• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2002

The endemic status of clonorchiasis and metagonimiasis along the Geum gang (River) in Okcheon-gun (County) in Korea was examined. From February to December 7000, stools of total 1,081 inhabitants living in 5 villages were examined. Each stool specimen was examined by both the cellophane thick smear method and the formalin-ether sedimentation technique. Egg-positive cases were further analyzed by Stoll's egg-counting technique. and praziquantel was administered to positive cases. The egg-positive rates for Clonorchis sinensis and Metafonimus species were 9.3% and 5.5%, respectively, and the double infection rate was 3.5%. The numbers of eggs per gram (EPG) of feces of C. sinensis and Metafoninus sp. were $918{\pm}1,463$ and $711{\pm}947$, respectively. The egg-positive rates for C. sinensis and Metagoninus sp. in the riverside area were 14.2% and 8.4%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of the inland area (3.2% and 1.7%. respectively). The egg-positive rates of C. sinensis and Metagoninus sp. in males (16.7% and 10.0%) were significantly higher than those of females (3.5% and 1.8%) However, there were no significant differences of EPG values between localities and sexes. The prevalence of clonorchiasis and metagonimiasis in this survey was significantly lower than that in the previous reports. However. there is still a high prevalence of infection with C. sinensis and Metagoninus sp. in this region. especially in the riverside area.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.161-171
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• 1984

An epidemiological study on Metagenimus yokegawai infection was performed in Samcheok-Bun, Kangwon Province during the period from November 1983 to October 1984. Formalin-ether concentration technique and Stoll's dilution egg counting method were employed to figure out the prevalence and infection intensity of M. yrtkogawai infection. The results are summarized as follow: 1. The Prevalence of M. yokogawai infection was 13.3% among 1,172 examined; 18.0% (114 out of 632) in male and 7.8% (42 out of 540) in female. 2. The Prevalence rates were different by stream; 15.5% in Ohsip-chon (stream), 11.8% in Maeup-chon and 1.6% in Gagok-chon. 3. Along the basin of Oship-chon; 8.2% at the lower reaches in Samcheok-eup, 25.9% at the middle reaches in Miro-myon and 6.2% at the upper reaches in Dogeoe-eup, respectively. 4. By age group, the highest fate (18.3∼20.2%) was observed in 30∼49 years of age (male 24.1∼28.7%, female 11.2∼13.2%). 5. By social strata, the positive rate was 15.0% (120 out of 799) in general inhabitants and 9.7% (36 out of 373) in school children. 6. Intensity by EPG count in feces was 419 in average; the light infection (less than 400 EPG) was 70.4%, moderate infection (401∼1,000 EPG) 19.4% and heavy infection (more than 1,001 EPG) 10.25 respectively. 7. All the 67 sweetfish (length 10.3∼18.5cm) which were caught from Ohsip-stream were infected with metacercariae of M. yokogawai and the number of metacercariae detected were 382 per fish in average (323 in June and 382 in September). 8. Experiences of intake of raw fresh-water fish [Plecoglossus altivelis and Leuciscus (Tribolodon〕 were present in 50.3U (354 out of 704) of the inhabitants along Ohsip-stream according to questionnaire study. The results of this survey indicated that the middle reaches of Ohsip-stream in Miro-myon, Samcheok-gun is the endemic region for M. yokogawai infection.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.201-206
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• 2002

Purpose : To evaluate the radiographic change of operation sites after orthognathic surgery using the digital image processing and fractal analysis. Materials and Methods : A series of panoramic radiographs of thirty-five randomly selected patients who had undergone mandibular orthognathic surgery (bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy) without clinical complication for osseous healing, were taken. The panoramic radiographs of each selected patient were taken at pre-operation (stage 0), 1 or 2 days after operation (stage 1), 1 month after operation (stage 2), 6 months after operation (stage 3), and 12 months after operation (stage 4). The radiographs were digitized at 600 dpi, 8 bit, and 256 gray levels. The region of interest, centered on the bony gap area of the operation site, was selected and the fractal dimension was calculated by using the tile-counting method. The mean values and standard deviations of fractal dimension for each stage were calculated and the differences among stage 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 were evaluated through repeated measures of the ANOVA and paired t-test. Results : The mean values and standard deviations of the fractal dimensions obtained from stage 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 1.658±0.048, 1.580±0.050, 1.607±0.046, 1.624±0.049, and 1.641 ±0.061, respectively. The fractal dimensions from stage 1 to stage 4 were shown to have a tendency to increase (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The tendency of the fractal dimesion to increase relative to healing time may be a useful means of evaluating post-operative bony healing of the osteotomy site.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.231-235
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• 2012

Purpose: This study was performed to evaluate the trabecular pattern on panoramic radiographs to predict age-related osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: Thirty-one postmenopausal osteoporotic women and 25 postmenopausal healthy women between the ages of 50 and 88 were enrolled in this study. The bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar vertebrae and femur were calculated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and panoramic radiographs were obtained. Fractal dimension (FD) was measured using the box counting method from 560 regions of interest ($51{\times}51$ pixels) in 6 sites on the panoramic radiographs. The relationships between age and BMD and between FD and BMD were assessed, and the intraobserver agreement was determined. Results: There was a significant difference in the FD values between the osteoporotic and normal groups (p<0.05). There was a significant difference in the FD values at three sites in the jaws (p<0.05). Age was significantly correlated with the BMD measurements, with an odds ratio of 1.25. However, the FD values were not significantly correlated with the BMD measurements, with an odds ratio of 0.000. The intraobserver agreement showed relatively higher correlation coefficients at the upper premolar, lower premolar, and lower anterior regions than the other sites. Conclusion: Age was an important risk factor for predicting the presence of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. The lower premolar region was the most appropriate site for evaluating the FD value on panoramic radiographs. However, further investigation might be needed to predict osteoporosis using an FD value on panoramic radiographs.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.123-129
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• 2010

Purpose : To evaluate the effect of surgical treatment of ligature-induced peri-implantitis in dogs using fractal analysis. Also, the capabilities of fractal analysis as bone analysis techniques were compared with those of histomorphometric analysis. Materials and Methods : A total of 24 implants were inserted in 6 dogs. After a 3-months, experimental periimplantitis characterized by a bone loss of about 3 mm was established by inducing with wires. Surgical treatment involving flap procedure, debridement of implants surface with chlorhexidine and saline (group 1), guided bone regeneration (GBR) with absorbable collagen membrane and mineralized bone graft (group 2), and $CO_2$ laser application with GBR (group 3) were performed. After animals were sacrificed in 8 and 16 weeks respectively, bone sections including implants were made. Fractal dimensions were calculated by box-counting method on the skeletonized images, made from each region of interest, including five screws at medial and distal aspects of implant, were selected. Results : Statistically significant differences in the fractal dimensions between the group 1($0.9340{\pm}0.0126$) and group 3($0.9783{\pm}0.0118$) at 16 weeks were found (P<0.05). The fractal dimension was statistically significant different between 8($0.9395{\pm}0.0283$) and 16 weeks in group 3 (P<0.05). These results were similar with the result of the evaluation of new bone formation in histomorphometric analysis. Conclusions : Treatment of experimental peri-implantitis by using $CO_2$ laser with GBR is more useful than other treatments in the formation of new bone and also the tendency of fractal dimension to increase relative to healing time may be a useful means of evaluating.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.197-206
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• 2005

To determine the correlation between mast cells(MCs) and neoangiogenesis in the growth and progression of cervical cancer, we investigated mast cell density(MCD), microvessel density(MVD) and the expression of vascular epithelial growth factor(VEGF) in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and invasive suqamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Forty-five cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN I, II and III), 15 microinvasive carcinomas, 15 invasive squamous cell carcinomas and 20 normal cervical epithelia were included in this study. MCs were stained with anti-c-Kit antibody and alcian blue, microvessels with anti-factor VIII antibody and VEGF with anti-VEGF antibody. The adjacent fields of both normal and neoplastic epithelium were used for counting MCs and microvessels. Computerized image analysis was used to evaluate MCD and MVD. MCD and MVD were the mean numbers per $1mm^2$ counted in 5-10 high and low power fields respectively. In both c-Kit and alcian blue stained sections, MCD progressively increased along the continuum from CIN I to invasive squamous cell carcinoma(p<0.001). MVD increased significantly with cervical neoplasia progression, from CIN to invasive squamous cell carcinoma (p<0.001). In double c-Kit and Factor VIII-stained sections, MCs were mainly present in the areas adjacent to newly formed blood vessels. However, there were no significant differences in MCD and MVD between normal epithelum and CIN I. A strong correlation was also observed between MCD and MVD. In double VEGF and alcian blue-stained sections, VEGF was expressed in only MCs. Strong VEGF-positive MCs were particularly abundant around the tumorous region. Our results suggest that MCs may upregulate neoangiogenesis by VGEF secretion in the development and progression of cervical neoplasia.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.186-193
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• 2021

BACKGROUND: Before generating transgenic plant using the CRISPR-Cas9 system, the efficiency test of sgRNAs is recommended to reduce the time and effort for plant transformation and regeneration process. The efficiency of the sgRNA can be measured through the transient expression of sgRNA and Cas9 gene in tomato cotyledon; however, we found that the calculated efficiency showed a large variation. It is necessary to increase the precision of the experiment to obtain reliable sgRNA efficiency data from transient expression. METHODS AND RESULTS: The cotyledon of 11^th, 15^th, 19^th, and 23^rd-day-old tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Micro-Tom) were used for expressing CRISPR-Cas9 transiently. The agrobacterium harboring sgRNA for targeting ALS2 gene of tomato was injected through the stomata of leaf adaxial side and the genomic DNA was extracted in 5 days after injection. The target gene edition was identified by amplifying DNA fragment of target region and analyzing with Illumina sequencing method. The target gene editing efficiency was calculated by counting base deletion and insertion events from total target sequence read. CONCLUSION: The CRISPR-Cas9 editing efficiency varied with tomato cotyledon age. The highest efficiency was observed at the 19-day-old cotyledons. Both the median and mean were the highest at this stage and the sample variability was also minimized. We found that the transgene of CRISPR-Cas9 system was strongly correlated with plant leaf development and suggested the optimum cotyledon leaf age for Agrobacterium-mediated transfection in tomato.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.964-972
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• 2023

Bacteriophage endolysins are peptidoglycan hydrolases composed of cell binding domain (CBD) and an enzymatically active domain. A phage endolysin CBD can be used for detecting bacteria owing to its high specificity and sensitivity toward the bacterial cell wall. We aimed to develop a method for detection of Enterococcus faecalis using an endolysin CBD. The gene encoding the CBD of ECP3 phage endolysin was cloned into the Escherichia coli expression vector pET21a. A recombinant protein with a C-terminal 6-His-tag (CBD) was expressed and purified using a His-trap column. CBD was adsorbed onto epoxy magnetic beads (eMBs). The bacterial species specificity and sensitivity of bacterial binding to CBD-eMB complexes were determined using the bacterial colony counting from the magnetic separations after the binding reaction between bacteria and CBD-eMB complexes. E. faecalis could bind to CBD-eMB complexes, but other bacteria (such as Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, Streptococcus mutans, and Porphyromonas gingivalis) could not. E. faecalis cells were fixed onto CBD-eMB complexes within 1 h, and >78% of viable E. faecalis cells were recovered. The E. faecalis recovery ratio was not affected by the other bacterial species. The detection limit of the CBD-eMB complex for E. faecalis was >17 CFU/ml. We developed a simple method for the specific detection of E. faecalis using bacteriophage endolysin CBD and MBs. This is the first study to determine that the C-terminal region of ECP3 phage endolysin is a highly specific binding site for E. faecalis among other bacterial species.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.225-231
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• 2003

Up-front irradiation technique as 3-dimensional conformation, or intensity modulation has kept large proportion of brain tumors from being complicated with acute radiation reactions in the normal tissue during or shortly after radiotherapy. For years, we've cannot help but counting on 2-D vertex beam technique to reduce acute reactions in the brain tumor patients because we're not equipped with 3-dimensional planning system. We analyzed its advantages and limitations in the clinical application. From 1998 to 2001, vertex or oblique vertex beams were applied to 35 patients with primary brain tumor and 25 among them were eligible for this analysis. Vertex(V) plans were optimized on the reconstructed coronal planes. As the control, we took the bilateral opposed techniques(BL) otherwise being applied. We compared the volumes included in 105% to 50% isodose lines of each plan. We also measured the radiation dose at various extracranial sites with TLD. With vertex techniques, we reduced the irradiated volumes of contralateral hemisphere and prevented middle ear effusion at contralateral side. But the low dose volume increased outside 100%; the ratio of V to BL in irradiated volume included in 100%, 80%, 50% was 0.55+/-0.10, 0.61+/-0.10, and 1.22+/-0.21, respectively. The hot area within 100% isodose line almost disappeared with vertex plan; the ratio of V to BL in irradiated volume included in 103%, 105%, 108% was 0.14+/-0.14, 0.05./-0.17, 0.00, respectively. The dose distribution within 100% isodose line became more homogeneous; the ratio of volume included in 103% and 105% to 100% was 0.62+/-0.14 and 0.26+/-0.16 in BL whereas was 0.16+/-0.16 and 0.02+/-0.04 in V. With the vertex techniques, extracranial dose increased up to $1{\sim}3%$ of maximum dose in the head and neck region except submandibular area where dose ranged 1 to 21%. From this data, vertex beam technique was quite effective in reduction of unnecessary irradiation to the contralateral hemispheres, integral dose, obtaining dose homogeneity in the clinical target. But it was associated with volume increment of low dose area in the brain and irradiation toward the head and neck region otherwise being not irradiated at all. Thus, this 2-D vertex technique can be a useful quasi-conformal method before getting 3-D apparatus.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.275-283
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• 1995

PERALS(Photon Electron Rejecting Alpha Liquid Scintillation) spectrometry coupled with solvent extraction method has been set up for the analysis of $^{222}Rn\;and\;^{226}Ra$ in the groundwater. This analytical method offers low background, better energy resolution and lower quenching problem than the other techniques. By the analysis of NIST SRM 4966 $^{226}Ra$ standard, the analytical accuracy and precision were found to be 3% and 1%, respectively, and the relative standard deviation of the recovery of Rn extraction between pH2 and pH10 was 7%. Detection limits of $^{222}Rn$ and $^{226}Ra$ for 10 hours counting were counted to be $0.42 pCi/{\iota}\;and\;0.016 pCi/{\iota}$, respectively. For the test analysis of $^{222}Rn\;and\;^{226}Ra$ in the graundwater, hot spring water samples of 17 regions were analyzed. The concentration of $^{222}Rn$ were in the range of $90{\sim}5200pCi/{\iota}$ and average value was $1470pCi/{\iota}\;^{226}Ra$ concentration showed a peak value of $97.9pCi/{\iota}$ in a Kangwon region, but the average value was $1.14pCi/{\iota}$ except that region.