• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1586-1592
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• 2017

Some promoters were isolated and characterized from the genome of Leuconostoc mesenteroides SY2, an isolate from kimchi, a Korean traditional fermented vegetable. Chromosomal DNA of L. mesenteroides SY2 was digested with Sau3AI and ligated with BamHI-cut pBV5030, a promoter screening vector containing a promoterless cat-86. Among E. coli transformants (TFs) resistant against Cm (chloramphenicol), 17 were able to grow in the presence of $1,000{\mu}g/ml$ Cm and their inserts were sequenced. Transcription start sites were examined for three putative promoters (P04C, P25C, and P33C) by primer extension. Four putative promoters were inserted upstream of a promoterless ${\alpha}$-amylase reporter gene in $pJY15{\alpha}$. ${\alpha}$-Amylase activities of E. coli TFs containing $pJY15{\alpha}$ (control, no promoter), $pJY03{\alpha}$ ($pJY15{\alpha}$ with P03C), $pJY04{\alpha}$ (with P04C), $pJY25{\alpha}$ (with P25C), and $pJY33{\alpha}$ (with P33C) were 66.9, 78.7, 122.1, 70.8, and 99.3 U, respectively. Cells harboring $pJY04{\alpha}$ showed 1.8 times higher activity than the control. Some promoters characterized in this study might be useful for construction of food-grade expression vectors for Leuconostoc sp. and related lactic acid bacteria.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.217-225
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• 2022

The population of pet cats has increased significantly, from 0.3% in 2002 to 5.6% in 2017. Large-scale feline demographic and disease data from Korea are lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic data (breed, sex, and age) and disease distribution of cats who visited private veterinary practices in Korea. Data including breed, sex, age, and disease, were compiled from 32,728 electronic medical records from 30 selected private veterinary practices, between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2017. Diseases were classified based on the International Classification of Diseases 11 by the World Health Organization, and then compared and cross-analyzed according to breed, sex, and age. Korean shorthair was the most common breed. There was a high distribution of young cats, with 77.6% of the cats under 4 years of age, and an average age of 2.5 years. Diagnoses related to preventative medicine were the most frequent and diagnoses common to young cats had higher incidence. This demographic data and information about disease distribution can be used as a basis for future research and may be helpful for determining priorities in the diagnosis of diseases and establishing strategies for health management in cats.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.249-252
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• 2022

Giardiasis is widespread all over the world, and it is a disease that causes both acute and chronic digestive symptoms. It is zoonotic disease that affects animals and humans. There are few studies on giardiasis in stray cats due to difficulties in catching and sampling. Therefore, this study evaluated the prevalence of giardiasis in stray cats in the Daejeon city because of increasing interest as zoonotic disease. The specimens were the feces of stray cats captured for the neutering project (TNR) in Daejeon; 30 fecal samples were collected from 2021 to 2022 in each of 5 districts in Daejeon. A total of 150 samples were collected. All samples were tested for giardiasis using the Giardia SNAP kit (SNAP^Ⓡ test, IDEXX Laboratories. Inc., Westbrook, ME). The overall prevalence rate was 46 out of 150 cats (30.7%). By age, 25 out of 71 juvenile cats (35.2%) were positive, and 21 out of 79 adult cats (26.6%) were positive. A total of 19 out of 69 cats (27.5%) with diarrhea were positive, and 27 out of 81 asymptomatic cats (33.3%) were positive. For gender, 38 out of 99 females (38.4%) were positive, and 8 out of 51 males (15.7%) were positive. The positive rate of giardiasis in stray cats was over 30%, which is high compared to other research results. It is necessary to increase the public's awareness of the value of deworming stray cats and the sanitation of people who have come into contact with them.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.23-34
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• 2020

Loneliness is an unpleasant experience due to the human need for social connection. Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to nonhuman entities. The inverse process of anthropomorphism is dehumanization in which individuals treat humans like animals or objects. Two studies were conducted to investigate whether relationships exist among loneliness, anthropomorphism, and dehumanization. In Study 1, loneliness was measured via self-reports, and an anthropomorphism task was introduced to examine the extent to which subjective experiences of loneliness related to the tendency to describe nonhuman agents with humanlike characteristics. According to the results, lonelier participants attributed more humanlike capacities to computers and cats. Study 2 examined whether significant differences emerged in anthropomorphism and dehumanization between the experimental condition of loneliness and the control condition. After having been induced to the emotion of loneliness using an experimental writing task, the participants tended to perceive nonhuman agents to be more humanlike in the condition of loneliness than in the control condition. Moreover, there was a stronger tendency of dehumanization toward other humans in the condition of loneliness than in the control condition. There was also higher levels of negatively biased perceptions of neighborhood characteristics. This scenario implies that anthropomorphism is related to sociality motivation, which is the need for social connection through establishing bonds with nonhumans, and may result in the dehumanization and emotional experiences of other humans.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3309-3315
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• 2016

Helicobacter pylori as the second most common cause of gastric cancer in the world infects approximately half of the developed countries population and 80% of the population living in developing countries. Integrons as genetic reservoirs play major roles in dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report carriage of class 1 and 2 integrons and associated gene cassettes in H. pylori isolates from Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran among 110 patients with H. pylori infection. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for H. pylori strains were assessed by the micro broth dilution method. Class 1 and 2 integrons were detected using PCR. In order to determine gene cassettes, amplified fragments were subjected to DNA sequencing of both amplicon strands. The prevalence of resistance to clarithromycin, metronidazole, clarithromycin, tetracycline, amoxicillin, rifampin, and levofloxacin were 68.2% (n=75), 25.5% (n=28), 24.5% (n=27), 19.1% (n=21), 18.2% (n=20) and 16.4% (n=18), respectively. Frequency of multidrug resistance among H. pylori isolates was 12.7%. Class 2 integron was detected in 50 (45.5%) and class 1 integron in 10 (9.1%) H. pylori isolates. The most predominant gene cassette arrays in class 2 integron-bearing H. pylori were included sat-era-aadA1, dfrA1-sat2-aadA1, blaoxa2 and, aadB whereas common gene cassette arrays in class 1 integron were aadB-aadA1-cmlA6, aacA4, blaoxa2, and catB3. The high frequency of class 2 integron and multidrug resistance in the present study should be considered as a warning for clinicians that continuous surveillance is necessary to prevent the further spread of resistant isolates.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.311-318
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• 2022

Salicylic acid (SA), a phenolic compound, plays a pivotal role in regulating a wide range of physiological and metabolic processes in plants such as antioxidant cellular defense, photosynthesis, and biotic and abiotic stress responses during the growth and development. We examined the effect of exogenous SA application (100 mg·L^-1) on the growth, yield, photosynthetic characteristics, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant enzyme activity of chili pepper plants under high temperature and drought stress conditions. SA treatment induced increases of net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs) and transpiration rate (Tr) under the stress condition with the highest level after the third treatment. The contents of malondialdehyde and H₂O₂ were significantly lower in the third treatment of SA compared to the control. The activity of ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, increased in treated plants by up to 247, 318, 55 and 54%, respectively compared to the nontreated control. There was no significant difference in the growth characteristics between SA-treated and nontreated plants, while the SA treatment increased marketable yield (kg/10a) by about 15% compared to the nontreated control. Taken together, these results suggest that foliar application of SA alleviates physiological damages caused by the combination of drought and heat stress, and enhances the photosynthetic capacity and antioxidant enzyme activities, thereby improving tolerance to a combination of water deficit and heat stress in chili pepper plants.