• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.135-143
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• 2021

Drug addiction influences most communities directly or indirectly. Increasing studies have reported the relationship between circadian-related genes and drug addiction. Per2 disrupted mice exhibited more vulnerable behavioral responses against some drugs including methamphetamine (METH). However, its roles and mechanisms are still not clear. Transcriptional profiling analysis in Per2 knockout (KO) mice may provide a valuable tool to identify potential genetic involvement and pathways in enhanced behavioral responses against drugs. To explore the potential genetic involvement, we examined common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the striatum of drug naïve Per2 KO/wild-type (WT) mice, and before/after METH treatment in Per2 KO mice, but not in WT mice. We selected 9 common DEGs (Ncald, Cpa6, Pklr, Ttc29, Cbr2, Egr2, Prg4, Lcn2, and Camsap2) based on literature research. Among the common DEGs, Ncald, Cpa6, Pklr, and Ttc29 showed higher expression levels in drug naïve Per2 KO mice than in WT mice, while they were downregulated in Per2 KO mice after METH treatment. In contrast, Cbr2, Egr2, Prg4, Lcn2, and Camsap2 exhibited lower expression levels in drug naïve Per2 KO mice than in WT mice, while they were upregulated after METH treatment in Per2 KO mice. qRT-PCR analyses validated the expression patterns of 9 target genes before/after METH treatment in Per2 KO and WT mice. Although further research is required to deeply understand the relationship and roles of the 9 target genes in drug addiction, the findings from the present study indicate that the target genes might play important roles in drug addiction.

• 대한유전성대사질환학회지
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.50-54
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• 2020

Vici 증후군은 18q12.3 염색체에 위치하는 EPG5 유전자의 돌연변이로 인해 발생하는 상 염색체 열성 증후군이다. EPG5 유전자는 리소좀 형성에 관여하는 자가 포식 경로의 중요한 조절자를 암호화하므로 이에 대한 돌연변이로 인해 다양한 임상증상을 나타나게 된다. 주요한 임상증상으로는 뇌량 무형성, 백색증, 백내장, 심근 병증, 중증 정신 운동 지체, 발작, 면역 결핍 등이 있으며 다양한 임상증상을 나타내는 만큼 다른 질환들과 임상적으로 구분하기가 어렵다. 저자들은 Vici 증후군으로 진단된 3세 남자 환아의 증례를 보고하고자 한다. 환아는 생후 2개월 경 근긴장 저하와 수유 곤란을 주소로 내원하였으며 이후 Vici 증후군에서 나타나는 특징적인 임상 증상들을 나타내었다. 임상증상들의 감별 진단을 위해 시행한 Whole-exome sequencing (WES) 결과, EPG5 유전자에서 c.2254 C>T (p.Gln752Ter)와 c.5511-5518+2 del TATGCAAAGT 새로운 변이가 이형접합체로 확인되었다. Vici 증후군과 같이 임상적으로 구분이 어려우며 다양한 신체기관에 걸쳐 영향을 미치는 질환의 진단 시에는 Whole-exome sequencing (WES)가 유용하게 사용될 수 있다. 이 증례는 한국에서 확인된 첫 Vici 증후군 case로써 의의가 있다.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.31.1-31.9
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• 2021

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by spirochetes from the genus Leptospira. In Thailand, Leptospira interrogans is a major cause of leptospirosis. Leptospirosis patients present with a wide range of clinical manifestations from asymptomatic, mild infections to severe illness involving organ failure. For better understanding the difference between Leptospira isolates causing mild and severe leptospirosis, illumina sequencing was used to sequence genomic DNA in both serotypes. DNA of Leptospira isolated from two patients, one with mild and another with severe symptoms, were included in this study. The paired-end reads were removed adapters and trimmed with Q30 score using Trimmomatic. Trimmed reads were constructed to contigs and scaffolds using SPAdes. Cross-contamination of scaffolds was evaluated by ContEst16s. Prokka tool for bacterial annotation was used to annotate sequences from both Leptospira isolates. Predicted amino acid sequences from Prokka were searched in EggNOG and David gene ontology database to characterize gene ontology. In addition, Leptospira from mild and severe patients, that passed the criteria e-value < 10e^-5 from blastP against virulence factor database, were used to analyze with Venn diagram. From this study, we found 13 and 12 genes that were unique in the isolates from mild and severe patients, respectively. The 12 genes in the severe isolate might be virulence factor genes that affect disease severity. However, these genes should be validated in further study.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.301-309
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• 2022

Protective coatings are most widely used anticorrosive structures for steel structures. The corrosion under the coating damages the host material, but this damage is completely hidden. Therefore, a field-applicable under-coating-corrosion visualization method has been desired for a long time. Laser ultrasonic technology has been studied in various fields as an in situ nondestructive inspection method. In this study, a comparative analysis was carried out between a guided-wave ultrasonic propagation imager (UPI) and pulse-echo UPI, which have the potential to be used in the field of under-coating-corrosion management. Both guided-wave UPI and pulse-echo UPI were able to successfully visualize the corrosion. Regarding the field application, the guided-wave UPI performing Q-switch laser scanning and piezoelectric sensing by magnetic attachment exhibited advantages owing to the larger distance and incident angle in the laser measurement than those of the pulse-echo UPI. Regarding the corrosion visualization methods, the combination of adjacent wave subtraction and variable time window amplitude mapping (VTWAM) provided acceptable results for the guided-wave UPI, while VTWAM was sufficient for the pule-echo UPI. In addition, the capability of multiple sensing in a single channel of the guided-wave UPI could improve the field applicability as well as the relatively smaller size of the system. Thus, we propose a guided-wave UPI as a tool for under-coating-corrosion management.

• 한국동물위생학회지
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.305-316
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• 2022

Bordetella (B.) bronchiseptica, Mycoplasma (M.) felis, and Chlamydia (C.) felis are considered as main bacterial pathogens of feline upper respiratory tract disease (URTD). In this study, a new triplex quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (tqPCR) assay was developed for the rapid and differential detection of these bacteria in a single reaction. The assay specifically amplified three bacterial genes with the detection limit of below 10 copies/reaction. The assay showed high repeatability and reproducibility, with coefficients of intra-assay and inter-assay variation of less than 1%. Based on the diagnostic results of the assay using 94 clinical samples obtained from cats with URTD signs, prevalence of B. bronchiseptica, M. felis, or C. felis was 10.6%, 36.2%, or 6.4%, respectively, indicating that the diagnostic sensitivity was comparable to those of previously reported monoplex qPCR assays. The dual infection rates for B. bronchiseptica and M. felis or M. felis and C. felis was 2.1% or 3.2%, respectively. These results indicated that M. felis has been widely spread, and its co-infection with B. bronchiseptica or M. felis has been frequently occurred in Korean cat population. The developed tqPCR assay will serve as a promising tool for etiological and epidemiological studies of these three bacterial pathogens and the prevalence data obtained in this study will contribute to expanding knowledge about the epidemiology of feline URTD in Korea.

• 천문학회보
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.61.4-62
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• 2020

We present H I gas kinematics and star formation activities of NGC 6822, a dwarf galaxy located in the Local Volume at a distance of ~490 kpc. We perform profile decomposition of the line-of-sight velocity profiles of the high-resolution (~42.4" × 12") spatial; ~1.6 km/s spectral) H I data cube taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). For this, we use a new tool, the so-called BAYGAUD (BAYesian GAUssian Decompositor) which is based on Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques, allowing us to decompose a line-of-sight velocity profile into an optimal number of Gaussian components in a quantitative manner. We classify the decomposed H I gas components of NGC 6822 into kinematically cold, warm or hot ones with respect to their velocity dispersion: 1) cold: < 4 km/s, 2) warm: 4 ~ 8 km/s, 3) hot: > 8 km/s. We then derive the Toomre-Q parameters of NGC 6822 using the kinematically decomposed H I gas maps. We also correlate their gas surface densities with the surface star formation rates derived using both GALEX far-ultraviolet and WISE 22 micron data to examine the impact of gas turbulence caused by stellar feedback on the Kennicutt-Schmidt (K-S) law. The kinematically cold component is likely to better follow the linear extension of the Kennicutt-Schmidt (K-S) law for molecular hydrogen (H2) at the low gas surface density regime where H I is not saturated.

• 한국작물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국작물학회 2022년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.28-28
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• 2022

This paper presents the first genome assemblies of Philippine mangoes that provide valuable reference for varietal improvement and genomic studies on mango and related fruit crops. WE sequenced whole genomes of3 species, Mangifera odorata (Huani), Mangifera altissima (Paho), and Mangifera indica 'Carabao' (Sweet Elena). 'Carabao' is the major export variety of the Philippines; Paho is identified as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; Huani has fruit sap acrid which is the primary defense mechanism against insects and birds. We used Falcon, a diploid aware -de novo assembler to assemble SMRT generated long-read sequences. Falcon-unzip was employed to phase the output assembly producing larger contig sets (primary contigs) and shorter contigs corresponding to haplotypes (haplotigs). Assembly statistics were generated by comparing the assembly to a reference genome, Tommy Atkins, using Quality Assessment Tool (QUAST). Moreover, the extent of duplication and completeness of gene content was measured using Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO). Draft assemblies with high duplications were processed using Purge Haplotigs and Purge Dups to lessen duplications with minimal impact on genome completeness. De novo assemblies of Huani, Paho and 'Carabao' were then generated with primary contig sizes of 463.64 Mb, 508.95 Mb and 401.51 Mb respectively. These draft assemblies of Huani, Paho and 'Carabao' showed 96.90%, 95.17% and 99.07% complete BUSCOs respectively which is comparable to 'Tommy Atkins' genome (98.6%). Using two mango transcriptome data (pooled RNA-seq from different mango varieties and tissues), 91-96% or 24-30 million reads were successfully mapped back for each generated assembly indicating high degree of completeness. The results obtained demonstrated the highly contiguous, phased, and near complete genome assembly of three Philippine mango species for structural and functional annotation of gene units, especially those with economic importance.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.684-694
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• 2020

Objective: The purpose was to review the diagnostic performance of the length of tumor capsular contact (LCC) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for detecting prostate cancer extraprostatic extension (EPE). Materials and Methods: PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched up to March 24, 2019. We included diagnostic accuracy studies that evaluated LCC on MRI for EPE detection using radical prostatectomy specimen histopathology as the reference standard. Quality of studies was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. Sensitivity and specificity were pooled and graphically presented using hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (HSROC) plots. Meta-regression and subgroup analyses were conducted to explore heterogeneity. Results: Thirteen articles with 2136 patients were included. Study quality was generally good. Summary sensitivity and specificity were 0.79 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.73-0.83) and 0.67 (95% CI 0.60-0.74), respectively. Area under the HSROC was 0.81 (95% CI 0.77-0.84). Substantial heterogeneity was present among the included studies according to Cochran's Q-test (p < 0.01) and Higgins I² (62% and 86% for sensitivity and specificity, respectively). In terms of heterogeneity, measurement method (curvilinear vs. linear), prevalence of Gleason score ≥ 7, MRI readers' experience, and endorectal coils were significant factors (p ≤ 0.01), whereas method to determine the LCC threshold, cutoff value, magnet strength, and publication year were not (p = 0.14-0.93). Diagnostic test accuracy estimates were comparable across all assessed MRI sequences. Conclusion: Greater LCC on MRI is associated with a higher probability of prostate cancer EPE. Due to heterogeneity among the studies, further investigation is needed to establish the optimal cutoff value for each clinical setting.

• 동의신경정신과학회지
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• 제35권2호
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• pp.153-162
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• 2024

Objectives: Among OECD countries, South Korea has been having the highest suicide rate since 2018, with 24.1 deaths per 100,000 people reported in 2020. The objectie of this study was to examine the use of generative artificial intellicence (AI) chatbots to train third-year Korean medicine (KM) students in conducting suicide risk assessments for patients with depressive disorders to train students for their clinical practice skills. Methods: The Claude 3 Sonnet model was utilized for chatbot simulations. Students performed mock consultations using standardized suicide risk assessment tools including Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ) tool and ASQ Brief Suicide Safety Assessment. Experiences and attitudes were collected through an anonymous online survey. Responses were rated on a 1~5 Likert scale. Results: Thirty-six students aged 22~30 years participated in this study. Their scores for interest and appropriateness (4.66±0.57), usefulness (4.60±0.61), and overall experience (4.63±0.60) were high. Their evaluation of the usability of artificial intelligence chatbot was also high at 4.58±0.70 points. However, their trust in chatbot responses (Q12) was lower (3.86±0.99). Common issues related to dissatisfaction included conversation disruptions due to token limits and inadequate chatbot responses. Conclusions: This is the first study investigating generative AI chatbots for suicide risk assessment training in KM education. Students reported high satisfaction, although their trust in chatbot accuracy was moderate. Technical limitations affected their experience. These preliminary findings suggest that generative AI chatbots hold promise for clinical training, particularly for education in psychiatry. However, improvements in response accuracy and conversation continuity are needed.

• 한국가축번식학회지
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.163-169
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• 2001

본 연구는 마우스 정자-난자 결합분석 법(oocytes-sperm binding assay; OSBA)을 이용하여 단백질원, 배양액의 질, 난자의 성숙도에 따라서 정자와 난자의 결합능력을 알아보고 그 유용성을 알아보기 위하여 실시하였다. 4~5주령의 hybrid(C57BL/6 $\times$ CBA/N) F$_1$ 암컷에서 회수된 미수정란에 0.1% hyaluronidase를 이용하여 난구세포를 제거하였으며, 제1극체의 존재유무에 따라 Met. II(mature)와 Met. I(intermediate mature)로 구분하였다. 암컷과 동일 계통의 8주령 이상 된 수컷에서 회수된 정소상체 미부정자를 37$^{\circ}C$에서 10분간 배양하였다. 배양된 정자부유액은 단백원 무첨가배양액과 1:5로 희석하여 10분간 배양한 다음 3 ${\mu}\ell$를 10$\pm$2개의 난자를 들어있는 배양액 소적(30 ${\mu}\ell$)에 넣어서 정자와 난자의 결합을 유도하였다. 정자 주입 후 3시간 혹은 24시간째에 난자를 뽑아내어 세척하였으며, 도립현미경(100$\times$)에서 난자에 부착된 정자의 수를 세었다. 수정란을 이용한 정도관리를 위하여 과배란이 유도된 암컷은 수컷과 합사시켰으며, hCG 주사 16~18시간째에 전핵기의 1세포 수정란을 회수하였다. 단백질원의 종류에 대한 효과를 확인하기 위하여 OSBA를 실시한 결과, 수정 3시간째에 난자당 하나 이상의 정자가 부착된 난자의 비율은 BSA첨가군, 무첨가군, FBS 첨가군의 순으로 유의한 차이를 나타내었다(100% vs. 60.2% vs. 2.1%). 한편, BSA 첨가군에서 정자의 결합능력이 우수하였으나 FBS는 매우 유해하였으며 FBS의 농도가 5%까지는 증가함에 따라 유의한 차이를 나타내었다. 따라서 투명대에 정자가 부착에 있어서 단백원이 매우 중요한 역할을 하며, OSBA는 정자와 난자의 결합에 결정적인 영향을 미칠 수 있는 배양조건을 명확히 판별할 수 있음을 시사하였다. Met. II(mature)와 Met. I(intermediate mature) 난자를 단백원 무첨가, 15% FBS, 0.4% BSA 및 10% AF(양수)가 첨가된 Ham's F-10 배양액에서 OSBA를 실시한 결과, 난자의 성숙도에 상관없이 정자의 결합능력은 비슷한 양상을 보였으며, BSA첨가군, 양수첨가군, 무첨가군, FBS첨가군 순으로 높게 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 OSBA에서 Met. II 난자 대신에 Met. I난자를 이용해도 비슷한 결과를 얻을 수 있음을 시사한다. 생쥐 1세포기배에서 배반포까지의 배발달율을 기준으로 Ham's F-10배양액을 평가하여 일련번호 151은 불량(poor), 152는 양호(good)로 판정한 다음, 동일한 배양액에 OSBA를 실시한 결과 생쥐 1세포기배의 결과와 마찬가지로 일련번호 152 배양액이 151 배양액보다 유의하게 높게 나타났다. 따라서 OSBA는 기존의 정도관리 방법과 동일한 효과를 기대할 수 있을 것이다. 결론적으로, OSBA는 배양액 조건에 따라 정자의 결합능력이 다르다는 것을 보여주었으며, 정토관리 방법으로서의 유용성을 확인시켜 주었다. 또한 쉽게 준비할 수 있는 생쥐의 난자와 정자를 이용하였으며, 배양시간이 3시간으로 짧고, 평가방법이 간편해 시간적, 경제적으로도 효율성이 높다고 사료된다.