBCe1 is highly expressed in odontoblasts during the development of the tooth germ. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of NBCe1 on odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs and further clarify the underlying mechanisms. Methods and Results: DPSCs were isolated and identified, and the selective NBCe1 inhibitor S0859 was used to treat DPSCs. We used a cell counting Kit-8 assay to detect cell proliferative ability, and intracellular pH was assessed using confocal microscopy. Odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs was analyzed using real-time PCR and Alizarin Red S staining, and the NF-κB pathway was assessed using western blotting. Our results indicated that 10 µM S0859 was the optimal concentration for DPSC induction. Intracellular pH was decreased upon treatment with S0859. The mRNA expressions of DSPP, DMP1, RUNX2, OCN, and OPN were upregulated in the NBCe1 inhibited group compared to the controls. Moreover, NBCe1 inhibition significantly activated the NF-κB pathway, and a NF-κB inhibitor reduced the effect of NBCe1 on DPSC differentiation. Conclusions: NBCe1 inhibition significantly promotes odontogenic differentiation of DPSCs, and this process may be regulated by activating the NF-κB signaling pathway.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.620-626
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• 2004

For general nonlinear processes, it is difficult to control with a linear model-based control method and nonlinear controls are considered. Among the numerous approaches suggested, the most rigorous approach is to use dynamic optimization. Many general engineering problems like control, scheduling, planning etc. are expressed by functional optimization problem and most of them can be changed into dynamic programming (DP) problems. However the DP problems are used in just few cases because as the size of the problem grows, the dynamic programming approach is suffered from the burden of calculation which is called as 'curse of dimensionality'. In order to avoid this problem, the Neuro-Dynamic Programming (NDP) approach is proposed by Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis (1996). To get the solution of seriously nonlinear process control, the interest in NDP approach is enlarged and NDP algorithm is applied to diverse areas such as retailing, finance, inventory management, communication networks, etc. and it has been extended to chemical engineering parts. In the NDP approach, we select the optimal control input policy to minimize the value of cost which is calculated by the sum of current stage cost and future stages cost starting from the next state. The cost value is related with a weight square sum of error and input movement. During the calculation of optimal input policy, if the approximate cost function by using simulation data is utilized with Bellman iteration, the burden of calculation can be relieved and the curse of dimensionality problem of DP can be overcome. It is very important issue how to construct the cost-to-go function which has a good approximate performance. The neural network is one of the eager learning methods and it works as a global approximator to cost-to-go function. In this algorithm, the training of neural network is important and difficult part, and it gives significant effect on the performance of control. To avoid the difficulty in neural network training, the lazy learning method like k-nearest neighbor method can be exploited. The training is unnecessary for this method but requires more computation time and greater data storage. The pH neutralization process has long been taken as a representative benchmark problem of nonlin ar chemical process control due to its nonlinearity and time-varying nature. In this study, the NDP algorithm was applied to pH neutralization process. At first, the pH neutralization process control to use NDP algorithm was performed through simulations with various approximators. The global and local approximators are used for NDP calculation. After that, the verification of NDP in real system was made by pH neutralization experiment. The control results by NDP algorithm was compared with those by the PI controller which is traditionally used, in both simulations and experiments. From the comparison of results, the control by NDP algorithm showed faster and better control performance than PI controller. In addition to that, the control by NDP algorithm showed the good results when it applied to the cases with disturbances and multiple set point changes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.13
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• pp.5187-5194
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• 2014

Background: Numerous studies have suggested that selenium deficiency may be associated with an increased risk for several types of cancer, but few have focused on thyroid cancer. Materials and Methods: We examined the association between post-diagnostic fingernail selenium levels and differentiated thyroid cancer risk in a French Polynesian matched case-control study. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results: The median selenium concentration among controls was $0.76{\mu}g/g$. Significantly, we found no association between fingernail selenium levels and thyroid cancer risk after conditioning on year of birth and sex and additionally adjusting for date of birth (highest versus lowest quartile: odds-ratio=1.12, 95% confidence interval: 0.66-1.90; p-trend=0.30). After additional adjustment for other covariates, this association remained non-significant (p-trend=0.60). When restricting the analysis to thyroid cancer of 10 mm or more, selenium in nails was non-significantly positively linked to thyroid cancer risk (p-trend=0.09). Although no significant interaction was evidenced between iodine in nails and selenium in nails effect (p=0.70), a non-significant (p-trend =0.10) positive association between selenium and thyroid cancer risk was seen in patients with less than 3 ppm of iodine in nails. The highest fingernail selenium concentration in French Polynesia was in the Marquises Islands ($M=0.87{\mu}g/g$) and in the Tuamotu-Gambier Archipelago ($M=0.86{\mu}g/g$). Conclusions: Our results do not support, among individuals with sufficient levels of selenium, that greater long-term exposure to selenium may reduce thyroid cancer risk. Because these findings are based on post-diagnostic measures, studies with prediagnostic selenium are needed for corroboration.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.693-700
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• 2004

Viscometry was applied to identify irradiated corn starch (CS), sweet potato starch (SS), and potato starch (PS) from non-irradiated controls using Brookfield DV-III programmable rheometer. Effects of starch suspension concentration (7.0-9.5%) and spindle speed (25-125 rpm) were investigated. Established optimal viscosity-measuring conditions showed the highest correlation coefficient between irradiation dose (0-6.0 kGy) and corresponding viscosities for CS, SS, and PS. Threshold values for identifying irradiated starches were suggested. Viscosities of all samples significantly decreased with increasing irradiation dose (p<0.05) and spindle speed, while increased as suspension concentration increased. Optimal conditions for suspension concentration and spindle speed were 7.5% (6.7%, d.b.) and 125rpm in CS, 8.5% (7.3%, d.b.) and 125 rpm in SS, and 9.0% (7.3%, d.b.) and 100rpm in PS, respectively. Under these measuring conditions, threshold values for discriminating unknown samples were 0.313, 0.345, and 0.811 for CS, SS, and PS in 1.5 kGy-irradiated samples, compared with 0.521, 0.798, and 1.693 in non-irradiated samples, respectively, enabling identification of irradiated from non-irradiated starches.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.23-56
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• 2004

The offshore trawl fishery is seeking its survival way to overcome current management conditions in red, resulted from the bilateral agreement with China and Japan. However, this movement magnifies conflicts between fisheries on the contrary and it is thought to be impossible to get over current situations. For all that, this study is aimed at investigating how this current situations have occurred. The management freedom as response to the change in fishing conditions of a certain fishery, in case of Korea, is affected by institutional regulations. The example of this is controls on fishing gears, fishing vessels, and fishing grounds. The most exposure of this control is a segmentation of institutional fisheries. The initial segmentation of the offshore trawl fishery in Korea was occurred in the period of Japan's colonization when the degree of use of fishing grounds was limited geographically. At that time, fisheries were divided by fishing areas, but it did not divide the fishery itself. The large - sized fishing vessels were developed politically to be more competative to Japanese fishing vessels since 1950s. During this time, the trawl fishery was merged into current Eastern trawl fishery and South - Western trawl fishery. It was also inevitable to divide into the pair trawl and single trawl fishery as a result of the physical mergency between Western trawl and Southern trawl fishery. In order to develop the trawl fishery, new licenses were issued on the shrimp trawl fishery, through which it was expected to boost the trawl fishery. As opposed, the shrimp trawl fishery was changed into the mid - sized trawl fishery, targeting on the eastern fishing areas and the large - sized trawl fishery was developed since the late of 1970s with the development of filefish processing industry. The large trawl fishery that led in development of offshore trawl fishery since the late of 1950s was started to divide into a pair trawl and single trawl according to the fishing method and capital power. It finally became an institutionally independent fishery in 1980s, respectively. Looking into these historical process, the segmentation of the trawl fishery is thought as a result of the lack of long - term perspective and as a production of trial and error resulted by unprepared policy. As a result, these segmentation of fisheries roles as critical obstacles in harmonization of fisheries and in overcoming of current situations. Therefore, the review of this institutional segmentation of the offshore trawl fishery should be taken for an optimal redistribution of fishing grounds suits with business and fishing technology. For this, the fishery must be divided into large capitalized fishery and small - mid fishery with consideration of capital, fishing method, and the condition of use of fishing grounds. In addition to this, by limiting outline of fishing ground that the large fishery can harvest, it must allow for the small - mid fishery to catch with its own boundary. Furthermore, by launching buyback programs on the trawl, eastern trawl, pair trawl, it can provide broader fishing grounds where the fishery can harvest with management freedom.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2021

In this paper, we present a simple and fast supervised learning framework based on model predictive control so as to learn motion controllers for a physic-based character to track given example motions. The proposed framework is composed of two components: training data generation and offline learning. Given an example motion, the former component stochastically controls the character motion with an optimal controller while repeatedly updating the controller for tracking the example motion through model predictive control over a time window from the current state of the character to a near future state. The repeated update of the optimal controller and the stochastic control make it possible to effectively explore various states that the character may have while mimicking the example motion and collect useful training data for supervised learning. Once all the training data is generated, the latter component normalizes the data to remove the disparity for magnitude and units inherent in the data and trains an artificial neural network with a simple architecture for a controller. The experimental results for walking and running motions demonstrate how effectively and fast the proposed framework produces physics-based motion controllers.