• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.935-941
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• 2010

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains is one of the most critical problems of modern medicine. Bacteriophages have been suggested as an alternative therapeutic agent for such bacterial infections. In the present study, we examined the therapeutic potential of phage Kpn5 in the treatment of Klebsiella pneumoniae B5055-induced burn wound infection in a mouse model. An experimental model of contact burn wound infection was established in mice employing K. pneumoniae B5055 to assess the efficacy of phage Kpn5 in vivo. Survival and stability of phage Kpn5 were evaluated in mice and the maximum phage count in various organs was obtained at 6 h and persisted until 36 h. The Kpn5 phage was found to be effective in the treatment of Klebsiella-induced burn wound infection in mice when phage was administered immediately after bacterial challange. Even when treatment was delayed up to 18 h post infection, when all animals were moribund, approximately 26.66% of the mice could be rescued by a single injection of this phage preparation. The ability of this phage to protect bacteremic mice was demonstrated to be due to the functional capabilities of the phage and not due to a nonspecific immune effect. The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-$1{\beta}$ and TNF-${\alpha}$) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-10) were significantly lower in sera and lungs of phage-treated mice than phage untreated control mice. The results of the present study bring out the potential of bacteriophage therapy as an alternate preventive approach to treat K. pneumoniae B5055-induced burn wound infections. This approach not only helps in the clearance of bacteria from the host but also protects against the ensuing inflammatory damage due to the exaggerated response seen in any infectious process.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.330-335
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• 2008

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of insecticide control system in eggplant greenhouse. In all treatments, the average densities of Frankliniella occidentalis and Tetranychus urticae were $0.3{\sim}1.8$ and 0.0 per leaf at 28 days after treatment, respectively. These results indicate the alternate application of Abamectin EC and Spinosad GW can be useful in control for F. occidentalis and T. urticae in eggplant greenhouse. The density suppression effect against Liriomyza trifolii and Trialeurodes vaporariorum was maintained for 28 days after treatment, but control effect was low at 28 days after treatment.

• Forest Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.160-168
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• 2018

The seeds of Elaeocarpus serratus, a tropical underutilized fruit tree are characterized by hard seed coat and consequent poor water uptake and low germination. To improve the regeneration through seeds, various parameters such as viability of seeds, water uptake, and effect of seed mass on germination and pretreatments were performed using a completely randomized design (CRD). Tetrazolium (TZ) test was conducted using fresh, mature seeds revealed $50{\pm}2.56%$ mean viability. Seeds of different weight classes showed similar pattern of water uptake and the saturation level was achieved at 60 hrs of soaking. Seeds belong to weight class 2.6-3.5g were germinated ($12.5{\pm}1.26%$) with $175{\pm}1.75days$ (d) of mean time taken for germination (MTG). Germination capacity of seeds varied significantly among different populations and Varkala population gave $12.5{\pm}1.1%$ germination with $174.6{\pm}2.5d$ MTG. Among various seed treatments, mechanical scarification was superior in germination and significant reduction in MTG ($p{\leq}0.05$). The mechanical scarification by complete removal of seed coat resulted in $49.2{\pm}1.52%$ germination within a short period of time ($9.52{\pm}0.89d$ MTG). However, the complete removal of seed coat without damaging to embryo is a difficult task. An alternate treatment (Mechanical scarification II) by making cracks on nut faces vertically followed by soaking in distilled water for 24 hrs gave $48.4{\pm}1.73%$ germination with significantly reduced MTG ($12.14{\pm}0.56d$) over unsoaked, untreated control ($6.5{\pm}1.84%$ germination and $197.18{\pm}1.79d$ MTG; $p{\leq}0.05$). This treatment (Mechanical scarification II) is therefore recommended for E. serratus seeds as it can adopt easily and can achieve 7 fold increases in germination over control. The recorded germination through mechanical scarification is in tune with realized viability percentage of the seeds.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1800-1812
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• 2005

Aquaculture pollution is a major concern among the entrepreneurs, farmers and researchers. Excess discharge of phosphorus and nitrogen into the water bodies is the principal pollutant responsible for this. Plant-based feed ingredients due to its high phytic acid content enhances both nitrogen and phosphorus discharge thereby increasing the pollution level. Dietary phytase treatment is probably the best answer to address this problem. This review explains the nature and properties of phytate, its interactions with other nutrients and the application of phytase in aquafeed to reduce the pollution. This review also covers the different biotechnological aspects for lowering the phytic acid level in the common aquafeed ingredients, as an alternate approach to controlling the pollution level. Some of future research needs have also been highlighted to attract the attention of more researchers to this area.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.653-662
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• 2000

A single experimental design (alternating treatment design) was used to compare the effects of the mobilization and heat therapy on the pain and mouth opening in patient with temporo-mandibular disorder (TMD). In the mobilization sessions, the physiotherapist performed two methods of the mobilization on the temporo-mandibular joints. In the heat therapy sessions, the patient received infrared and ultrasono on the temporo-mandibular joint. The mobilization and heat therapy were performed on alternate days during 10 days. Pain was measured by visual analogue scale (VAS) and mouth opening was measured by caliper. The results showed that mobilization and heat therapy were effective in pain reduce and mouth opening increase, and mobilization was superior to heat therapy in mouth opening increase and pain reduce.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.130-137
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• 1996

Effect of topical application with 5, 10 and 15${\mu}$g/ml thyroxine on the pre-cocoon, cocoon, postcocoon and silk improvement were studied in bivoltine silkworm NB18 breed of B. mori L. Thyroxine was applied independently on alternate days to silkworm of IV and V instar larvae. The treatment of all different concentrations resulted in a significant increase in commercial characters like larval weight, silkgland weight, cocooning percentage, female cocoon weight and its shell weight and male cocoon shell weight and its ratio, cocoon dimension, length of the filament and its weight and oviposition. However, there was no significant change in larvel weight in 5${\mu}$g/ml treated group and larval duration was significantly decrease. But moth emergence percentage and hatching percentage did not show any significant change when compared with that of carrier control.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.173-186
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• 2015

The rapid urbanization in Pakistan is creating a shortage of sustainable construction sites with good soil conditions. Attempts have been made to use rice husk ash (RHA) in concrete industry of Pakistan, however, limited literature is available on its potential to improve local soils. This paper presents an experimental study on engineering properties of low and high plastic cohesive soils blended with 0-20% RHA by dry weight of soil. The decrease in plasticity index and shrinkage ratio indicates a reduction in swell potential of RHA treated cohesive soils which is beneficial for problems related to placing pavements and footings on such soils. It is also observed that the increased formation of pozzolanic products within the pore spaces of soil from physicochemical changes transforms RHA treated soils to a compact mass which decreases both total settlement and rate of settlement. A notable increase in friction angle with increase in RHA up to 16% was also observed in direct shear tests. It is concluded that RHA treatment is a cost-effective and sustainable alternate to deal with problematic local cohesive soils in agro-based developing countries like Pakistan.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.545-550
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• 2017

As an alternate technique for water softening, high voltage impulse (HVI) is introduced and verified if it can control the $CaCO_3$ scale formation in industrial water treatment. After HVI was applied to the artificial hard water containing $100{\pm}5mg/L$ $Ca^{2+}$ for 4 hours, the $Ca^{2+}$ concentration and the electrical conductivity were measured. The concentration of $Ca^{2+}$ was reduced from 94.5 to 86.3 mg/L (8.7% reduction) after 4 hour contact of HVI under 5 kV condition. The $Ca^{2+}$ was decreased from 92 to 77.7 mg/L (15.6% reduction) at 8kV and from 90.1 to 75.4 mg/L (16.3% reduction) at 12 kV condition. Both of the contact time and the applied voltage were important parameters affecting the calcium ion reduction. With these results, it was verified that HVI technique could be potential candidate for control of $CaCO_3$ scale formation.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.181-186
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• 2009

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), which is a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder, results from a CTG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the myotonic dystrophy protein kinase (DMPK) gene. Retention of mutant DMPK (mDMPK) transcripts in the nuclei of affected cells has been known to be the main cause of pathogenesis of the disease. Thus, reducing the RNA toxicity through elimination of the mutant RNA has been suggested as one therapeutic strategy against DM1. In this study, we suggested RNA replacement with a trans -splicing ribozyme as an alternate genetic therapeutic approach for amelioration of DM1. To this end, we identified the regions of mDMPK 3'-UTR RNA that were accessible to ribozymes by using an RNA mapping strategy based on a trans-splicing ribozyme library. We found that particularly accessible sites were present not only upstream but also downstream of the expanded repeat sequence. Repair or replacement of the mDMPK transcript with the specific ribozyme will be useful for DM1 treatment through reduction of toxic mutant transcripts and simultaneously restore wild-type DMPK or release nucleus-entrapped mDMPK transcripts to the cytoplasm.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.353-356
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• 2010

InSb thin films with a thickness of approximately 300 nm were prepared using single- and double-source vacuum evaporation methods and their structures and properties were investigated in terms of a heat treatment procedure. The double-source InSb films, prepared by the alternate stacking of In and Sb, were polycrystalline in structure and included small amounts of unreacted In and Sb phases. After annealing at elevated temperatures below the melting point of InSb (525$^{\circ}C$), the films changed into the InSb phase and were found to contain small amounts of unreacted In. The formation capability of the InSb compound was slightly lower for multilayer films than for single-layer films. The electrical and galvanomagnetic properties were found to be strongly related to the microstructures of the films. The maximum value of the Hall mobility and the magnetoresistance were determined to be $4.3{\times}10^3cm^2$/Vs and 70%, respectively, for the single-layer films, while these values for the alternately stacked films were respectively $2.9{\times}10^3cm^2$/Vs and 29% for the $[Sb(2.5)/In(2.5)]_{60}$ films, and $3.1{\times}10^3cm^2$/Vs and 10% for the $[Sb(150)/In(150)]_1$ films.