• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.87-91
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• 2011

The aim of this study was to compare the performance of conventional culture and real-time PCR for detection of Cronobacter spp. in powdered foods. Infant formula, baby food and Misugaru inoculated with Cronobacter were enriched in distilled water as first enrichment step, followed by incubating in Enterobacteriaceae enrichment (EE) broth as second enrichment step. A loopful of enriched sample was streaked onto Druggan-Forsythe-Iversen agar, followed by incubating at $37^{\circ}C$ for 24 h. One milliliter of the enriched distilled water and EE broth were used in real-time PCR assay. No statistical differences were observed in the number of positive samples between culture method and real-time PCR (p>0.05) in all types of food samples. The number of positives of real-time PCR was higher in the first enrichment media (distilled water) than the second enrichment media (EE broth), though there was no significant difference (p>0.05). It appears that some components of the second enrichment broth, EE broth, inhibit the reaction of real-time PCR. These results show that real-time PCR using a single enrichment with distilled water could be useful as an effective screening method for detection of Cronobacter while saving much time and labor compared to conventional culture method.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.320-326
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• 2003

In order to identify Vibrio vulnificus in the Yellow Sea near Gunsan, Korea during the early and late summers, the efficiency of the real-time quantitative TaqMan PCR was compared to the efficiency of the conventional PCR and Biolog identification system^TM. Primers and a probe were designed from the hemolysin/cytolysin gene sequence of V. vulnificus strains. The number of positive detections by real-time quantitative TaqMan PCR, conventional PCR, and the Biolog identification system from seawater were 53 (36.8%), 36 (25%), and 10 strains (6.9%), respectively, among 144 samples collected from Yellow Sea near Gunsan, Korea. Thus, the detection method of the real-time quantitative TaqMan PCR assay was more effective in terms of accuracy than that of the conventional PCR and Biolog system. Therefore, our results showed that the real-time TaqMan probe and the primer set developed in this study can be applied successfully as a rapid screening tool for the detection of V. vulnificus.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.530-534
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• 2012

A real-time PCR assay was developed and validated inhouse specifically for the detection of Clostridium perfringens (Cl. perfringens) in meats and vegetables by comparing with the culture method. The detection limit of the real-time PCR assay in phosphate-buffered saline was $10^2$ CFU/ml. When the two methods were compared in food samples inoculated with Cl. perfringens, the culture method detected 52 positives, whereas real-time PCR detected 51 positives out of 160 samples. The difference was without statistical significance (p>0.05). Real-time PCR assay is an option for quality assurance laboratories to perform standard diagnostic tests, considering its detection ability and time-saving efficiency.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.1301-1306
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• 2012

We combined real-time RT-PCR and real-time PCR (R/P) assays using a hydrolysis probe to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC)-specific 16S rRNA and its rRNA gene (rDNA). The assay was applied to 28 non-respiratory and 207 respiratory specimens from 218 patients. Total nucleic acids (including RNA and DNA) were extracted from samples, and results were considered positive if the repeat RT-PCR threshold cycle was ${\leq}35$ and the ratio of real-time RT-PCR and real-time PCR load was ${\geq}1.51$. The results were compared with those from existing methods, including smear, culture, and real-time PCR. Following resolution of the discrepant results between R/P assay and culture, the overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values (PPV), and negative predictive values (NPV) of all samples (including non-respiratory and respiratory specimens) were 98.2%, 97.2%, 91.7%, and 99.4%, respectively, for R/P assay, and 83.9%, 89.9%, 72.3%, and 94.7%, respectively, for real-time PCR. Furthermore, the R/P assay of four patient samples showed a higher ratio before treatment than after several days of treatment. We conclude that the R/P assay is a rapid and accurate method for direct detection of MTBC, which can distinguish viable and nonviable MTBC, and thus may guide patient therapy and public health decisions.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2022

African swine fever (ASF) is fatal to domestic pigs and wild boars (Sus scrofa) and affects the domestic pig industry. ASF is transmitted directly through the secretions of infected domestic pigs or wild boars, an essential source of infection in disease transmission. ASFV is also very stable in the environment. Thus, the virus is detected in the surrounding environment where ASF-infected carcasses are found. In this study, ASF infection monitoring was conducted on the swab and whole blood samples from wild animals, various hematopoietic arthropod samples that could access infected wild boar carcasses or habitats to cause maintenance and spread of disease, and soil samples of wild boar habitats. ASF viral DNA detection was confirmed negative in 317 wildlife and environmental samples through a real-time polymerase chain reaction. However, ASF occurs in the wild boars and spreads throughout the Korean peninsula. Therefore, it is necessary to trace the route of ASF virus infection by a continuous vector. Additional monitoring of various samples with potential ASF infection is needed to help the epidemiologic investigation and disease prevention.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.134-142
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• 2021

This paper proposes a probabilistic method in analyzing timing measurements to determine the periodicity of real-time tasks. The proposed method fills a gap in existing techniques, which either concentrate on the estimation of worst-case execution times, or do not consider the stochastic behavior of the real-time scheduler. Our method is based on the Z-test statistical analysis which calculates the probability of the measured period to fall within a user-defined standard deviation limit. The distribution of the measured period should satisfy two conditions: its center (statistical mean) should be equal to the scheduled period of the real-time task, and that it should be symmetrical with most of the samples focused on the center. To ensure that these requirements are met, a data adjustment process, which omits any outliers in the expense of accuracy, is presented. Then, the Z-score of the distribution according to the user-defined deviation limit provides a probability which determines the periodicity of the real-time task. Experiments are conducted to analyze the timing measurements of real-time tasks based on real-time Linux extensions of Xenomai and RT-Preempt. The results indicate that the proposed method is able to provide easier interpretation of the periodicity of real-time tasks which are valuable especially in comparing the performance of various real-time systems.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.377-383
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• 2012

Bovine diarrhea is a major economical burden to the bovine industry in Korea. Since multiple infectious agents can be involved in bovine diarrhea, differential diagnosis is essential for effective treatment. Therefore, a panel of two multiplex real-time PCR assays which can simultaneously detect six major bovine enteric pathogens [i.e., bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), bovine coronavirus (BCoV), group A bovine rotavirus (BRV), Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli (E. coli) $K99^+$, and Cryptosporidium parvum] was developed and applied to test 97 fecal samples collected from cattle farms in Korea. In addition, microscopic examination was also preformed on the samples to detect Coccidium oocyst. The estimated sensitivity of the multiplex PCR was 0.1 $TCID_{50}$ for BVDV, BCoV and group A BRV, 5 and 0.5 CFU for E. coli $K99^+$ and Salmonella, respectively, and 50 oocysts for Cryptosporidium. The amplification efficiency of the multiplex PCR ranged between 0.97 and 0.99 for each pathogen. Among 97 samples, 36 samples were positive for at least one of the 6 major pathogens and 6 samples were simultaneously positive for 2 pathogens by the multiplex PCR assay. Coccidium oocysts were also detected in 48 samples, which were all collected from over 1 month old calves. In conclusion, the multiplex real-time PCR panel can be a useful tool for fast and accurate diagnosis of calf diarrhea associated with BVDV, BCoV, group A BRV, E. coli $K99^+$, Salmonella, and/or Cryptosporidium and Coccidium may be an important target which needs to be included in the multiplex PCR panel in the future.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.459-468
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• 2020

This study established a new polymerase spiral reaction (PSR) that combines with reverse transcription reactions for HCV detection targeting 5'UTR gene. To avoid cross-contamination of aerosols, an isothermal amplification tube (IAT), as a separate containment control, was used to judge the result. After optimizing the RT-PSR reaction system, its effectiveness and specificity were tested against 15 different virus strains which included 8 that were HCV positive and 7 as non-HCV controls. The results showed that the RT-PSR assay effectively detected all 8 HCV strains, and no false positives were found among the 7 non-HCV strains. The detection limit of our RT-PSR assay is comparable to the real-time RT-PCR, but is more sensitive than the RT-LAMP. The established RT-PSR assay was further evaluated for detection of HCV in clinical blood samples, and the resulting 80.25% detection rate demonstrated better or similar effectiveness compared to the RT-LAMP (79.63%) and real-time RT-PCR (80.25%). Overall, the results showed that the RT-PSR assay offers high specificity and sensitivity for HCV detection with great potential for screening HCV in clinical blood samples.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2000.07d
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• pp.3166-3168
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• 2000

This paper proposed variable threshold dual rate ADPCM coding method which is modified from the standard ADPCM of ITU G.726 for speech quality improvement. The speech quality of variable threshold dual rate ADPCM is better than single rate ADPCM at noisy environment without increasing the complexity by using ZCR(Zero Crossing Rate). In this case, ZCR is used to divide input signal samples into two categories(noisy & speech). The samples with higher ZCR is categorized as the noisy region and the samples with lower ZCR is categorized as the speech region. Noisy region uses higher threshold value to be compressed by 16Kbps for reduced bit rates and the speech region uses lower threshold value to be compressed by 40Kbps for improved speech quality. Comparing with the conventional ADPCM, which adapts the fixed coding rate. the proposed variable threshold dual rate ADPCM coding method improves noise character without increasing the bit rate. For real time applications, ZCR calculation was considered as a simple method to obtain the background noise information for preprocess of speech analysis such as FFT and the experiment showed that the simple calculation of ZCR can be used without complexity increase. Dual rate ADPCM can decrease the amount of transferred data efficiently without increasing complexity nor reducing speech quality. Therefore result of this paper can be applied for real-time speech application such as the internet phone or VoIP.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.1543-1552
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• 2019

Salmonella is a common zoonotic and foodborne pathogen that causes high morbidity and mortality in developing countries. In this study, we established and validated a polymerase spiral reaction (PSR) assay which targeted the conserved invasion gene (invA) of Salmonella by SYBR Green I indicator methods. Subsequently, assays for determination of the optimal conditions for optimal specificity and sensitivity of PSR were performed. We performed comprehensive evaluations using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and real-time PCR. A total number of 532 samples of daily food were analyzed by PSR. Twenty-seven bacterial strains were tested in the specificity assay, from which positive results were obtained only for 14-Salmonella strains. However, none of the 13 non-Salmonella strains was amplified. Similarly with LAMP and real-time PCR, the detection limit of the PSR assay was 50 CFU/ml. The PSR method was also successfully applied to evaluate the contamination with Salmonella in 532 samples of daily food, corroborating traditional culture method data. The novel PSR method is simple, sensitive, and rapid and provides new insights into the prevention and detection of foodborne diseases.