• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 2008

This paper reports on a realtime OS based master-slave configuration robot control system for laparoscopic surgery robot which enables telesurgery and overcomes shortcomings with conventional laparoscopic surgery. Surgery robot system requires control system that can process large volume information such as medical image data and video signal from endoscope in real-time manner, as well as precisely control the robot with high reliability. To meet the complex requirements, the use of high-level real-time OS (Operating System) in surgery robot controller is a must, which is as common as in many of modem robot controllers that adopt real-time OS as a base system software on which specific functional modules are implemened for more reliable and stable system. The control system consists of joint controllers, host controllers, and user interface units. The robot features a compact slave robot with 5 DOF (Degree-Of-Freedom) expanding the workspace of each tool and increasing the number of tools operating simultaneously. Each master, slave and Gill (Graphical User Interface) host runs a dedicated RTOS (Real-time OS), RTLinux-Pro (FSMLabs Inc., U.S.A.) on which functional modules such as motion control, communication, video signal integration and etc, are implemented, and all the hosts are in a gigabit Ethernet network for inter-host communication. Each master and slave controller set has a dedicated CAN (Controller Area Network) channel for control and monitoring signal communication with the joint controllers. Total 4 pairs of the master/slave manipulators as current are controlled by one host controller. The system showed satisfactory performance in both position control precision and master-slave motion synchronization in both bench test and animal experiment, and is now under further development for better safety and control fidelity for clinically applicable prototype.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.74-81
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• 2015

The specific and sensitive nested-PCR method to detect Acidovorax citrulli, a causal agent of bacterial fruit blotch on cucurbitaceae, was developed. PCR primers were designed from the draft genome sequence which was obtained with the Next Generation Sequencing of A. citrulli KACC10651, and the nested-PCR primer set (Ac-ORF 21F/Ac-ORF 21R) were selected by checking of specificity to A. citrulli with PCR assays. The selected nested-PCR primer amplified the 140 bp DNA only from A. citrulli strains, and detection sensitivity of the nested PCR increased 10,000 times of $1^{st}$ PCR detection limit (10 ng genomic DNA/PCR). The nested PCR detected A. citrulli from the all samples of seed surface wash (external seed detection) of the artificially inoculated watermelon seeds with $10^1cfu/ml$ and above population of A. citrulli while the nested PCR could not detected A. citrulli from the mashed seed suspension (internal seed detection) of the all artificially inoculated watermelon seeds. When the naturally infested watermelon seeds (10% seed infested rate with grow-out test) used, the nested PCR detected A. citrulli from 2 seed samples out of 10 replication samples externally and 5 seed samples out of 10 replication samples internally. We believe that the nested-PCR developed in this study will be useful method to detect A. citrulli from the Cucurbitaceae seeds.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.544-547
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• 2015

An 11-year-old, intact male Pekingese was brought to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of Kangwon National University with a 10-day history of seizures. Fifteen days before coming to Kangwon National University, the dog had visited a local animal hospital for lameness, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were prescribed to treat this symptom. However, 10 days before coming to our hospital, the dog experienced generalized seizures. Two days before his arrival, generalized ataxia and mental dullness also occurred. Our examinations revealed no remarkable findings on a routine blood test or X-ray. However, the neurological examinations confirmed mental dullness, generalized ataxia, and a lack of menace response and pupillary light reflexes. Nine hours later, dyspnea occurred, and 12 hours after that, the patient was euthanized per the client's request. A necropsy of transverse sections confirmed the presence of a prominent midline shift due to extended tumor growth. On histopathological analyses, pseudopalisading necrosis of the glial cells and microvascular proliferation were observed. In immunohistochemical analysis, glial fibrillary acidic protein, proliferating cell nuclear antigens, and ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 immunoreactive cells were observed in the tumor area. Based on the results, the tumor was confirmed to be a glioblastoma. Primary intracranial tumors are rare in the veterinary field. This case report describes the clinical and histopathological findings of glioblastoma in a Pekingese.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2011

Objectives : Previous studies have shown that Fructus mume (FM) has anti-platelet effects. The present study was performed to determine the acute oral toxicity and quality control of a crude extract of FM in ICR mice. Methods : We investigated the in vivo single dose acute toxicity of FM 95% ethanol extract. This test was orally administered once by gavage to 20 male and 20 female mice at dose levels of 0 (control group), 1250, 2500 and 5000mg/kg body weight, respectively. Mortalities, clinical findings, autopsy findings and body weight changes were monitored daily for the 14 days following the administration. HPLC analysis was performed for the simultaneous determination of ursolic acid and p-hydroxycinnamic acid in FM. Reverse-phase chromatography using a C18 column and photodiode array detection at 211 nm was used for quantification of the two maker components. The mobile phase for gradient elution consists of water and acetonitrile. Results : We observed survival rates, general toxicity, change of body weight, and autopsy. The mice did not die after single oral administration of maximum dose of FM. Autopsy of animal revealed no abnormal gross finding. Therefore, $LD_{50}$ value of FM for ICR mice was more than 5000mg/kg on oral route. The HPLC analysis showed that ursolic acid and p-hydroxycinnamic acid amounts to 9.75- and 0.12% in the extract with the retention times of 47.99- and 15.38 minutes, respectively. Conclusions : These results suggest that no toxic dose level of FM in mice is considered to be more than 5000mg/kg. Consequently, it was concluded that FM have no effect on acute toxicity and side effect in ICR mice. For the quality control of FM extract, simultaneous determination of ursolic acid and p-hydroxycinnamic acid was established.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.305-309
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• 2014

Recently, there has been an increase in the use of several nephrotoxicity biomarkers in preclinical experiments. In addition, it has been indicated that the result may have been influenced by secondary factors, such as sample storage condition or storage period. In this study, we have assessed the variation in urinary nephrotoxicity biomarkers as a result of urine storage conditions and storage period of the urine. Urine was sampled from specific pathogen-free Sprague-Dawley rats (19 weeks old), which were housed individually in hanged stainless steel wire mesh cages. Urine was stored at $20^{\circ}C$, at $4^{\circ}C$, or at $-70^{\circ}C$ after sampling. The levels of the biomarkers such as beta-2 microglobulin (B2M), cystatin-C (Cys-C), N-acetyl-${\beta}$-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), micro albumin (MA), micro protein (MP) were measured at 6, 24, 48 and 144 hr after sampling. The B2M level was significantly decreased at 6, 24, 48, and 144 hr compared to 0 hr at $-70^{\circ}C$ (p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.05, and p < 0.05, respectively) and 24 and 144 hr at $20^{\circ}C$ (p < 0.01, p < 0.01, respectively). The Cys-C level was significantly decreased at 144 hr compared to 0 hr at $4^{\circ}C$ (p < 0.01), at $20^{\circ}C$ (p < 0.05) and at $70^{\circ}C$ (p < 0.01). MP and MA levels were not different for 144 hr in all storage conditions. Taken together, B2M and Cys-C levels were modulated by storage temperature and period. For the enhancement of test accuracy, it is suggested that strict protocols be established for samples to minimize the effects of the storage conditions on the detected levels of biomarkers.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.112-121
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• 2017

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is the serious and fatal drug-associated adverse effect, but its incidence is very low and individual variation in severity is substantial. Acetaminophen (APAP)-induced liver injury accounts for >50% of reported DILI cases but little is known for the cause of individual variations in the severity. Intrinsic genetic variation is considered a key element but the identity of the genes was not well-established. Here, pre-biopsy method and microarray technique was applied to uncover the key genes for APAP-induced liver injury in mice, and a cause and effect experiment employing quantitative real-time PCR was conducted to confirm the correlation between the uncovered genes and APAP-induced hepatotoxicity. We identified the innately and differentially expressed genes of mice susceptible to APAP-induced hepatotoxicity in the pre-biopsied liver tissue before APAP treatment through microarray analysis of the global gene expression profiles (Affymetrix $GeneChip^{(R)}$ Mouse Gene 1.0 ST for 28,853 genes). Expression of 16 genes including Gdap10, Lpl, Gabra3 and Ccrn4l were significantly different (t-test: FDR <10%) more than 1.5 fold in the susceptible animals than resistant. To confirm the association with the susceptibility to APAP-induced hepatotoxicity, another set of animals were measured for the expression level of selected 4 genes (higher two and lower two genes) in the liver pre-biopsy and their sensitivity to APAP-induced hepatotoxicity was evaluated by post hoc. Notably, the expressions of Gabra3 and Lpl were significantly correlated with the severity of liver injury (p<0.05) demonstrating that these genes may be linked to the susceptibility to APAP-induced hepatotoxicity.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.234-240
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• 2016

The Y-maze is widely used to test working memory in behavioral science. For this purpose, spontaneous alternation behavior is monitored, and an increased percentage of spontaneous alternation is regarded as enhanced working memory. However, in some cases, the percentage of spontaneous alternation does not accurately reflect the extent of working memory in rodents. To complement the short-comings of this measure, we developed a new method to evaluate working memory on the Y-maze. This is done by defining all spontaneous alternation cases and P_i, the probability that the rodent achieved spontaneous alternation from each alternation case. After all P_i-values acquired in each animal are summarized, the result is considered as entropy. To validate the new analytical method, mice were raised under either control or an enriched environmental condition for 10 weeks, and working memory behavior on the Y-maze was monitored. The results showed that the new analytical method successfully reproduced significance. In addition, the new method turned out to be more accurate than measurement of the percentage of spontaneous alternation, meaning that, to get higher entropy, alternation should be recorded in all arms and directions. Together, these data indicate that the new analytical method is a useful supplement to the method that compares the percentage of spontaneous alternation, and thus is a good tool with which to evaluate working memory in rodents.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.328-333
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• 2011

Melatonin has been known as an animal hormone. However, melatonin exists in diverse organisms including higher plants. The biosynthesis and physiological roles for melatonin in plants is still largely unknown, although both dicot and monocot plants have melatonin and some medicinal plants even contain large amounts of melatonin. In this study we detected melatonin in diverse Viola plants, in which melatonin had not been examined so far, by reverse phase HPLC analysis, demonstrating the wide existence of melatonin in the genus of Viola. We then fed tryptophan (Trp) and tryptamine (TAM) to the incubation medium for Viola leaf sections to test their effects on melatonin formation. Trp is also the hypothesized starting material of melatonin in plants, and TAM is the following intermediate produced by the decarboxylation of Trp. Trp feeding did not affect the contents of melatonin. In contrast, TAM feeding clearly increased the level of melatonin in Viola leaves. Because TAM is derived from Trp, we concluded that the Trp-TAM pathway exists in Viola plants as well. Ineffectiveness of Trp feeding to the change of melatonin contents supports the hypothesis that the decarboxylation step from Trp to TAM is the rate-limiting step in plant melatonin biosynthesis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.377-383
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• 1988

This studies have been carried out to develop Korean traditional tea from the effects of Cornus officinalis and Lycium chinense and to study the developed tea on microbiological (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and metaboilsm of experimental animals (Spraque-Duwely male rats 200g). On the microbiological study the yeast growth is increased with the increase of added Cornus officinalis or Lycium chinense and Lycium chinense increased the yeast growth more than Cornus officinalis, especially the synergistic effects are recognized on mixed extract of Lycium chinense and Cornus officinalis. The effects of Cornus officinalis, Lycium chinense or the mixed extract of both extract on liver damage caused by carbon tetrachloride were investigated in the case of animal test. The activities of GOT and GPT in serum are increased on control group compared to normal group but Lycium chinense group and group (which is administrated with the mixed extract of both ectract) decreased apparently the activities of GOT and GPT. The contents of Creatinine, BUN and Glucose in serum has no difference between normal and control group when the Cornus officinalis, Lycium chinense or mixed extract of both extracts were injected. Among them Lycium chinense group showed more normal value compared to Cornus officinalis and the mixture of both extract. The protective effect on rat liver damage caused by carbon tetrachloride is in order of Lycium chinense. The synergistic effects of the mixed extract on liver damage are proved to be better than Lycium chinense or Cornus officinalis singly.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.449-455
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to evaluate antimicrobial effects of organic acid and some natural occurring antimicrobials against Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various origins (vegetables, peanut, pea leaf, kim-bab, person, perilla leaf, and animal) and to calculate their MIC and MBC values. Five organic acids (acetic, lactic, citric, malic, and propionic acid), three essential oils (carvacrol, thymol, and eugenol), and two other natural antimicrobials (nisin and cinnamic acid) were evaluated for their antimicrobial effects against 113 strains of S. aureus using combination treatments. Propionic acid (7%), nisin (1%), thymol (1%), carvacrol (1%) showed antimicrobial activities against S. aureus strains in agar disc diffusion test. And, carvacrol, thymol, and nisin were found to be the most effective with the lowest MIC values of 0.0313%, 0.0625%, and 0.0625% against S.aureus, respectively. Propionic acid (0.2313%) and citric acid (0.6000%) were the most effective among organic acids tested. Therefore, these five antimicrobials were selected for next combination treatments. Combination of propionic acid and citric acid were showed the strongest inhibitory effectiveness against S. aureus among combination treatments. These results suggest that organic acid such as propionic and citric acid, and natural occurring antimicrobial such as nisin, carvacrol, and thymol might be possibly used as preservatives for inhibiting S. aureus in foods.