• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.210-215
• /
• 2015

Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is a rare complication in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) that can be triggered by infections. Due to the fact that MAS may mimic clinical features of underlying rheumatic disease, or be confused with an infectious complication, its detection can prove challenging. This is particularly true when there is an unknown/undiagnosed disease; and could turn into an even greater challenge if MAS and SLE are combined with a viral infection. A-14-year-old female came to the hospital with an ongoing fever for 2 weeks and a painful facial skin rash. Hepatomegaly, pancytopenia, increased aspartate aminotransferase, elevated serum ferritin and lactate dehydrogenase were reported. No hemophagocytic infiltration of bone marrow was reported. The patient was suspected for hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. Her skin rashes were eczema herpeticum, which is usually associated with immune compromised conditions. With the history of oral ulcers and malar rash, positive ANA and low C3, C4 and the evidence of hemolytic anemia, she was diagnosed as SLE. According to the diagnostic guideline for MAS in SLE, she was diagnosed MAS as well, activated by acute HSV infection. After administering steroids and antiviral agent, the fever and skin rash disappeared, and the abnormal laboratory findings normalized. Therefore, we are reporting a rare case of MAS triggered by acute HSV infection as the first manifestation of SLE.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.34 no.10
• /
• pp.1590-1599
• /
• 2021

Objective: This study investigates the expression patterns of toll-like receptors (TLRs) and intracellular mediators in horse muscle cells after exercise, and the relationship between TLRS expression in stressed horse muscle cells and immune cell migration toward them. Methods: The expression patterns of the TLRs (TLR2, TLR4, and TLR8) and downstream signaling pathway-related genes (myeloid differentiation primary response 88 [MYD88]; activating transcription factor 3 [ATF3]) are examined in horse tissues, and horse peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) and muscles in response to exercise, using the quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Expressions of chemokine receptor genes, i.e., C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 2 (CXCR2) and C-C motif chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5), are studied in PBMCs and PMNs. A horse muscle cell line is developed by transfecting SV-T antigen into fetal muscle cells, followed by examination of muscle-specific genes. Horse muscle cells are treated with stressors, i.e., cortisol, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), and heat, to mimic stress conditions in vitro, and the expression of TLR4 and TLR8 are examined in stressed muscle cells, in addition to migration activity of PBMCs toward stressed muscle cells. Results: The qPCR revealed that TLR4 message was expressed in cerebrum, cerebellum, thymus, lung, liver, kidney, and muscle, whereas TLR8 expressed in thymus, lung, and kidney, while TLR2 expressed in thymus, lung, and kidney. Expressions of TLRs, i.e., TLR4 and TLR8, and mediators, i.e., MYD88 and ATF3, were upregulated in muscle, PBMCs and PMNs in response to exercise. Expressions of CXCR2 and CCR5 were also upregulated in PBMCs and PMNs after exercise. In the muscle cell line, TLR4 and TLR8 expressions were upregulated when cells were treated with stressors such as cortisol, H₂O₂, and heat. Migration of PBMCs toward stressed muscle cells was increased by exercise and oxidative stresses, and combinations of these. Treatment with methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), an antioxidant on stressed muscle cells, reduced migration of PBMCs toward stressed muscle cells. Conclusion: In this study, we have successfully cultured horse skeletal muscle cells, isolated horse PBMCs, and established an in vitro system for studying stress-related gene expressions and function. Expression of TLR4, TLR8, CXCR2, and CCR5 in horse muscle cells was higher in response to stressors such as cortisol, H₂O₂, and heat, or combinations of these. In addition, migration of PBMCs toward muscle cells was increased when muscle cells were under stress, but inhibition of reactive oxygen species by MSM modulated migratory activity of PBMCs to stressed muscle cells. Further study is necessary to investigate the biological function(s) of the TLR gene family in horse muscle cells.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.79 no.5
• /
• pp.259-263
• /
• 2018

A 52-year-old male complained of a painless, firm, and slow-growing mass in his right breast outer portion. The chest CT revealed a 3.3 cm-sized oval shaped, microlobulated, mild enhancing mass. Ultrasound showed a microlobulated marginated heterogeneous hypoechoic mass with internal vascularity and calcifications in the mass. On the ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy, the mass was confirmed as a benign granular cell tumor (GCT). The patient transferred to another hospital and underwent surgical removal of the lesion. GCT of the breast is uncommon and mostly benign neoplasm to originate from Schwann cell. Clinical and radiologic features of GCTs, including CT and ultrasound images, mimic malignancy and make diagnosis of GCT more difficult. The CT images of GCTs are much rarely reported. Physicians and radiologists must be aware of radiologic characteristics of this rare benign tumor for male breast, to avoid misdiagnosis this tumor for breast malignancy and overtreat.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.60 no.4
• /
• pp.451-466
• /
• 2021

The interaction between student and school levels should be considered to understand and examine equity in education. For this reason, we included the socioeconomic composition of schools to scrutinize the equity related to students' socioeconomic status and mathematical literacy in Korea. We applied the hierarchical linear modeling approach to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 data for binational comparison between Korea (5,548 students from 168 schools) and the U.S. (5,217 students from 161 schools). The findings show that school-level achievement and the socioeconomic composition of schools cannot be ignored to understand Korean students' achievement gap between high and low socioeconomic status. In addition, U.S. students from low socioeconomic status were likely to have similar mathematics literacy scores. These findings indicated that inequity in Korean mathematics education could be intertwined with the characteristics of Korean students like high demands for supplementary private education and school characteristics like curriculum selection. This research also reminds mathematics educators that people should not simply mimic other education systems to resolve education issues in their own system.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.12 no.11
• /
• pp.81-90
• /
• 2021

There are various optimization problems in real world and research continues to solve them. An optimization problem is the problem of finding a combination of parameters that maximizes or minimizes the objective function. Harmony search is a population-based metaheuristic algorithm for solving optimization problems and it is designed to mimic the improvisation of jazz music. Harmony search has been actively applied to optimization problems in various fields such as civil engineering, computer science, energy, medical science, and water quality engineering. Harmony search has a simple working principle and it has the advantage of finding good solutions quickly in constrained optimization problems. Especially there are various application cases showing high accuracy with a low number of iterations by improving the solution through the empirical derivative. In this paper, we explain working principle of Harmony search and classify the leading research in recent 3 years, review them according to category, and suggest future research directions. The research is divided into review by field, algorithmic analysis and theory, and application to real world problems. Application to real world problems is classified according to the purpose of optimization and whether or not they are hybridized with other metaheuristic algorithms.

• The Journal of the Korean bone and joint tumor society
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.205-209
• /
• 1995

A desmoid tumor is a locally aggressive growth of connective tissue origin which infiltrates the surrounding tissue and has a marked tendency for recurrence. And so it was also called as an aggressive fibromatosis, musculofascial fibromatosis or fibrosarcoma etc. Thirteen cases of desmoid tumor was treated since 1980, and their retrospective study was done with 79 months of follow-up after initial surgical excision. The female was involved in 12 cases(one male) with the age ranged from 7-50 years, average 28 years, and seven patients in third decade. A slowly growing mass was excised on average 4 months after first notice of the mass, but their margins are not demarcated clearly in most cases. Wide excision in 12 cases was done, but wide excision and saphenous vein graft was performed in one case because of invasion of posterior tibial artery by tumor mass. The tumor was found on extraabdominal region in 8 cases(61.5%) but 5 cases in abdominal wall(38.5%). The recurrence rate was high(6/13, 46.2%), and 11 times in 6 patients were recurred(average 1.8 times), within 27 months of initial excision. Six cases of recurrence were treated with wide excision again in 3 cases, wide excision combined with radiotherapy(4,000-6,000cGy) in 4 cases and wide excision with chemotherapy in one case. During the follow-up for average 21 months after treatment, no recurrences are found. Tumor remission periods without recurrence are average 67 months in all, and 11 years in longest case. Histologically it was very mimic with fibrosarcoma but could be differentiated with Trichrome stain, and their findings are not changed after recurrence.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.474-479
• /
• 2010

We developed laminated cylindrical scaffolds composed of poly(lactide-co-glycolide)(PLGA) and keratin, and investigated their potential for tissue engineering and disk regeneration. The scaffold was designed to have two parts, i.e. inner cylinder and outer disk, to mimic a natural disk. The outer disk was composed of PLGA and the inner cylinder was prepared using PLGA film or PLGA/keratin hybrid film. In this study, we investigated the effects of keratin on the growth and proliferation of annulus fibrous(AF) cells in the cylindrical scaffolds. Scaffolds containing PLGA/keratin films showed a significantly higher cell proliferation and expression of collagen I and II than the counterpart with PLGA films. Keratin containing scaffolds also exhibited an excellent mechanical strength, demonstrating that keratin influences the proliferation of annulus fibrous cells. The results provide valuable information on PLGA/keratin films for tissue engineered disk regeneration.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.20 no.11
• /
• pp.1577-1581
• /
• 2010

Granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) is a hematopoietic cytokine that stimulates bone marrow cells to proliferate and differentiate into granulocytes. G-CSF is approved and used for therapeutic purposes. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) signal peptide of hG-CSF was replaced with silkworm-specific signal peptides to express and efficiently secrete recombinant hG-CSF by silkworm cells. Plasmids that contain cDNAs for hG-CSF and hG-CSF fused with silkworm- specific signal peptides of prophenoloxidase activating enzyme (PPAE), protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), and bombyxin (BX) were constructed. The G-CSF protein was expressed in insect cell line BM5 and was detected by western blot analysis. The cells transfected with plasmids containing rhG-CSF genes with silkworm-specific signal sequences released mature rhG-CSF protein more efficiently than the cells transfected with pG-CSF, the plasmid containing human G-CSF gene, including its own signal sequence. The production of hG-CSF reached maximal level at four days post-transfection and remained at a high level until 7 days post-transfection. These data demonstrate that the modification of the human G-CSF mimic to insect proteins synthesized in ER greatly improves the production of the protein.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.89-97
• /
• 2021

Fault detection in seismic data is well suited to the application of machine learning algorithms. Accordingly, various machine learning techniques are being developed. In recent studies, machine learning models, which utilize synthetic data, are the particular focus when training with deep learning. The use of synthetic training data has many advantages; Securing massive data for training becomes easy and generating exact fault labels is possible with the help of synthetic training data. To interpret real data with the model trained by synthetic data, the synthetic data used for training should be geologically realistic. In this study, we introduce a method to generate realistic synthetic seismic data. Initially, reflectivity models are generated to include realistic fault structures, and then, a one-way wave equation is applied to efficiently generate seismic stack sections. Next, a migration algorithm is used to remove diffraction artifacts and random noise is added to mimic actual field data. A convolutional neural network model based on the U-Net structure is used to verify the generated synthetic data set. From the results of the experiment, we confirm that realistic synthetic data effectively creates a deep learning model that can be applied to field data.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.401-407
• /
• 2008

The most common type of orofacial pain is toothache. However, many other types of pain which derived from nonodontogenic problems can mimic toothache. Nonodontogenic toothache is heterotopic pain that the site of pain is not in the same location of the source of pain. This differs from primary pain, in which the site of pain is the actual site which the pain originates. Heterotopic pain can be alleviated by direct treatment toward the source of pain. The common sources of nonodontogenic toothache include neuropathic pain, sinus pain, Myofascial pain, neurovascular pain and even cardiac pain and psychogenic pain. Thus, clinicians should have a thorough knowledge about causes of nonodontogenic toothache, and through pain history and examination of dental and nondental structures are needed. This case report is about some cases of nonodontogenic toothache, and it also emphasizes essential considerations for proper differential diagnosis and appropriate treatment.