• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1517-1526
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• 2018

Investigating bacterial diversity and its metabolic capabilities is crucial for interpreting the ecological patterns in a desert environment and assessing the presence of exploitable microbial resources. In this study, we evaluated the spatial heterogeneity of physicochemical parameters, soil bacterial diversity and metabolic adaptation at meter scale. Soil samples were collected from two quadrats of a desert (Thar Desert, India) with a hot, arid climate, very little rainfall and extreme temperatures. Analysis of physico-chemical parameters and subsequent variance analysis (p-values < 0.05) revealed that sulfate, potassium and magnesium ions were the most variable between the quadrats. Microbial diversity of the two quadrats was studied using Illumina bar-coded sequencing by targeting V3-V4 regions of 16S rDNA. As for the results, 702504 high-quality sequence reads, assigned to 173 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at species level, were examined. The most abundant phyla in both quadrats were Actinobacteria (38.72%), Proteobacteria (32.94%), and Acidobacteria (9.24%). At genus level, Gaiella represented highest prevalence, followed by Streptomyces, Solirubrobacter, Aciditerrimonas, Geminicoccus, Geodermatophilus, Microvirga, and Rubrobacter. Between the quadrats, significant difference (p-values < 0.05) was found in the abundance of Aciditerrimonas, Geodermatophilus, Geminicoccus, Ilumatobacter, Marmoricola, Nakamurella, and Solirubrobacter. Metabolic functional mapping revealed diverse biological activities, and was significantly correlated with physicochemical parameters. The results revealed spatial variation of ions, microbial abundance and functional attributes in the studied quadrats, and patchy nature in local scale. Interestingly, abundance of the biotechnologically important phylum Actinobacteria, with large proposition of unclassified species in the desert, suggested that this arid environment is a promising site for bioprospection.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.367-371
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• 2006

Multilayer percepteon has the advantage of learning their optimal parameters and efficiency. However, MLP shows some drawbacks when dealing with high dimensional data within the input space. Also, it Is very difficult to find the optimal parameters when the input data are highly correlated such as large scale face dataset. In this paper, we propose a novel technique for face recognition based on LDA and local MLP. To resolve the main drawback of MLP, we calculate the reduced features by LDA in advance. And then, we construct a local MLP per group consisting of subset of facedatabase to find its optimal learning parameters rather than using whole faces. Finally, we designed the face recognition system combined with the local MLPs. From various experiments, we obtained better classification performance in comparison with the results produced by conventional methods such as PCA and LDA.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.80-88
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• 2014

Previous studies have reported that decreased cognitive ability has been consistently associated with significant declines in performance of one or both tasks under a dual-task walking condition. This study examined the relationship between specific cognitive abilities and the dual-task costs (DTCs) of spatio-temporal gait parameters in stroke patients. The spatio-temporal gait parameters were measured among 30 stroke patients while walking with and without a cognitive task (Stroop Word-Color Task) at the study participant's preferred walking speed. Cognitive abilities were measured using Computerized Neuropsychological Testing. Pearson's correlation coefficients (r) were calculated to quantify the associations between the neuropsychological measures and the DTCs in the spatio-temporal gait parameters. Moderate to strong correlations were found between the Auditory Continuous Performance test (ACPT) and the DTCs of the Single Support Time of Non-paretic (r=.37), the Trail Making A (TMA) test and the DTCs of Velocity (r=.71), TMA test and the DTCs of the Step Length of Paretic (r=.37), TMA test and the DTCs of the Step Length Non-paretic (r=.36), the Trail Making B (TMB) test and the DTCs of Velocity (r=.70), the Stroop Word-Color test and the DTCs of Velocity (r=-.40), Visual-span Backward (V-span B) test and the DTCs of Velocity (r=-.41), V-span B test and the DTCs of the Double Support Time of Non-paretic (r=.38), Digit-span Forward test and the DTCs of the Step Time of Non-paretic (r=-.39), and Digit-span Backward test and the DTCs of the Single Support Time of Paretic (r=.36). Especially TMA test and TMB test were found to be more strongly correlated to the DTCs of gait velocity than the other correlations. Understanding these cognitive features will provide guidance for identifying dual- task walking ability.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.289-294
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• 2016

Background: S100A10, of the S100 protein family, is reported to be involved in cancer cell invasion and metastasis. The aims of the present study were to immunohistochemically examine S100A10 expression in surgically resected lung adenocarcinomas, and evaluate any relationships with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of patients. Materials and Methods: S100A10 expression was immunohistochemically studied in 202 consecutive resected lung adenocarcinomas, and its associations with clinicopathological parameters were evaluated. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the effect of S100A10 expression on survival. Results: S100A10 expression was detected in 65 of the 202 (32.2%) lung adenocarcinomas, being significantly correlated with poorer differentiation (P =0.015), a higher pathological TNM stage (stages II and III) (P=0.004), more frequent and severe intratumoral vascular invasion (P=0.001), and a poorer prognosis (P=0.030). However, S100A10 expression was not an independent predictor of survival after controlling for clinicopathological factors. Conclusions: The present study reveals that S100A10 is expressed in a subset of lung adenocarcinomas, and this is related to some clinicopathological parameters, although further studies are required to confirm the correlation between S100A10 expression and prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.4905-4908
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• 2015

Background: Platelets are blood elements thought to play a role in the immune system and therefore tumor development and metastasis. Platelet activation parameters such as mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), and plateletcrit (PCT) can be easily evaluated with the whole blood count and have been studied as markers of systemic inflammatory responses in various cancer types. Our aim in this study was to evaluate the correlation between endometrial pathologies and MPV, PDW and PCT. Materials and Methods: A total of 194 patients who presented to our clinic with abnormal vaginal bleeding were included in our study. The patients were divided into 3 groups (endometrial hyperplasia, endometrial cancer, control) according to their pathology results. The groups were compared for MPV, PDW, and PCT values obtained from the blood samples taken on endometrial biopsy day. Results: The endometrial cancer patients were the oldest group (p=0.04). There was no significant difference between the three groups in terms of white blood cell count (WBC), platelet count (PC), and hemoglobin (Hb) level. The highest MPV (p<0.001), PDW (p=0.002), and PCT (p<0.001) levels were in the endometrial cancer group, and the lowest levels were in the control group. Conclusions: The easy evaluation of platelet parameters in patients who are suspected of having endometrial pathology is a significant advantage. We found MPV, PDW, and PCT to be correlated with the severity of endometrial pathology with the highest values in endometrial cancer. Studies to be conducted together with different laboratory parameters will further help evaluate the diagnosis and severity of endometrial cancer and precursor lesions.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.235-240
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• 1990

A quantitative physiological approach has been employed to estimate the metabolic parameters such as specific uptake rates of nutrients and specific production rate in continuous culture of Pseudomonas elodea for gellan gum production. The estimated values of metabolic parameters are used for process improvement. During the exponential growth phase, the specific growth rate was 0.16hr-1 in batch culture. The gellan gum concentration increased up to 0.7g dry weight/100g broth and the apparent viscosity of the culture broth was about 4,500 cp.(72hrs culture). The ratio of specific uptake rate of carbon to that of nitrogen were found to be optimum at about 3.0mg-carbon/mg-nitro-gen. With the improved medium, the maximum gellan production rate, 0.6g dry weight/1/hr, was obtained at D=0.14 hr-1. The shear stresses of culture broth were fairly well correlated with shear rates by using Casson equation and at highly viscous culture broth, oxygen transfer coefficient was greatly reduced.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.87-93
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• 2013

We identified four new bovine tri-nucleotide microsatellite loci and analyzed their sequence structures and genetic parameters in 105 randomly selected Korean cattle (Hanwoo). Allele numbers of the loci B17S0808, B15S6253, B8S7996, and B17S4998 were 10, 11, 12, and 29, respectively. These alleles contained a simple or compound repeat sequences with some variations. Allele distributions of all these loci were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P > 0.05). Observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.54 (B15S6253) to 0.92 (B17S4998) and from 0.599 (B15S6253) to 0.968 (B17S4998), respectively, and two measures of heterozygosity at each locus were highly correlated. Polymorphism information content (PIC) for these 4 loci ranged from 0.551 (B15S6253) to 0.932 (B17S4998), which means that all these loci are highly informative (PIC > 0.5). Other genetic parameters, power of discrimination (PD) and probability of exclusion (PE) ranged from 0.783 (B15S6253) to 0.984 (B17S4998) and from 0.210 (B15S6253) to 0.782 (B17S4998), respectively. Their combined PD and PE values were 0.9999968 and 0.98005176, respectively. Capillary electrophoresis revealed that average peak height ratio for a stutter was 13.89% at B17S0808, 26.67% at B15S6253, 9.09% at B8S7996, and 43.75% at B17S4998. Although the degree of genetic variability of the locus B15S6253 was relatively low among these four microsatellite markers, their favorable parameters and low peak height ratios for stutters indicate that these four new tri-nucleotide microsatellite loci could be useful multiplex PCR markers for the forensic and population genetic studies in cattle including Korean native breed.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.329-337
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• 1999

Thyroid hormone-induced cellular dysfunctions may be associated with changes in the intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentration. The ryanodine receptor, a $Ca^{2+}$ release channel of the SR, is responsible for the rapid release of $Ca^{2+}$ that activates cardiac muscle contraction. In the excitation-contaction coupling cascade, activation of ryanodine receptors is initiated by the activity of sarcolemmal $Ca^{2+}$ channels, the dihydropyridine receptors. In hyperthyroidism left ventricular contractility and relaxation velocity were increased, whereas these parameters were decreased in hypothyroidism. The mechanisms for these changes have been suggested to include alterations in the expression and/or activity levels of various proteins. In the present study, quantitative changes of ryanodine receptors and the dihydropyridine receptors, and the functional consequences of these changes in various thyroid states were investigated. In hyperthyroid hearts, $[^3H]ryanodine$ binding and ryanodine receptor mRNA levels were increased, but protein levels of ryanodine were not changed significantly. However, the above parameters were markedly decreased in hypothyroid hearts. In case of dihydropyridine receptor, there were a significant increase in the mRNA and protein levels, and [3H]nitrendipine binding, whereas no changes were observed in these parameters of hypothyroid hearts. Our findings indicate that hyperthyroidism is associated with increases in ryanodine receptor and dihydropyridine receptor expression levels, which is well correlated with the ryanodine and dihydropyridine binding. Whereas opposite changes occur in ryanodine receptor of the hypothyroid hearts.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.61-68
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• 2010

Purpose: The present study was performed to clarify the relationship between periodontal disease severity and selected immunological parameters consisting of serum IgG titer against periodontopathogenic bacteria, the expression of the helper T-cell cytokine by gingival mononuclear cells, and patients' immunoreactivity to cross-reactive heat shock protein (HSP) epitope peptide from P. gingivalis HSP60. Methods: Twenty-five patients with moderate periodontitis had their gingival connective tissue harvested of gingival mononuclear cells during an open flap debridement procedure and peripheral blood was drawn by venipuncture to collect serum. The mean level of interproximal alveolar bone was calculated to be used as an index for periodontal disease severity for a given patient. Each of selected immunologic parameters was subject to statistical management to seek their correlations with the severity of periodontal disease. Results: A significant correlation could not be identified between serum IgG titers against specific bacteria (Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, and Streptococcus mutans) and the severity of periodontal disease. Expression of interleukin (IL)-10 by gingival mononuclear cells was statistically significant in the group of patients who had higher levels of alveolar bone height. However, a similar correlation could not be demonstrated in cases for IL-4 or interferon-$\gamma$. Patients' serum reactivity to cross-reactive epitope peptide showed a significant correlation with the amount of alveolar bone. Conclusions: It was concluded that expression of IL-10 by gingival mononuclear cells and patients' sero-reactivity to the cross-reactive HSP peptide of P. gingivalis HSP60 were significantly correlated with alveolar bone height.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.291-302
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• 2005

Due to the importance of the parameter in structural response, the uncertain elastic modulus was located at the center of stochastic analysis, where the response variability caused by the uncertain system parameters is pursued. However when we analyze the so-called stochastic systems, as many parameters as possible must be included in the analysis if we want to obtain the response variability that can reach a true one, even in an approximate sense. In this paper, a formulation to determine the statistical behavior of in-plane structures due to multiple uncertain material parameters, i.e., elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio, is suggested. To this end, the polynomial expansion on the coefficients of constitutive matrix is employed. In constructing the modified auto-and cross-correlation functions, use is made of the general equation for n-th moment. For the computational purpose, the infinite series of stochastic sub-stiffness matrices is truncated preserving required accuracy. To demons4rate the validity of the proposed formulation, an exemplary example is analyzed and the results are compared with those obtained by means of classical Monte Carlo simulation, which is based on the local averaging scheme.