• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 2016

Endotoxin, also known as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) produced by the cell wall of gram negative bacteria can be present in any liquid or on any biomaterial. Endotoxin in blood can cause fever and inflammation. In this study, we compared bacterial endotoxin using Escherichia coli O157:H7, Klebsiella oxytoca, Salmonella Typhi, Shigella sonnei and Morganella morganii. Bacteria were cultured for use in the experiment, and diluted to $1.5{\times}10^8CFU/mL$. A check marked sensitivity confirmatory test of the Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) reagent was performed to examine the validity. The end point reaction to each bacteria sample was confirmed with 10 fold dilution and then the final reaction end point was confirmed by 2 fold dilution between the dilution step and the upper dilution step. According to the results, in detection of endotoxins in more than 0.015 EU/mL, E. coli O157 was 75~37.5 CFU/mL, K. oxytoca 37.5~18.75 CFU/mL, M. morganii and S. Typhi 3.75~1.875 CFU/mL, and S. sonnei 7.5~3.75 CFU/mL. The resulting value was finally ensured by a confirmation test for the inhibitory factor. Based on this study, conduct of further research on bacterial endotoxin is encouraged.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 1997

Vibrio mimicus is a closely related species with V. cholerae, and has been reported to be associated with gastrointestinal infections. Although extraintestinal infections of these vibrios have also been reported in Japan and Southeast Asia. But little research papers on V. mimicus was reported in Korea. Therefore, we tried to isolate V. mimicus from the environmental sea water from April to July in Pusan, Korea. Among the isolated strains, we selected the strongest hemolytic strain and then named V. mimicus SM-9. In this paper, we checked the antibiotic susceptibility and psychrotrophic characteristics of the isolated strain. Hemolytic activity of the hemolysin produced by the isolated strain was also measured. V. mimicus was not detected from the sea water samples in April and May, but its detection rate was relatively high in June and July in Pusan, Korea. The bacteriological characteristics of V. mimicus SM-9 were Gram-negative rods, motile, oxidase positive, Voges-Proskauer negative and sucrose negative. In 23 kinds of antibiotics susceptibility test, V. mimicus SM-9 showed susceptibility to the most of antibiotics submitted while it was resistive against lincomycin, oxacillin, rifampin and vancomycin. Hemolytic activity of the hemolysin produced by V. mimicus SM-9 was highest in stationary phase of the growth curve in BHI broth at 37$^{\circ}C$ and its activity was reached 18 HU per $m\ell$ of culture supernatant. For checking the psychrotrophic property of V. mimicus SM-9, the decreasing rate of the strain in phosphate buffer solution and yellowtail flesh homogenate was examined during the storage at 4, 0, -4 and -2$0^{\circ}C$. The decreasing rates of the selected strain stored in phosphate buffer solution were greater than those in fish homogenate. Decreasing rates of V. mimicus SM-9 stored in phosphate buffer solution were not significantly different by the storage temperatures. The viable cell counts of the strain were decreased as 5 log cycles after 120 hours at all the tested temperatures. While decreasing numbers of the strain in fish homogenates were 2*4 log cycles after 120 hours. The decreasing pattern of the strain numbers were very slow after 200 hours at all the stored temperatures.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.226-231
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• 2010

We aimed at the monitoring medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) residue amount in meats and confirmed the safety of its residue in meats. Optimized condition for analytical and instrumental methods was obtained by method validation. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were validated at 1.5 and 5.0 ug/kg, respectively. The calibration curve showed good linearity ($r^2$ = 0.9968) within the concentration range of 5.0~50.0 ug/kg. We selected progesterone-d9 for internal standard, The recoveries in fortified meat ranged from 67.5 to 109.56% at the 3 spiking levels. As the regulation of MPA analysis method used by LC-MS/MS on other products have established. We selected 3 species of farm stock products (cattle, pig, chicken) and purchased at the markets of seven major cities. The total 196 of meat including 46 of domestic beef, 43 of import beef, 60 of domestic pork, 12 of import pork and 35 of domestic chicken. No residue of synthetic growth hormones were detected in cattle, pig and chicken samples tested.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.545-553
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• 2009

Digital Elevation Models (DEM) is widely used in establishing the topographic profile in nation spatial information. Aerial Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) system is one of the well-known means to produce DEM. The system has fast data acquisition procedures and less weather-dependent restrictions compared to photogrammetric approaches. In this regards, LiDAR has been widely utilized and accepted in the process of nation spatial information generation due to its sufficient positional accuracy. However, the investigation of the accuracy of aerial LiDAR data over the area of forestation with various kinds of vegetations has been barely implemented in Korea. Hence, this research focuses on the investigation of the accuracy of aerial LiDAR data over the area of forestation and the evaluation of the acquired accuracy according to the characteristics of the vegetations. The study areas include land with shrubs and its adjacent forest area with mixed tree species. The spots for the investigation have been selected to be well-distributed over the whole study areas and their coordinates are surveyed by Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Then, the surveyed information and aerial LiDAR data have been compared with each other and the result accuracy has been evaluated. Conclusively, it is recommended that LiDAR data collection to be conducted after defoliation period, especially over the areas with broadleaf trees due to the possibility of significant outliers.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.349-357
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• 2003

The universality of low molecular weight metabolites (i.e. amino acids, steroid hormones) allows rapid and straightforward investigation of biochemistry of genetically un-characterized species. Thus in vivo metabolic profiling of amino acid in combination with multivariate data analysis (metabolomics) offers great potential in comparative biology. In this paper, amino acid profiles in biological fluid (media) were studied by using HPLC/FLD. HPLC procedure for amino acids require the formation of derivatives due to the low absorption of the free compounds. o-Phthalaldehyde (OPA) used in association with a thiol, such as 3-mercaptopropionic acid (3-MPA), is one of the most popular and sensitive reagents, which yield quickly fluorescent iso-indoles at room temperature. To improve unstability of OPA/3-MPA derivatization, we optimized injector programs for fixed injection times. Linear regressions for the standard curves were linear in the range 0.5 - 100.0 ppb, giving correlation coefficents above 0.99. The detection limit were 1.70 pmol(GLU) - 23.81 pmol(SER). It is practically useful when the amount of sample is very low on single cells.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.329-334
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• 2004

The electronic nose (E-nose) recently finds its applications in medical diagnosis, specifically on detection of diabetes, pulmonary or gastrointestinal problem, or infections by examining odors in the breath or tissues with its odor characterizing ability. The odor recognition performance of E-nose can be improved by manipulating the sensor array responses of vapors in time-profile forms. The different chemical interactions between the sensor materials and the volatile organic compounds (VOC's) leave unique marks in the signal profiles giving more information than collection of the conventional piecemal features, i.e., maximum sensitivity, signal slopes, rising time. In this study, to use them in vapor recognition task conveniently, a novel time-profile method was proposed, which is adopted from digital image pattern matching. The degrees of matching between 8 different vapors were evaluated by using the proposed method. The test vapors are measured by the silicon-based gas sensor array with 16 CB-polymer composites installed in membrane structure. The results by the proposed method showed clear discrimination of vapor species than by the conventional method.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.378-384
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• 2012

In aquatic invertebrates, particularly marine gastropods, organotin compounds induce irreversible sexual abnormality in females, which is termed imposex, at very low concentrations. Organotin compounds are agonists for nuclear receptors such as RXRs and $PPAR{\gamma}$. However, the imposex phenomenon has not been reported to act as an antagonist on estrogen receptors in other species, including vertebrates and invertebrates. In order to gain insights into the antagonistic activity of organotin compounds on estrogen receptors (ERs), we examined the inhibitive effect of these compounds on estradiol-dependent ${\beta}$-galactosidase activity using the yeast two-hybrid detection system consisting of a combination of the human estrogen receptor ($hER{\beta}$) ligand-binding domain and the co-activator steroid receptor co-activator-1 (SRC1). Tributyltin-hydroxide (TBT-OH) and triphenyltin-chlorine (TPT-Cl) exhibited an inhibitive effect on $E_2$-dependent transcriptional activity, similar to antagonistic chemicals such as 4-hydroxytamoxifen (OHT) or ICI 182,780, at a very low concentration of $10^{-14}$ M TBT or $10^{-10}$ M TPT, respectively. The yeast growth and transcriptional activity with transcriptional factor GAL4 did not exhibit any effect at the tested concentration of TBT or TPT. Moreover, the yeast two-hybrid system using the interaction between p53 and the T antigen of SV40 large did not describe any effect at the tested concentration of OHT or ICI 182,780. However, the interaction between p53 and T antigen was inhibited at a TBT or TPT concentration of $10^{-9}$ M, respectively. These results indicate that TBT and TPT act as inhibitors of ER-dependent reporter gene transcriptional activation and of the interaction between $hER{\beta}$ LBD and the co-activator SRC1 in the yeast two-hybrid system. Consequently, our data could partly explain the occurrence of organotin compound-induced imposex on the endocrine system of mammals, including humans.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.177-183
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• 2002

Cerebroside fatty acids, sugars and long-chain sphingoid bases in raw soybean and soybean fermented foods (chongkukjang and deunjang) were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high-pH anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amerometric detection (HPAEC-PAD). Fatty acids of acid-hydrolyzed cerebrosides were derivatized to O-TMS methylester and analysed. The major fatty acids in raw soybean and chongkukjang cerebrosides were identified as 2-hydroxyhexadecanoic acid (16 : 0h), 2-hydroxydocosanoic acid (22 : 0h) and 2-hydroxytetracosanoic acid (24 : 0h). In the case of deunjang cerebroside, 24 : 0h (40.9%) and 22 : 0h (23.4%) were major fatty acids, but 16 : 0h, 23 : 0h, 25 : 0h and 26 : 0h were also detected. Long-chain sphingoid bases of acid-hydrolyzed cerebrosides from raw soybean, chongkukjang and deunjang consisted primarily of 4-tracts, 8-tracts-sphingadienine (dihydroxy base, d18 : 2$\Delta$$^{4trans, 8trans}$) and sis-tracts isomers of 4-hydroxy-sphingenine (trihydroxy base, tl8:1$\Delta$$^{4trans or cis}$) with much less amounts of phytosphingosine (tl8: 0) and isomers of sphingenine (d18 : 1). Although deunjang is a soybean food fermented by fungi and microorganisms for a long period, 2-hydroxyoctadec-3-enoic acid (18 : 1h) and branched 9-methyl-4,8-sphingadienine known as compositional cerebroside fatty acids in Aspergillus species were not detected. Mass spectrum for sugar derivatives in cerebrosides of soybean foods including raw soybean and fermented soybean showed that C-1 of glucose moiety was linked to ceramide backbone as like a monoglucosylceramide.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.926-931
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• 2007

Diarrhetic shellfish poisons (DSP) such as okadaic acid (OA), dinophysistoxin-1 (DTX1), pectenotoxin-1(PTX1), PTX2, PTX6 and yessotoxin (YTX) were determined simultaneously by LC-MS/MS and mouse bioassay in the shellfishes (oyster, mussel, Washington purple clam, ark shell, scallop and short necked clam) collected at Tongyeong, from March to September, 2006. Oyster and mussel were found to contain DSP (0.05${\sim}$0.1 MU/g) in March by mouse bioassay; however, no DSP components were detected on the LC-MS/MS. Also, a small amount of DTX1 (0.05 ${\mu}g/g$) in mussel (June) and OA (0.01${\sim}$0.02 ${\mu}g/g$) in 5 species of shellfishes(August) were determined by LC-MS/MS.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.80 no.4
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• pp.358-367
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• 2017

Background: Bacterial pneumonia occurring after respiratory viral infection is common. However, the predominant bacterial species causing pneumonia secondary to respiratory viral infections other than influenza remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to know whether the pathogens causing post-viral bacterial pneumonia vary according to the type of respiratory virus. Methods: Study subjects were 5,298 patients, who underwent multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction for simultaneous detection of respiratory viruses, among who visited the emergency department or outpatient clinic with respiratory symptoms at Ulsan University Hospital between April 2013 and March 2016. The patients' medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Results: A total of 251 clinically significant bacteria were identified in 233 patients with post-viral bacterial pneumonia. Mycoplasma pneumoniae was the most frequent bacterium in patients aged <16 years, regardless of the preceding virus type (p=0.630). In patients aged ${\geq}16years$, the isolated bacteria varied according to the preceding virus type. The major results were as follows (p<0.001): pneumonia in patients with influenza virus (type A/B), rhinovirus, and human metapneumovirus infections was caused by similar bacteria, and the findings indicated that Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia was very common in these patients. In contrast, coronavirus, parainfluenza virus, and respiratory syncytial virus infections were associated with pneumonia caused by gram-negative bacteria. Conclusion: The pathogens causing post-viral bacterial pneumonia vary according to the type of preceding respiratory virus. This information could help in selecting empirical antibiotics in patients with post-viral pneumonia.