• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.339-346
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• 2007

Pollen germination viability is an essential factor to produce seeds from pollination and fertilization, which are required to maintain plant generation. In this study, we tried to identify the effect of boric acid on pollen germination and tube grouch in non-transgenic and transgenic plants expressing monoclonal antibodies (anti-colorectal cancer mAb CO17-1A, anti-breast cancer mAb BR55, and anti-rabies virus mAb57). The pollen of non-transgenic plant was treated with different concentration of boric acid (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, $40{\mu}g/mL$) in germination buffer to investigate its effect on in vitro pollen germination. At $20{\mu}g/mL$ of boric acid, tile pollen germination rate was the highest (49.5%) compared to other concentrations. In general, the germination rate significantly increased 3-10 folds in boric acid ($20{\mu}g/mL$) treated group in non-transgenic and transgenic plants. Also, the pollen tube length increased in boric acid ($20{\mu}g/mL$) treated groups. In the treated group, the pollen tube length increased until 3 h boric acid treatment and decreased after the 3 h, indicating that the 3 h is the most appropriate incubation time period. Western blot analysis showed that the mAb transgene expression was more stable in leaf than pollen in transgenic plants. This study suggested that $20{\mu}g/mL$ of boric acid is ideal concentration to induce in vitro pollen germination of transgenic plants expressing therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, indicating stable pollination and fertilization in transgenic plants.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.69-78
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• 1998

Purpose : The risk of severe tuberculous disease such as meningitis or miliary tuberculosis increases as younger is the child at the time of infection. Therefore, the early diagnosis and prompt treatment is mandatory for infants with tuberculosis. This study was undertaken to describe the epidemiology, clinical and radiographic manifestations, and response to therapy in infants with tuberculous disease. Methods : Medical records of 29 infants with tuberculosis diagnosed at the Seoul National University Children's Hospital from July, 1985, to April, 1997, were reviewed, retrospectively. A case of tuberculosis was confirmed if M. tuberculosis was isolated from any body site or if there was histologic proof of tuberculosis. Otherwise, the diagnoses were individualized considering history of contact with contagious adult case, clinical manifestations, chest X-ray findings, result of a Mantoux test reaction with 5 tuberculin unit of PPD, and the response to therapy. Results : The mean age at diagnosis was $7.00{\pm}2.65$ months (range, 3 to 12 months). Twelve cases had isolated pulmonary diseases, and the rest had pulmonary disease and meningitis, 5 cases; pulmonary disease and cervical lymphadenitis, 3; isolated meningitis, 3; and miliary tuberculosis, 6. Source case was identified in 19 cases, 7 of which were detected with retrograde manner. Twenty seven of 29 were symptomatic at their initial visit. The presenting symptoms were mainly respiratory or neurologic, and respiratory difficulty was accompanied in 7 cases. Physical examination revealed wheezing in 7 cases and decreased breath sounds in 9. Hepatomegaly or hepatosplenomegaly were frequent. Chest radiographs showed lung parenchymal disease with hilar lymphadenopathy in 18 cases, and focal or generalized emphysematous change in 7 cases. Conclusion : Most of the infants with tuberculosis are symptomatic at diagnosis, and many of infants with intrathoracic tuberculosis presented with symptoms of bronchial obstruction. When tuberculosis is suspected in an infant, the adult source case should be vigorously investigated to aid in diagnosis and for the prevention of further transmission of tuberculous disease. Almost half of infant tuberculosis are preventable if prophylaxis were given when adult cases were diagnosed.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.299-308
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• 2012

To perform patient dose surveys in major interventional radiography procedures as a mean of inter-institutional comparison and of establishing reference dose levels with the ultimate goal of optimizing patient doses in the field of interventional radiography. We reviewed international patient dose survey data in the literature and measured patient dose in major interventional radiography procedures (TACE, AVF, PTBD, TFCA, GDC embolization). ESD(Entrance Skin Dose) was measured using TLD chips attached to the patient skin and ED(Effective Dose) was calculated using angiography unit-derived DAP. A survey of patient dose in interventional radiography procedures were also performed with a questionnaire for interventional radiologists and we proposed a guideline for optimizing patient doses in the field of interventional radiology. The patient dose survey data in interventional radiography procedures were very rare in literature compared with those in diagnostic radiography procedures. In TACE, the mean ED was 25.43 mSv and the mean ESD was 511.75 mGy. The mean ED of TACE was not high, but the cumulative dose should be checked, due to longer procedure TACE. In TFCA, the mean ED was 22.6 mSv and it was relatively high compared with data of other countries. In GDC embolization, the mean ED was not available, because GDC embolization was performed with old Image-Intensifier-type unit and there has no unit-installed ionization chamber. Also, the mean ESD of GDC embolization was up to 2,264 mGy and further studies are needed to calculate the net ED of GDC embolization. Patient dose occurred during interventional radiography procedures are high related with the difficulty of the procedure, fluoroscopy time, the number of angiographies and the treatment protocol. Therefore, continuous education and efforts should be made to optimize the patient dose in the field of interventional radiology.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.689-697
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• 2013

In the United States, about 40,000 new cases of oral cancer are diagnosed each year and nearly 7,800 patients died from it in 2012. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids have been found to have anticancer effects in a variety of cancer cell lines and animal models, but their effect in oral cancer remains unclear. This study was designed to examine the effect of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, a kind of omega-3 fatty acid) on oral cancer cells and the molecular mechanism of its action. We found that exposure of squamous cell carcinoma-4 (SCC-4) and squamous cell carcinoma-9 (SCC-9) human oral cancer cells to DHA induced growth inhibition in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Meanwhile, in addition to the elevated levels of apoptotic markers, such as cleaved PARP, subG1 portion and TUNEL-positive nuclei, DHA led to autophagic vesicle formation and an increase in autophagic flux, indicating the involvement of both apoptosis and autophagy in the inhibitory effects of DHA on oral cancer cells. Further experiments revealed that the apoptosis and autophagy induced by DHA were linked to inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling by AKT inhibition and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation in SCC-9 cells. Together, our results suggest that DHA induces apoptosis- and autophagy-associated cell death through the AMPK/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in oral cancer cells. Thus, utilization of omega-3 fatty acids may represent a promising therapeutic approach for chemoprevention and treatment of human oral cancer.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.540-549
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• 2001

Background : Usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) is a progressive fibrous lung disease with occasional fatal outcomes. However, the extent and rate of progression varies markedly from one patient to another. As a result, it is difficult to determine the time of the initial treatment and assess the disease activity and course. Fibroblast foci (FF) is well known to synthesize collagen actively by their myofibroblasts component. However, the prognostic value of the FF have not been evaluated in patients with VIP. Therefore this study was undertaken to determine how the number of fibroblastic foci can reflect the disease activity and progression. Methods: Twenty patients with UIP(M : F=13 : 7), who were diagnosed by a surgical lung biopsy. The number of fibroblastic foci was analyzed in terms of its correlation with the clinical manifostations, pulmonary function test, arterial blood gas analysis, and a bronchoalveolar lavage(BAL). Results : The number of fibroblastic foci did not correlate with the various lung function tests and the other clinical parameters. Interestingly, the percentage of neutrophils in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid did correlate with the quantity of the normalized Vv of FF(r=0.60, p<0.05). The patients were divided into 2 groups, group I and II, arbitrarily, according to the value of the normalized Vv. The clinical parameters and the PIT results were not different between the two groups. In particular, the survival rate between the two groups according to the Kaplan-Meier analysis were not different. Conclusion : A large number of FF does not imply a bad prognosis in patients with UIP.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.129-155
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• 2008

The rate of antibiotics prescription for an acute airway infection significantly varies depending upon the diagnosis type, specialty, and the location of the hospital along with many other related factors. The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the possible relationship between the antibiotics prescription rates for an acute airway infection and the degree of competition in the hospital market regions of mainly the providers of primary medical care services such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics and otorhinolaryngology department. Using the data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) regarding the hospitals' antibiotics prescription rates for the acute airway infection and controlling for selected variables of demand and supply sectors, this study tries to figure out that the degree of competition in the hospital market, regardless of what type of competition indexes we employed, has a statistically significant effect on the variations of antibiotics prescription rate of the clinics in local areas. This result implies that as an economic consideration itself, the change in the degree of competition in the hospital market can play a crucial role influencing the treatment behaviors of the medical doctors. More specifically, this study reveals that as the degree of competition increases the antibiotics prescription rate goes up. This result means that if the market becomes more competitive in a specific region so that it might cause a reduction in doctor's income, doctors with rational decision-making process, recognize that the benefit created from inducing patients' seemingly unnecessary demand for medical care (income effect) would be higher than the costs associated with sustaining their targeted income (substitution effect). It is because that the doctors are more likely to prescribe antibiotics which create relatively higher margins than other medical care services in order to sustain their targeted income when the hospital market competition becomes tighter. Even though this study empirically confirms that antibiotics prescription can be affected by the economic incentives, it still raises following issues as limitations of the study: first issue is about the representativeness of the hospital regions segregated for this study, which might be weak in explaining whether these regions are mutually exclusive in reality. Patients actually consider the quality of services, transportation cost, time costs, and any other related factors choosing the doctors or hospitals, and in that sense, this study rules out 'border-crossing' in using the medical care services. Second issue arises in capturing the data of antibiotics prescription rate. Since we use the average rate for each medical institution, we cannot figure out the average rate for each patient so that we are not able to control for the variation of patients' medical conditions. It is because of the unavailability of data regarding each patient's medical condition from HIRA. Thirdly, since this study mainly analyzes the medical institutions providing primary care such as clinics, internal medicines, pediatrics, and otorhinolaryngology department, it is skeptical of whether those institutions can represent the hospital market in respective regions and truly reflect the degree of competition. It needs to extend the study areas and disease types as well as any micro data for future studies.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.261-268
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• 2004

Background : The resurgence of tuberculosis and outbreaks of multidrug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis have increased the emphasis for the development of new susceptibility testing of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis for the effective treatment and control of the disease. Conventional drug susceptibility testings, such as those using egg-based or agar-based media have some limits, such as the time required and difficulties in determining critical inhibitory concentrations, but these are still being used in many diagnostic laboratories because of no better lternatives, considering cost and accuracy. To overcome these limits, a rapid and simple method for new susceptibility testing, using live and dead assays, was applied for a bacterial cell viability assay to distinguish dead from live bacterial cells based on two-color fluorescence. Materials and Methods Strains : Forty strains were used in this study, 20 susceptible to all antituberculosis drugs and the other 20 resistant to the four first line antituberculosis drugs isoniazid, rifampicin, streptomycin and ethambutol. Antibiotics : The four antibiotics were dissolved in 7H9 broth to make the following solutions: $0.1{\mu}g\;isoniazid(INH)/m{\ell}$, $0.4{\mu}g\;rifampicin(RMP)/m{\ell}$, $4.0{\mu}g\;streptomycin(SM)/m{\ell}$ and $4.0{\mu}g\;ethambutol(EMB)/m{\ell}$. Results : Live and dead Mycobacterium tuberculosis cells fluoresced green and red with the acridin (Syto 9) and propidium treatments, respectively. These results are very well accorded with conventional drug susceptibility testing by proportional method on Lowensen-Jensen media (L-J) containing 4 drugs (INH, RMP, EMB and SM), showing a 93.7 % accordance rate in susceptible strains and 95% in resistant strains. Conclusion : The results of the drug susceptibility testing using the live and dead bacterial cell assay showed high accordance rates compared with the conventional proportion method on L-J. This finding suggests that the live and dead bacterial cell assay can be used as an alternative to conventional drug susceptibility testing for M. tuberculosis strains.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.1006-1016
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• 2011

Saltwort (Salicornia herbacea L.), as a natural additive for regulating Mul-kimchi fermentation, was assessed for physicochemical and sensory characteristics of Yulmoo Mul-kimchi during storage. Saltwort in the form powder was directly added to the Yulmoo Mul-kimchi preparation at 0 (control), 1, 3, 5, and 7% (w/v) per weight of salt to evaluate their physicochemical, sensory, and microbiological characteristics in storage at $10^{\circ}C$ for 30 days. The pH values of all treatments were high, indicating a less acidic environment in all treatments compared to those of the control sample throughout the preservation period. Total acidity increased with storage time as is usually seen with normal kimchi fermentations, whereas the increases were more gradual in the 3 and 5% treatments. The increases in total vitamin C continued until days 6 (control) to 13 (7%), and were different according to the amount of added saltwort and then they decreased after each peak. The fluctuation in reducing sugars fol owed a similar trends of total vitamin C content by showing an initial increase, followed by a decrease based on the saltwort concentration and storage day. The 5% treatment was most effective for suppressing the increase in turbidity among all treatments. The 3 and 5% treatments showed the highest lactic acid bacteria counts during the entire preservation period. In the sensory evaluation results, adding saltwort at more than 3% concentration attained an overall higher scores of acceptability with respect to color, smell, taste, fresh taste, sour taste, crisp, and overall acceptability characteristics. In conclusion, adding saltwort, particularly at concentrations of 3 and 5% extended the preservation period of Yulmoo Mul-kimchi by retarding fermentation effectively.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.14
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• pp.91-113
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• 2013

Cheongpung Buwongun Kim Wu-myeong's Funeral Bier, an important folklore cultural property No.120, possessed by Chuncheon National Museum was donated in 2002 (by Kim Seonggu). It consists of a bier, yoyeo(腰輿), myeongjeongdae(銘旌臺), and manjangdae(輓章臺). It has a high value as the oldest royal bier. The bier which had a resting time in the storage for special exhibition of "The great cultural treasure of Gangwon province" was inspected in September 2012 and colored pigment layer of the wooden part had the risk of peeling off and surface damage of the textile was serious. Therefore, conservation treatment was conducted. In addition, knots and susiks(垂飾) were severely damaged and their exhibition was impossible. Therefore, a reproduction to replace them through a close investigation was made. All parts of the funeral bier were in separation except for the basic furniture. Conservation was made by dividing the parts into wooden parts and textile parts. Yoyeo was reinforced after disassembling bujae from it and then was reassembled. Paraloid B-72 2 wt% (in ethyle acetate), acrylic resin, was applied to the wooden part of the bier in order to reinforce the colored pigment layer with the addition of sodium alginate 2 wt%(in stilled water) and glue 4 wt%(in stilled water). The pollutants on the surface of the textile part were removed (vacuuming) and its creases were smoothed out (steaming). Fat-soluble pollutants were removed using an nonionic surfactant(Saponin, concentration at 0.25 to 0.5 g/𝑙, in de-ionized water). After the disassembly of the yoyeo from the broken wooden, it was bonded with glue (3 wt% for the first gluing, 35 wt% for gluing), and pine wood was used to restore missing parts. In the process of connecting Wongak(雲角), the original metal hinge and nails were reused to complete the assembly.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.225-232
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• 1988

To improve the storage method for Kimchi, optimal ripening Kimchi was irradiated with doses of 1,3,5 kGy Co-GO gamma radiation, followed by the microbiological, physicochemical and sensory evaluations during storage at $5^{\circ}C$. 1. Total aerobic count increased in the beginning of storage and then decreased slowly as the number of total lactobacilli (anaerobe) increased. The above total aerobic and lactobacilli were reduced by 1 to 3 log cycles with irradiation and at the 90th day after storage the number of total lactobacilli remained $1.30{\times}10^{8}\;per\;ml$ in3 kGy irradiated group. Irradiation treatment at 3 kGy sterilized coli forms and molds contaminating the sample as the level of $2.0{\times}10^{4}\;per\;ml\;and\;5.4{\times}10^{2}\;per\;ml$, respectively and no apparent growth was observed in both control and 1 kGy irradiated groups after 20 days of storage. The population.of yeast, $3.5{\times}10^{3}\;per\;ml$ initially, in, creased steadily during Kimchi storage and at 90 days of storage the number was shown to be $5.6{\times}10^{4}\;per\;ml\;and\;6.5{\times}10^{2}\;per\;ml$ in control and 3 kGy irradiated groups, respectively. 2. In the physicochemical changes during Kimchi storage, pH, acidity and volatile acid of non-irradiated control at the 45th day after storage were 4.0,0.7% and 0.066%, while those of 3 kGy irradiated group were 4.2, 0.59 and 0.06% at the 90th day of storage, respectively. The reducing sugar content of all stored samples changed inversely total acidity content, indicating irradiation delayed the changes of them. The amount of aseorbic acid decreased gradually with the storage time and irradiation dose increase. Textural parameters of 3 kGy irradiated group were superior to those of other groups at the latter stage of storage. 3. Sensory evaluations showed that 3 kGy irradiation was the optimum dose level to extend tite shelf-life of Kimchi more than two months as compared to control.