• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.267-278
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• 2020

The heterogeneity and complexity of malaria involves political and natural environments, socioeconomic development, cross-border movement, and vector biology; factors that cannot be changed in a short time. This study aimed to assess the impact of economic growth and cross-border movement, toward elimination of malaria in Yunnan Province during its pre-elimination phase. Malaria data during 2011-2016 were extracted from 18 counties of Yunnan and from 7 villages, 11 displaced person camps of the Kachin Special Region II of Myanmar. Data of per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) were obtained from Yunnan Bureau of Statistics. Data were analyzed and mapped to determine spatiotemporal heterogeneity at county and village levels. There were a total 2,117 malaria cases with 85.2% imported cases; most imported cases came from Myanmar (78.5%). Along the demarcation line, malaria incidence rates in villages/camps in Myanmar were significantly higher than those of the neighboring villages in China. The spatial and temporal trends suggested that increasing per-capita GDP may have an indirect effect on the reduction of malaria cases when observed at macro level; however, malaria persists owing to complex, multi-faceted factors including poverty at individual level and cross-border movement of the workforce. In moving toward malaria elimination, despite economic growth, cooperative efforts with neighboring countries are critical to interrupt local transmission and prevent reintroduction of malaria via imported cases. Cross-border workers should be educated in preventive measures through effective behavior change communication, and investment is needed in active surveillance systems and novel diagnostic and treatment services during the elimination phase.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.119-129
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• 2016

The aim of this study is to suggest the quantitative standard of a marginal village. For the purpose, the study selected 43 villages with the population of 50 or less, the classification of a marginal village in accordance with advanced research and 47 villages with the population over 50 in Buyeo-gun region. The common reason of occurrence of a marginal village suggested by advanced research is a characteristic of a village or decline and extinction of a village rather than a simple index of population or aging rate. Therefore, the study assumed that decline of functions of the village would be caused by decline a function of communities consisting of the villagers. The study then assumed that the relatively low or 0 number or rate of participants would result in community functions. The study conducted t-test on basis of population and aging rate and an analysis to find the range with relatively large differences in the number of communities, participants and the rate of the participants, etc. The result showed that the community function began to decline when the population was less than 60~70 and the aging rate over 75%~85%. As the decline of functions of communities began in population of 70, the critical point was met when the population was 40 or less. With population of 40 or less, the young and the old group communities became extinct or showed rapid decrease in the number of participants. The study assumed that decline of functions of a village, a reason of occurrence of a marginal village would be decline of functions of communities, but there was no further analysis on decline or extinction of a village with population of 40 or less. There shall be further studies about whether a village of population of 40 or less is led to decline of a function or extinction of village communities.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.75-77
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• 2004

Stereotactic radiosurgery(SRS) is a technique to deliver a high dose to a particular target region and a low dose to the critical organ using only one or a few irradiations while the patient is fixed with a stereotactic frame. The optimized plan is decided by repetitive work to combine the beam parameters and identify prescribed doses level in a tumor, which is usually called a trial and error method. This requires a great deal of time, effort, and experience. Therefore, we developed the automatic arrangement of multi-isocenter within irregularly shaped tumor. At the arbitrary targets, which is this method based on the voxel unit of the space, well satisfies the dose conformity and dose homogeneity to the targets relative to the RTOG radiosurgery plan guidelines

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.97-106
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• 2011

Mode choice model is an essential element for estimating- the demand of new means of transportation in the planning stage as well as in the establishment phase. In general, current demand analysis model developed for the mode choice analysis applies common parameters of utility function in each region which causes inaccuracy in forecasting mode choice behavior. Several critical problems from using common parameters are: a common parameter set can not reflect different distribution of coefficient for travel time and travel cost by different population. Consequently, the resulting model fails to accurately explain policy variables such as travel time and travel cost. In particular, the nonlinear logit model applied to aggregation data is vulnerable to the aggregation error. The purpose of this paper is to consider the regional characteristics by adopting the parameters fitted to each area, so as to reduce prediction errors and enhance accuracy of the resulting mode choice model. In order to estimate parameter of each area, this study used Household Travel Survey Data of Metropolitan Transportation Authority. For the verification of the model, the value of time by marginal rate of substitution is evaluated and statistical test for resulting coefficients is also carried out. In order to crosscheck the applicability and reliability of the model, changes in mode choice are analyzed when Seoul subway line 9 is newly opened and the results are compared with those from the existing model developed without considering the regional characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.8
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• pp.640-647
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• 2014

Infrared signature of aircraft exhaust plume is the critical factor for aircraft survivability. To improve the military aircraft survivability, the accurate prediction of infrared signature for the propulsion system is needed. The numerical analysis of thermal fluid field for nozzle inflow, free stream flow, and plume region is conducted by using the in-house code. Weighted Sum of Gray Gases Model based on Narrow Band with regrouping is adopted to calculate the spectral infrared signature emitted from aircraft exhaust plume. The accuracy and reliability of the developed code are validated in the one-dimensional band model. It is found that the infrared radiant intensity is relatively more strong in the plume through the analysis, the results show the different characteristic of the spectral infrared signature along the temperature, the partial pressure, and the species distribution. The continuous spectral radiant intensity is shown near the nozzle exit due to the emission from the nozzle wall.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.495-499
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• 2005

Purpose : Interleukin-4(IL-4) is a critical component of the Th2 cytokine pathway and contributes to severity of respiratory syncytial virus(RSV) bronchiolitis. Previous studies observed an association between severe RSV bronchiolitis in Korean children with a common haplotype of the IL4 promoter. This study was performed to investigate functional differences of the variant IL4 promoter haplotypes. Methods : Genomic DNA was obtained from 20 children from 6 to 48 months of age in the Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The IL4 promoter spanning an 1.2 kb region was amplified and haplotype was determined by cloning and the PHASE reconstruction. Transcriptional activity of Jurkat T cells which were transfected with each IL4 haplotype were analyzed by use of luciferase assay. Results : Three haplotypes of the IL4 promoter have been identified with the frequency of GCC(7 percent), TCC(17 percent), and TTT(76 percent). The TTT haplotype demonstrated the highest luciferase values in both unstimulated and PMA-stimulated Jurkat T cells. Increases in transcriptional activity compared to GCC have been shown in TTT(5.3 fold higher) followed by TCC(4.2 fold higher) in unstimulated Jurkat T cells. Conclusion : We provided evidence that increased transcriptional activity of the TTT haplotype of the IL4 promoter, which has previously been over-represented in Korean children with severe RSV bronchiolitis. Therefore, IL-4 could play a potential role in the pathogenesis of RSV infection, possibly via an altered transcriptional activity of the different IL4 haplotypes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2629-2633
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• 2012

Background: Raw betel nut (RBN) chewing is an important contributing factor for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), although associated genomic changes remain unclear. One difficulty in assessing the effects of exclusively RBN induced genetic alterations has been that earlier studies were performed with samples of patients commonly using tobacco and alcohol, in addition to betel-quid. Both CDKN2A (at 9p21) and Rb1 gene (at 13q14.2) are regarded as tumor suppressors involved in the development of ESCC. Therefore, the present study aimed to verify the RBN's ability to induce ESCC and assess the involvement of CDKN2A and Rb1 genes. Methods: A panel of dinucelotide polymorphic markers were chosen for loss of heterozygosity studies in 93 samples of which 34 were collected from patients with only RBN-chewing habit. Promoter hypermethylation was also investigated. Results: Loss in microsatellite markers D9S1748 and D9S1749, located close to exon $1{\beta}$ of CDKN2A/ARF gene at 9p21, was noted in 40% ESCC samples with the habit of RBN-chewing alone. Involvement of a novel site in the 9p23 region was also observed. Promoter hypermethylation of CDKN2A gene in the samples with the habit of only RBN-chewing alone was significantly higher (p=0.01) than Rb1 gene, also from the samples having the habit of use both RBN and tobacco (p=0.047). Conclusions: The data indicate that the disruption of 9p21 where CDKN2A gene resides, is the most frequent critical genetic event in RBN-associated carcinogenesis. The involvement of 9p23 as well as 13q14.2 could be required in later stages in RBN-mediated carcinogenesis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.16
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• pp.6949-6954
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• 2014

Background: Recent studies have indicated that microRNA-15a (miR-15a) is dysregulated in breast cancer (BC). We aimed to evaluate the expression of miR-15a in BC tissues and corresponding para-carcinoma tissues. We also focused on effects of miR-15a on cellular behavior of MDA-MB-231 and expression of its target gene synuclein-${\gamma}$ (SNCG). Materials and Methods: The expression levels of miR-15a were analysed in BC formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues by microarray and quantitative real-time PCR. CCK-8 assays, cell cycle and apoptosis assays were used to explore the potential functions of miR-15a in MDA-MB-231 human BC cells. A luciferase reporter assay confirmed direct targets. Results: Downregulation of miR-15a was detected in most primary BCs. Ectopic expression of miR-15a promoted proliferation and suppressed apoptosis in vivo. Further studies indicated that miR-15a may directly interact with the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of SNCG mRNA, downregulating its mRNA and protein expression levels. SNCG expression was negatively correlated with miR-15a expression. Conclusions: MiR-15a has a critical role in mediating cell cycle arrest and promoting cell apoptosis of BC, probably by directly targeting SNCG. Thus, it may be involved in development and progression of BC.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1928-1936
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• 2018

Recently, human infections caused by severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), which can lead to fatality, have dramatically increased in East Asia. With the unavailability of vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent and/or treat SFTSV infection, early rapid diagnosis is critical for prevention and control of the disease. Here, we report the development of a simple, rapid and sensitive portable detection method for SFTSV infection applying reverse transcription-loop mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) combined with one-pot colorimetric visualization and electro-free reaction platform. This method utilizes a pocket warmer to facilitate diagnosis in a resource-limited setting. Specific primers were designed to target the highly-conserved region of L gene of SFTSV. The detection limit of the RT-LAMP assay was approximately $10^0$ viral genome copies from three different SFTSV strains. This assay exhibited comparable sensitivity to qRT-PCR and 10-fold more sensitivity than conventional RT-PCR, with a rapid detection time of 30 to 60 minutes. The RT-LAMP assay using SFTSV clinical specimens has demonstrated a similar detection rate to qRT-PCR and a higher detection rate compared to conventional RT-PCR. Moreover, there was no observed cross-reactive amplification of other human infectious viruses including Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV), Dengue, Enterovirus, Zika, Influenza and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This highly sensitive, electro- and equipment-free rapid colorimetric visualization method is feasible for resource-limited SFTSV field diagnosis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.1226-1234
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• 2012

3,4,3',5'-Tetrahydroxy-trans-stilbene (piceatannol) is a derivative of resveratrol with a variety of biological activities, including anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, and anti-cancer activities. We assessed the mechanisms by which piceatannol inhibits inflammatory responses using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated Raw264.7 murine macrophages. Piceatannol (0~10 ${\mu}mol/L$) decreased LPS-induced release of nitric oxide, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-$1{\beta}$, and inhibited LPS-induced protein expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-${\kappa}B$), activator protein (AP)-1, and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) are crucial steps during an inflammatory response. Piceatannol prevented LPS-induced degradation of inhibitor of ${\kappa}B$ ($I{\kappa}B$), translocation of p65 to the nucleus, and phosphorylation of stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK). Additionally, piceatannol inhibited LPS-induced phosphorylation of STAT3 and IL-6-induced translocation of STAT3 to the nucleus. Furthermore, piceatannol increased the protein and mRNA levels of hemeoxygenase (HO)-1, the rate-limiting enzyme of heme catabolism that plays a critical role in mediating antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Piceatannol further induced antioxidant response elements (ARE)-driven luciferase activity in Raw264.7 cells transfected with an ARE-luciferase reporter construct containing the enhancer 2 and minimal promoter region of HO-1. These results suggest that piceatannol exerts anti-inflammatory effects via the down-regulation of iNOS expression and up-regulation of HO-1 expression.