• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1083-1089
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• 2008

We investigated the molecular epidemiological characteristic of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains isolated from stool samples in Busan from 2004 to 2006. Among 142 isolates of S. aureus, 49 isolates (34.5%) were confirmed as MRSA. With the antimicrobial susceptibility tests, 37 isolates (75.5%) showed multiple resistance to more than 10 antibiotics, but all isolates were sensitive to vancomycin. All of MRSA had enterotoxin A in 30.6%, B 4.1%, C 8.3%, D, C/G, A 2.0% and None 51%. PFGE of SmaI-digested chromosomal DNA was performed on 49 sporadic MRSA isolates. Restriction fragment patterns consisted of 8 to 14 fragments ranged in size from 48.5 to 630.5 kbp. We could divided the isolates into 7 groups ($I{\sim}VII$) by analyzing PFGE patterns. Group I subdivided as 2 subgroups and 17 (34.7%) strains belong to the group I. Dendrogram of PFGE patterns showed that MRSA strains in Busan were heterogeneous but we could find out minor homogeneity in hospital.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.146-161
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• 2002

Incidence of soilborne diseases, as a major cause of failure of continuous monocropping becomes severe in recent years. For examples, recent epidemics of club root of chinese cabbage, white rot of garlic, bacterial wilt of potato, pepper phytophthora blight, tomato fusarium wilt and CGMMV of watermelon are the diseases that require urgent control measures. Reasons for the severe incidence of soilborne diseases are the simplified cropping system or continuous monocropping associated with allocation of major production areas of certain crop and year-round cultivation system that results in rapid degradation of soil environment. Neglect of breeding for disease resistance relative to giving much emphasis on high yield and good quality, and cultural methods putting first on the use of chemical fertilizers are thought to be the reason. Counter-measures against soilborne disease epidemics would become most effective when the remedies are seeded for individual causes. As long-term strategies, development of rational cropping system which fits local cropping and economic condition, development and supply of cultivars resistant to multiple diseases, and improvement of soil environment by soil conditioning are suggested. In short-term strategies, simple and economical soil-disinfestation technology, and quick and accurate forecasting methods for soilborne diseases are urgent matter far development. for these, extensive supports are required in governmental level for rearing soilborne disease specialists and activation of collaborating researches to solve encountering problems of soilborne diseases.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.75-79
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• 2015

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a common complication of Congenital heart defects (CHD) with left-to-right shunts, and PAH with increased pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. General anesthesia (GA) can be life-threatening in patients with PAH, because the positive pressure ventilation during GA increases pulmonary arterial pressure and decreases pulmonary blood flow. This may also lead to hypoxia. Therefore, spontaneous ventilation may be safer than positive pressure ventilation in patients with PAH. A five-year-old male child, weighing 11 kg, with medical history showing a total correction of Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) in 2009 and ongoing treatment with hypertension (HTN) medicine since 2007, visited the Dankook University Dental Hospital. He had multiple dental caries, and the treatment was completed under sevoflurane insufflation sedation via nasal cannula. The patient remained sedated throughout the operation while maintaining normal vital signs and spontaneous respiration. In conclusion, sevoflurane insufflation sedation may be a safer alternative to GA for the dental treatment of patients with PAH.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.196-208
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• 2014

During the life cycle of plants, water deficit leads to an adverse effect on its growth and development. To increase the productivity of crops, overcoming such drought stress is one of the most important issues in the field of plant study. Among plant hormones, the phytohormone, abscisic acid (ABA) plays a crucial role in eliciting resistance to drought stress as well as in multiple developmental processes, such as seed germination, stomatal closure, and seedling growth. Therefore, further understanding of the ABA-mediated signal transduction pathway in plants is an effective strategy to generate drought-tolerant plants. Posttranslational modification, such as phosphorylation and ubiquitination, is an efficient mechanism for plants to acquire quick adaptation against environmental stress conditions since this process directly affects pre-existing signaling components by modulating protein activity and stability. Here, recent reports on ABA signaling are reviewed, especially focusing on ABA transport, perception, signaling, and posttranslational modification in ABA-mediated cellular responses. Also, we present future prospects on how the control of such a mechanism can be applied to generate useful agricultural crops.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2013

Candida biofilms are organized microbial communities growing on the surfaces of host tissues or indwelling medical devices, and the biofilms show enhanced resistance against the conventional antifungal agents. The roots of Coptidis chinensis have been widely used for medicinal purposes in East Asia. The present study was aimed to assess the effect of C. chinensis aqueous extract upon preformed biofilms of 10 clinical Candida albicans isolates and the antifungal activities which contribute to inhibit the C. albicans biofilm formation. Its effect on preformed biofilms was judged using XTT [2,3-Bis-(2-Methoxy-4-Nitro-5-Sulfophenyl)-2H-Tetrazolium-5-Carboxanilide)] reduction assay, and metabolic activity of all tested strains was reduced significantly ($57.3{\pm}14.7%$) at $98{\mu}g/ml$ of the C. chinensis extract. The extract damaged the cell membrane of C. albicans which was analyzed by fluorescein diacetate and propidium iodide staining. The anticandidal activity was fungicidal, and the extract obstructed the adhesion of C. albicans biofilms to polystyrene surfaces, arrested C. albicans cells at $G_o/G_1$ as well, and reduced the growth of biofilms or budding yeasts finally. The data suggest that C. chinensis has multiple antifungal effects on target fungi resulting in preventing the formation of biofilms. Therefore, C. chinensis holds great promise for exploring antifungal agents from natural products in treating and eliminating biofilm-associated Candida infection.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.399-406
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• 1986

This study was performed to establish human plasmacytoma cell line as the partner cells for producing human hybridoma. Bone marrow cells from a multiple myeloma patient from Seoul National University Hospital, Korea were cultured and established as the cell line, named as HMC-BM4. HMC-BM4 cells were cultivated in RPMI 1640 media containing 8-azaguanine(8-AG; gradually increasing concentration from $1\;{\mu}g/ml$ to $20\;{\mu}g/ml$). 8-AG resistant cells were collected and cloned by limiting dilution. Each clone was divided and tested to die in hypoxanthine, aminopterine and thymidine (HAT) selection media. Finally one clone was selected and named as HMC-AR, which was sensitive to HAT selection media. HMC-AR cells showed typical morphology of plamacytoma in Wright staining. No cell formed the rosette with sheep erythrocytes. Surface membrane $\mu$ heavy chain was detected in 20% of HMC-AR cells and cytoplasmic $\mu$ heavy chain in 90% of them by direct immunofluorescent staining. Ia-like antigen was found in 90% of HMC-AR cells by indirect immunofluorescent staining using anti-Ia-like antigen monoclonal antibody, 1BD9-2. And about $1.0\;{\mu}g/ml$ of human $\mu$ heavy chain was detected in the 3-day culture supernatant of HMC-AR cells. 88% of cells contained 46 chromosomes. Mycoplasma was not detected in HMC-AR cells by Hoechst 33258 staining. This cell line would be used for making hybridomas secreting human monoclonal antibody.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.133-144
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• 2011

Background: Tigecycline (TIG), a new broad-spectrum glycylcycline with anti-multidrug-resistant-(MDR)-pathogen activity, was launched in March 2009 in South Korea, but there are insufficient clinical studies on its use in the country. As such, this study was performed to analyze cases of severe MDR-pathogen-caused infections treated with TIG. Methods: Patients treated with TIG within the period from May 2009 to June 2010 were enrolled in this study. Their clinical and microbiologic data were reviewed retrospectively. Results: Twenty-one patients were treated with TIG for complicated skin and soft-tissue infections (cSSTIs) (42.9%), complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAIs) (38.1%), or pneumonia (19.1%) caused by MDR pathogens like carbapenem-resistant $Acinetobacter$ $baumannii$ (76.2%), methicillin-resistant $Staphylococcus$ $aureus$ (61.9%), extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing $Escherichia$ $coli$ and $Klebsiella$ $pneumoniae$ (38.1%), and penicillin-resistant $Enterococcus$ species (33.3%). Thirteen patients (61.9%) had successful clinical outcomes while five (23.8%) died within 30 days. The rate of clinical success was highest in cSSTI (77.8%), followed by cIAI (50%) and pneumonia (50%), and the mortality rate was highest in pneumonia (50%), followed by cIAI (25%) and cSSTI (11.1%), Conclusion: Tigecycline therapy can be an option for the treatment of severe MDR-pathogen-caused infections in South Korea, Due to its high risk of failure and mortality, however, prudence is required in its clinical use for the treatment of severe infections like nosocomial pneumonia.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.4575-4591
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• 1978

In order to investigate the effects of grain size distribution, cement content, and molding pressure on the strength and durability of soil-cement mixtures, a laboratory test of soil cement mixtures was performed at four levels of cement content, five levels of molding pressure, and four levels of normal curing periods. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Optimum moisture contents in loam soil and maximum dry density in sand soil increased with the increase of cement content, but in others, both optimum moisture contents and maximum dry density were changed ununiformly. 2. When the specimens were molded with molding pressure, 50kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$, strength of soil cement mixture with cement content, 2 and 4 per cent, was lower than the strength of soil cement mixture without cement content by more than 40 to 50 per cent. 3. The strength of soil-cement molded with molding pressure, 100kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$, was higher than the strength of soil-cement molded with M.D.D. obtained from standard compaction test more than 40 per cent in sand loam cement and 50 per cent in loamy cement. 4. There was highly significant positive correlation among molding pressure, cement content and unconfined compressive strentgh and so the following multiple regression equations were obtained. Loam: fc=1.9693C+0.197P-0.84 Sandy loam: fc=2.9065C+0.235P-0.77 5. When the specimens were molded with molding pressure, 20 to 100kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$, the regression equation between the 28-day and 7-day strenght was obtained as follows. Loam : q28=1.1050q7+7.59(r=0.9147) Sandy loam : q28=1.3905q7+3.17 (r=0.9801) 6. At the cement contents of above 50 per cent, the weight losses by freeeze-thaw test were negligible. At the cement content of below 8 per cent the weight losses were singnificantly high under low molding pressure and remarkably decreased with the increase of molding pressure up to 80kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$. 7. Resistance to damage from water and to absorption of water were not improved by molding pressure alone, but when the soil was mixtured with cement above 6 per cent, damage seldoms occurred and absorbed less than 5 per cent of water. 8. There was highly significant inverse-corelationship between the compressive strength of soil cement mixtures and their freeze-thaw loss as well as water absorption. By the regression equation methods, the relationships between them were expessed as followed fc=-7.3206Wa+115.6(r=0.9871) log fc=-0.0174L+1.59(r=0.7709) where fc=unconfined compressive stregth after 28-days curing. kg/$\textrm{cm}^2$ Wa=water absorption, % L : freeze-thaw loss rate, %

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.600-605
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• 1989

For the purpose of isolation of the Zymomonas mobilis DNA fragments showing promoter activity in Escherichia coli, a promoter screening vector, PCMT215 was constructed by transferring a promoterless chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene of pYEJ001 into pMT21 which contains $\beta$-lactamase gene and multiple cloning sites. A library of Z, mobilis Sau3AI DNA fragments was constructed in E. coli using the newly constructed pCMT215. Fourteen clones showing resistance to chloramphenicol ranging in concentration from 30 to 750 $\mu$g/$m\ell$ were selected. From five clones of them, the Z. mobilis DNA fragments expressing CAT gene of the recombinant plasmids were sequenced and then sites of transcriptional initiation were identified. The nucleotide sequences of the cloned DNA shared AT rich regions, poly A's or T's stretches and palindromic regions. The positions of transcriptional initiation for CAT gene occurred at more than one site spaced over by 4 to 190 base pairs on the cloned fragments in E. coli.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.475-480
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• 2017

In this paper, the conductivity of the fine pattern is improved in the insulating substrate by laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) process. The high laser beam energy generated in conventional laser induced deposition processes induces problems such as low deposition density and oxidation of micro-patterns. These problems were improved by using a polymer coating layer for improved deposition accuracy and conductivity. Chromium and copper were used to deposit micro-patterns on silicon wafers. A multi-pulse laser beam was irradiated on a metal thin film to form a seed layer on an insulating substrate(SiO2) and electroless plating was applied on the seed layer to form a micro-pattern and structure. Irradiating the laser beam with multiple scanning method revealed that the energy of the laser beam improved the deposition density and the surface quality of the deposition layer and that the electric conductivity can be used as the microelectrode pattern. Measuring the resistivity after depositing the microelectrode by using the laser direct drawing method and electroless plating indicated that the resistivity of the microelectrode pattern was $6.4{\Omega}$, the resistance after plating was $2.6{\Omega}$, and the surface texture of the microelectrode pattern was uniformly deposited. Because the surface texture was uniform and densely deposited, the electrical conductivity was improved about three fold.