• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제17권9호
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• pp.1315-1328
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• 2004

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a mixture of positional and geometric isomers of octadecadienoic acid with two conjugated double bonds. Of more than a dozen isomers of CLA found naturally in dairy and meat products from ruminants, c-9, t-11 and t-10, c-12 are the two isomers with known physiological importance, including anticarcinogenic, antidiabetic, antilipogenic, and antiatherosclerotic effects. Positive effects of CLA on immune function and bone modeling have also been reported. In spite of the compelling findings in tissue cultures and experimental animal models, its effect, dose, and mechanism of action vis-à-vis specific isomers remains speculative. Results obtained from animal models are inconclusive and conflicting at times in humans, where the research data is limited. It appears that there is a long way to go before CLA could be accepted unequivocally as having definite effects in any or all of these physiological states and how such effects actually occur in humans. The objective of this review is to critically examine the available literature on potential health benefits of CLA observed in cell culture, animal models, and human subjects, wherever possible and to a certain extent the mechanism of action associated with these biological activities.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.1071-1092
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• 2014

Annotating images with tags that describe the content of the images facilitates image retrieval. However, this task is challenging for both humans and computers. In response, a new approach has been proposed that converts the manual image annotation task into CAPTCHA challenges. However, this approach has not been widely used because of its weak security and the fact that it can be applied only to annotate for a specific type of attribute clearly separated into mutually exclusive categories (e.g., gender). In this paper, we propose a novel image annotation CAPTCHA scheme, which can successfully differentiate between humans and computers, annotate image content difficult to separate into mutually exclusive categories, and generate verified test images difficult for computers to identify but easy for humans. To test its feasibility, we applied our scheme to annotate images of human faces with their age groups and conducted user studies. The results showed that our proposed system, called AgeCAPTCHA, annotated images of human faces with high reliability, yet the process was completed by the subjects quickly and accurately enough for practical use. As a result, we have not only verified the effectiveness of our scheme but also increased the applicability of image annotation CAPTCHAs.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제19권8호
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• pp.738-744
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• 2013

According to the cognitive science research, the interaction intent of humans can be estimated through an analysis of the representing behaviors. This paper proposes a novel methodology for reliable intention analysis of humans by applying this approach. To identify the intention, 8 behavioral features are extracted from the 4 characteristics in human-human interaction and we outline a set of core components for nonverbal behavior of humans. These nonverbal behaviors are associated with various recognition modules including multimodal sensors which have each modality with localizing sound source of the speaker in the audition part, recognizing frontal face and facial expression in the vision part, and estimating human trajectories, body pose and leaning, and hand gesture in the spatial part. As a post-processing step, temporal confidential reasoning is utilized to improve the recognition performance and integrated human model is utilized to quantitatively classify the intention from multi-dimensional cues by applying the weight factor. Thus, interactive robots can make informed engagement decision to effectively interact with multiple persons. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme works successfully between human users and a robot in human-robot interaction.

• 한국멀티미디어학회논문지
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• 제23권10호
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• pp.1339-1347
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• 2020

This study is a preliminary study to design a character automation system that considers the facial characteristics of mammals. The experimental data of this study was conducted on dogs (dog breeds) and humans, which were designed to be used in many contents. First, data was extracted from 100 types of dogs and 100 human data. Second, the criteria for measuring the ratio of important parts of the dog and human face were suggested. In addition, a comparative analysis of the face of a dog and a human face is conducted. Lastly, by analyzing the main component(PCA), the most characteristic elements in the faces of dogs and humans were analyzed. As a result, it was confirmed that the length of the face, the size of the eyes, the length of the glabellar, and the length of the glabellar and other parts are important. Through this study, the features of the dog's face that are different from humans are expected to contribute to the animal character automation.

• BMB Reports
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• 제51권8호
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• pp.371-372
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• 2018

Cardiovascular disease such as atherosclerosis is caused by imbalanced lipid metabolism and represents a leading cause of death worldwide. Epidemiological studies show that patients with systemic autoimmune diseases exhibit a higher incidence of atherosclerosis. Conversely, hyperlipidemia has been known to accelerate the incidence of autoimmune diseases in humans and in animal models. However, there is a considerable gap in our understanding of how atherosclerosis impacts the development of the autoimmunity in humans, and vice versa. The atherosclerosis-related autoimmune diseases include psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and diabetes mellitus. By using animal models of atherosclerosis and SLE, we have recently demonstrated that hyperlipidemia significantly accelerates the development of autoantibodies, by inducing autoimmune follicular helper T ($T_{FH}$) cells. Mechanistic studies have identified that hyperlipidemia induces IL-27 production in a TLR4-dependent manner, likely via downregulating LXR expression in dendritic cells. In this case, mice lacking IL-27 do not develop enhanced antibody responses. Thus it is noted that these findings propose a mechanistic insight responsible for the tight association between cardiovascular diseases and SLE in humans.

• 디지털산업정보학회논문지
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• 제13권1호
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• pp.1-12
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• 2017

Recently, the Go game has been performed between the 'AlphaGo' of the DeepMind and Lee Sedol, a famous professional Go-player of Korea, which leads to arise a lot of interests in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) research area. Based on the Fuzzy logic of the AI, we have also developed another game's AI, .i.e., the Yutnori game, one of Korean traditional board games. However, it is not easy and simple to consider all the cases of the Yutnori game since it is a non-perfect information game in terms of the AI. Thus, we have developed the Fuzzy-logic-based AI which tries to simulate humans' selections, meaning that the suggested AI has focused on the humans' choices depending on diverse situations in the Yutnori. With our extensive simulations using the suggested Yutnori AI, we have analyzed its performances with respect to 10 Yutnori situations among various scenarios. In conclusion, our suggested AI have demonstrated that 6 out of 10 situations are exactly same with the humans' choices and the rest 4 cases are also similar to that of human's, which reveals that our Fuzz-logic-based Yutnori AI can effectively simulate human's choices.

• 한국수정란이식학회지
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.297-304
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• 2011

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are a class of "brominated" (bromine containing) man-made chemicals used as flame retardant additives in plastics, foams, and textiles. PBDEs are found in various environmental contaminants in air, soil, sediment, and water, and 209 individual forms (congeners) of PBDE exist. Among these, 2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47) is the dominant congener found in the environment. Exposure to BDE-47 is now worldwide, and levels of BDE-47 have been detected in the blood of animals, including humans. BDE-47 can adversely affect the developmental system in both humans and animals. BDEs have structural similarities to polychlorinated biphenyls and thyroid hormones. However, recent studies have shown that BDEs may act as hormonal disrupting chemicals with detrimental effects. Therefore, a reliable assessment of BDE-47 toxicological action is required to understand the detrimental impacts of BDE-47 on human health. In this review, we overview recent studies on the distribution and potential toxicological effects of BDE-47 in humans and animals.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• 제51권6호
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• pp.621-627
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• 2013

Paragonimiasis is a food-borne parasitic zoonosis caused by infection with lung flukes of the genus Paragonimus. In Vietnam, research on Paragonimus and paragonimiasis has been conducted in northern and central regions of the country. Using a combination of morphological and molecular methods, 7 Paragonimus species, namely P. heterotremus, P. westermani, P. skrjabini, P. vietnamensis, P. proliferus, P. bangkokenis, and P. harinasutai, have been identified in Vietnam. Of these, the first 3, P. heterotremus, P. westermani, and P. skrjabini, are known to infect humans in other countries. However, in Vietnam, only P. heterotremus, found in some northern provinces, has been shown to infect humans. Even nowadays, local people in some northern provinces, such as Lai Chau and Yen Bai, are still suffering from P. heterotremus infection. In some provinces of central Vietnam, the prevalence and infection intensity of P. westermani metacercariae in freshwater crabs (the second intermediate hosts) are extremely high, but human cases have not been reported. Likewise, although P. skrjabini was found in Thanh Hoa Province, its pathogenicity to humans in Vietnam still remains uncertain. The results of molecular phylogenetic analyses of Vietnamese Paragonimus species provides new insights on the phylogeny and taxonomy of the genus Paragonimus. Comprehensive molecular epidemiological and geobiological studies on the genus in Vietnam and adjacent countries are needed to clarify the biodiversity and public health significance of the lung flukes.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제17권6호
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• pp.634-644
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• 1989

Listeria monocytogenes, one of five species in the genus Listeria and the only one currently believed to be pathogenic for humans, is a small gram-positive, nonsporeforming, aerobic, motile and hemolytic rod-shaped bacterium. The bacterium is widespread in the environment, having been isolated from soil, dust, animal feed, water, sewage, almost every type of animal that has been cultured, and asymptomatic humans. L. monocytogenes causes listeriosis, a disease which most often affects humans with a compromised immune system. Included are pregnant woman, infants and adults suffering from such diseases as cancer, cirrhosis of liver or AIDS or are being treated with drugs such as corticosteroids. Listeriosis is manifested by such syndromes as pregnancy infections, granulomatosis infantiseptica, sepsis, meningoencephalitis, and focal infections. Infections, can be treated successfully with penicillin, ampicillin, or erythromycin. However, a mortality rate of about 30％ has occurred in outbreaks of listeriosis. Food-associated outbreaks of listeriosis have been attributed to coleslaw (Canada, 1981), pasteurized milk (U.S., 1983), and soft cheese (U.S., 1985). Presence of L. monocytogenes in various dairy foods has prompted recall of such products from the U.S. market-place. L. monocytogenes also has been found in raw meats and seafood.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제17권7호
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• pp.1059-1070
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• 2007

Prion diseases, often called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), are infectious diseases that accompany neurological dysfunctions in many mammalian hosts. Prion diseases include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, "mad cow disease") in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elks. The cause of these fatal diseases is a proteinaceous pathogen termed prion that lacks functional nucleic acids. As demonstrated in the BSE outbreak and its transmission to humans, the onset of disease is not limited to a certain species but can be transmissible from one host species to another. Such a striking nature of prions has generated huge concerns in public health and attracted serious attention in the scientific communities. To date, the potential transmission of prions to humans via foodborne infection and iatrogenic routes has not been alleviated. Rather, the possible transmission of human to human or cervids to human aggravates the terrifying situation across the globe. In this review, basic features about prion diseases including clinical and pathological characteristics, etiology, and transmission of diseases are described. Based on recently accumulated evidences, the molecular and biochemical aspects of prions, with an emphasis on the molecular interactions involved in prion conversion that is critical during prion replication and pathogenesis, are also addressed.