• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.1 s.56
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• pp.17-29
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• 1997

To estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and to determine associated risk factors, a population-based seroepidemiologic study was carried out. In 1993, a health examination survey of the population was carried out in rural area known to have a high incidence of liver cancer. The study population were those who volunteered to participate in a health survey over 10 years of age. Examinees were interviewed by specially trained staffs. Sera from 1,033 study subjects were tested for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) by .everse passive hemagglutinin (RPHA) estimation and for hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV) by 2nd generation passive hemagglutinin (PHA) estimation. The age and sex standardized prevalence of HBsAg was 6.3% which was similar to national average, but that of anti-HCV was 5.1% which was 4 to 5 times higher than that of blood donors or other health examinees in Korea. In a multivariate analysis, transfusion history, surgical operative history, and acupuncture history were not associated with HBsAg positivity. In contrast, acupuncture history (adjusted odds ratio[OR]=2.2 : 95% Confidence interval[CI] 1.0-4.7) and surgical operative history(adjusted OR=2.0 : 95% CI 1.0-4.1) were associated with anti-HCV positivity. The present study suggest that there is an highly endemic area of HCV infection in Korea and probably this endemicity is associated with a parenteral source of HCV infection other than blood transfusion.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.6 s.86
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• pp.811-815
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• 2007

ln this study we isolated 27 isolates of Campylobacter jejuni from stool samples of 882 diarrheal patients. The seasonal distribution of patients was highest at July (11.7%). All the isolates of C. jejuni hydrolyzing sodium hippurate were serotyped on basis of heat-stable antigens, and identified with the use of passive hemagglutination assay. A total of 59.3% among 27 C. jejuni isolates were identified into 6 different serotypes, which serotype HS2, HSl/44, and HS2l were dominant. Antibiotics resistant rates of C. jejuni isolates were shown to be 100%, 63.0%, 51.9%, 37.0%, 33.3%, 25.9% and 7.4% to cephalothin, trimethoprim- sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, ampicillin, gentamycin and clindamycin, respectively. All isolates were sensitive to the erythromycin and imipenem.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.582-589
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• 2008

This study attempted to determine effects of recombinant porcine epidermal growth factor (pEGF) and glutamine (Gln) supplement on the growth performance and intestinal development of piglets weaned at 14 days of age. A total of ninety-six piglets were allotted to one of four dietary treatments which comprised inclusion of 1.0 mg pEGF supernatant/kg diet or 0.5% Gln both alone and in combination. Each treatment consisted of four replicates with six pigs per pen for a 28 days experimental period. Two pigs per replicate were sacrificed and gastrointestinal tract samples were collected on day 14. Data showed that dietary treatment failed to promote growth performance. On day 14, diets supplemented with pEGF elevated pancreatic chymotrypsin, jejunal alkaline phosphatase, sucrase, lactase and maltase activities (p<0.05), but failed to alter the small intestinal villus morphology, DNA, or protein content of gastrointestinal mucosa. Diets supplemented with Gln increased pancreatic chymotrypsin activity, tended to enhance the protein contents of gastric (p = 0.08) and jejunal mucosa (p = 0.09) but did not influence the serum IgA level or the enzyme activity in the gastrointestinal tract. On day 28, the diets supplemented with Gln increasedt (p<0.05) serum IgA and the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells by PHA stimulation. However, a combination of pEGF and Gln did not have a synergistic effect on these biomarkers in early-weaned piglets. The results demonstrate that diets supplemented with recombinant pEGF supernatant indeed improve intestinal digestive enzyme activity and diets supplemented with Gln increases the immune response in early-weaned piglets.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.236-243
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• 1993

Immunologic potential of DA-125, a new anthracycline antitumor antibiotic, was investigated using guinea pigs and mice. In antigenicity experiments, guinea pigs were sensitized subcutaneously with DA-125 or DA-125 incorporated in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) once a week for three weeks. No systemic anaphylaxis was induced by intravenous injection of DA-125 or DA-125 incubated with guinea pig serum after 3 weeks from the last sensitization. None of sera of these animals showed any passive cutaneous anaphylactic reaction (PCA) when DA-125 or DA-125 incubated with guinea pig serum was used as a challenging antigen in homologous PCA experiment. On the other hand the treatment of guinea pigs with ovalbumin Incorporated in CFA induced systemic anaphylactic reaction when challenged by intravenous injection of 5 mg/body of ovalbumin. Immunodiffusion test revealed no precipitating antibodies as detected in guinea pigs sensitized with DA-125. In 24-hour heterologous PCA reaction with sera of C57BL/6 mice immunized with DA-125 or DA-125 mixed with aluminum hydroxide gel (Alum), None of sera showed positive reaction when DA-125 or DA-125 incubated with rat serum was used as a challenging antigen. Sera of animals immunized with a mixture of ovalbumin and alum showed positive PCA reaction when 5 mg/body of ovalbumin was injected as a challenging antigen. In lymphocyte proliferation tests, spleen lymphocyte proliferation to PHA and LPS was similarly impaired by 12 mg/kg of DXR or 36 mg/kg of DA-125, and the immunodepressive activity of DA-125 showed a dose-dependent manner. From these results, it could be concluded that immunosupression of DA-125 would be comparable to that of DXR and that DA-125 would not induce systemic allergic reaction in its clinical use.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 1990

This study was aimed to observe the direct and Iymphokine-activated cell mediated cytotoxic effects against Trichomenas waginalis by mouse peritoneal macrophages. Cytotoxicity was measured as release of 3H-thymidine from prelabeled protozoa, and tested in U-bottom microtiter plates. A 0.1 ml suspension of labeled protozoa (2{\times}10^5/ml$) was placed in each well, followed by 0.1 ml of a suspension containing increasing numbers of peritoneal cells. After a 24 hr incubation at $37^{\circ}C$, 0.1ml of the supernatant was collected and counted in liquid scintillation counter. Mouse peritoneal macrophages had appreciable level of spontaneous cytotoxicity against T. maginalis at the effector to target cell ratios from 5 : 1 to 50 : 1, Treatment of macrophages with Iymphokine, produced by PHA-stimulated spleen cells, increased the cytotoxicity in comparison with resident macrophages against T. vaginalis. The degree of macrophage activation for the killing was not dependent upon the Iymphokine concentration. Peritoneal cells adherent to plastic displayed significant levels of cytotoxicity against T. vaginalis. This study indicates that mouse peritoneal macrophages are spontaneously cytotoxic for T. waginalis and Iymphokine increases the cytotoxicity by activating macrophages to kill T. vaginalis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.361-370
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• 2006

Genetic variation and molecular phylogeny of 22 taxa representing 14 extant species and 3 unidentified taxa of Boesenbergia in Thailand and four outgroup species (Cornukaempferia aurantiflora, Hedychium biflorum, Kaempferia parviflora, and Scaphochlamys rubescens) were examined by sequencing of 3 chloroplast (cp) DNA regions (matK, psbA-trnH and petA-psbJ). Low interspecific genetic divergence (0.25-1.74%) were observed in these investigated taxa. The 50% majority-rule consensus tree constructed from combined chloroplast DNA sequences allocated Boesenbergia in this study into 3 different groups. Using psbA-1F/psbA-3R primers, an insertion of 491 bp was observed in B. petiolata. Restriction analysis of the amplicon (380-410 bp) from the remaining species with Rsa I further differentiated Boesenbergia to 2 groupings; I (B. basispicata, B. longiflora, B. longipes, B. plicata, B. pulcherrima, B. tenuispicata, B. thorelii, B. xiphostachya, Boesenbergia sp.1 and Boesenbergia sp.3; phylogenetic clade A) that possesses a Rsa I restriction site and II (B. curtisii, B. regalis, B. rotunda and Boesenbergia sp.2; phylogenetic clade B and B. siamensis; phylogenetic clade C) that lacks a restriction site of Rsa I. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and indels found can be unambiguously applied to authenticate specie-origin of all investigated samples and revealed that Boesenbergia sp.1, Boesenbergia sp.2 and B. pulcherrima (Mahidol University, Kanchanaburi), B. cf. pulcherrima1 (Prachuap Khiri Khan) and B. cf. pulcherrima2 (Thong Pha Phum, Kanchanaburi) are B. plicata, B. rotunda and B. pulcherrima, respectively. In addition, molecular data also suggested that Boesenbergia sp.3 should be further differentiated from B. longiflora and regarded as a newly unidentified Boesenbergia species.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1592-1602
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• 1990

Mixed mode surface crack in finite-width plate subjected to uniform tension and bending has been analyzed in 3-D problem by using boundary element method. The calculations were carried out for the surface crack angles(.a/pha.) of 0.deg., 15.deg., 30.deg., 45.deg., 60.deg., and 75.deg., and for the aspect ratio(a/c) of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 1.0 to get stress intensity factors at the boundary points of the surface crack. For the aspect ratio of 1.0 and the surface crack angles, finite element method was used to check the results in this study. Comparison of the results from both methods showed good agreement.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.19-25
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• 2006

Since the enzymatic degradation of microbial poly(hydroxylalkanoate)s (PHAs), such as poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] and poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate] initially occurs by a surface erosion process, their degradation behaviors can be controlled by the change of surface property. In order to control the rate of enzymatic degradation, plasma modification technique was applied to change the surface property of microbial PHAs. The surface hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties of PHA films were introduced by $CF_3H$ and $O_2$ plasma exposures, respectively. The enzymatic degradation was carried out at $37^{\circ}C$ in 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) in the presence of an extracellular PHB depolymerase purified from Alcaligenes facalis T1. The results showed that the significant retardation of initial enzymatic erosion of $CF_3H$ plasma-treated PHAs was observed due to the hydrophobicity and the enzyme inactivity of the fluorinated surface layers while the erosion rate of $O_2$ plasma-treated PHAs was not accelerated.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.575-582
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• 2018

Bacterial fruit blotch (BFB) caused by Acidovorax citrulli is a devastating disease found in many cucurbits cultivation fields. The genetic diversity for 29 strains of A. citrulli collected from various cucurbits in South Korea was determined by DNA fingerprinting with a pathogenicity test, multi locus analysis, Rep-PCR (repetitive sequence polymerase chain reaction), and URP (universal rice primers) PCR bands. Two distinct groups (Korean Clonal Complex, KCC1 and KCC2) in the population were identified based on group specific genetic variation in the multi locus phylogeny using six conserved loci and showed a very high similarity with DNA sequences for representative foreign groups [the group I (CC1-1 type) and the group II (CC2-5 type)] widely distributed worldwide, respectively. Additionally, in the case of phaC, a new genotype was found within each Korean group. The KCC1 was more heterogeneous compared to the KCC2. The KCC1 recovered mainly from melons and watermelons (ratio of 6 : 3) and 15 of the 20 KCC2 strains recovered from watermelons were dominant in the pathogen population. Accordingly, this study found that two distinct groups of differentiated A. citrulli exist in South Korea, genetically very similar to representative foreign groups, with a new genotype in each group resulting in their genetic diversity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.450-457
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• 2003

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of high amylose corn starch consumption on plasma, liver and feces lipid profiles and immune responses in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Experimental animals were fed on diets containing the high amylose starch (HAS,0, 125, 250,500 g/kg diet) for 4 weeks. HAS intake did not affect on food intakes and food efficiency ratio. Final body weights were lowered in HA100 group than in control group. HAS intakes dose dependently increased the weights of cecum and excretion of feces per day, and decreased the pH of cecum contents. And HAS intakes significantly decreased the plasma total lipid, triglyceride and total cholesterol levels. But there were not significant differences total lipid, triglyceride and cholesterol concentrations in liver. The absolute and relative weights of thymus and spleen, plasma Is G and $C_3$ concentrations were unaffected by experimental diets. The splenocyte proliferations with low dose Con A (0.1$\mu\textrm{g}$/10 $\mu$L) as lower in HA25 group and HA50 group than in control group. These results demonstrate that high amylose corn starch intakes significantly improve lipid profiles in plasma.