• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2011

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the change in incidence and clinical characteristics of acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis (APSGN) through a single center's experience. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 53 children who were diagnosed with glomerular nephritis at National Health Insurance Corporation Ilsan Hospital between March 2000 and December 2009. Twenty-six of 53 patients falled to meet the dragnostic criteria of APSGN and were excluded. Chief complaints, physical examinations, urinalysis, urine culture, laboratory results, chest x-ray, and clinical manifestations were all retrieved from the remaining 27 patients. Results: The incidence of APSGN by age was highest in children between six to seven years of age, with similar distributions in both genders, and seasonal incidence was higher from November to February when compared to other months, which was similar to the previously reported studies. However, the annual number of APSGN patients did not show a significant decrease from 2000 to 2009. The incidences of edema and hypertension were 59.3% and 48.1% respectively, suggesting lower incidences than those from previous studies. Six patients (22.2%) experienced hematuria for more than 6 months. Hypertensive encephalopathy, one of APSGN critical complications occurred in one patient but resolved with conservative treatment. Conclusion: Our study shows that APSGN still occur as a common renal disease but the disease severity seems to decrease with milder clinical manifestations and less complications compared to past studies.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.57-62
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• 1987

The Markov chain properties of the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies, namely, the dependency of the monthly SST anomaly on that of the previous month, are studied based on the SST data for 28years(1957-1984) at 5 stations in the southeastern coast of Korea. Wi classified the monthly SST anomalies at each station into the low, the normal and the high state, and computed transition probabilities between SST anomalies of two successive months The standard deviation of SST anomalies at each station is used as a reference for the classification of SST anomalies into 3states. The transition probability of the normal state to remain in the same state is about 0.8. The transition probability of the high or the low states to remain in the same state is about one half. The SST anomalies have almost no probability to transit from the high (the low) state to the low (the high) state. Statistical tests show that the Markov chain properties of SST anomalies are stationary in tine and homogeneous in space. The multi-step Markov chain analysis shows that the 'memory' of the SST anomalies at the coastal stations remains about 3 months.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.184-191
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• 2007

Background: For the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of pleural effusion specimens has shown very low sensitivity, which might be due to the small number of bacilli in the samples. The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether the sensitivity of PCR testing can be improved when increasing the amount of pleural effusion specimens. Methods: We prospectively analyzed pleural effusion specimens obtained from 53 patients for whom the exclusion of the possibility of tuberculous pleural effusion was necessary. We performed Mycobacterium tuberculosis PCR testing using the Cobas Amplicor MTB test (Roche Diagnostic Systems) with three different amounts (10ml, 25ml, and 50ml) of pleural effusion specimen in each patient. Pleural tuberculosis was defined as having one of the following: culture-positive pleural fluid sample, histopathologic finding consistent with tuberculosis on pleural biopsy, culture-positive sputum specimen, and/or positive response to anti-tuberculous medication without other possible causes of pleural effusion. Results: Of the 53 patients, 26 received the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis. The sensitivities of AFB smearing, Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture of pleural effusion specimen, pleural biopsy, and measurement of ADA were 3.8%, 15.4%, 84.6%, and 88.5%, respectively. The results of PCR testing were positive for 3 (11.5%), 4 (15.4%), and 3 (11.5%) of the 26 patients when using 10ml, 25ml, and 50ml of pleural effusion specimens, respectively. These results did not show a statistically significant difference in the sensitivity of PCR testing when increasing the amount of pleural effusion samples (p>0.05, symmetry exact test). Conclusion: For specimens such as pleural effusion, in which the bacillary load is very low, the clinical utility of PCR testing seems highly limited with the kits designed for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. An increased amount of pleural effusion sample does not improve the sensitivity of PCR testing.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.256-264
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• 2004

A new primer set was developed for the detection and identification of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, the bacterial leaf blight (BLB) pathogen in rice plant. The nucleotide sequence of hpaA gene was determined from X. o. pv. oryzae str. KACC10331, and the sequence information was used to design primers for the application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The nucleotide sequence of hpaA from X. o. pv. oryzae str. KACC 10331 was aligned with those of X. campestris pv. vesicatoria, X. campestris pv. campestris, X. axonopodis pv. citri, and X. axonopodis pv. glycines. Based on these results, a primer set(XOF and XOR) was designed for the specific detection of hpaA in X. o. pv. oryzae. The length of PCR products amplified using the primer set was 534-bp. The PCR product was detected from only X. o. pv. oryzae among other Xanthomonas strains and reference bacteria. This product was used to confirm the conservation of hpaA among Xanthomonas strains by Southern-blotting. Furthermore, PCR amplification with XOF and XOR was used to detect the pathogen in an artificially infected leaf. The sensitivity of PCR detection in the pure culture suspension was also determined. This PCR-based detection methods will be a useful method for the detection and identification of X. o. pv. oryzae as well as disease forecasting.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.365-369
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• 2001

Streptococcus spp. of bacterial pathogen of fish were isolated from the cultured flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) in fish farm of Jeju Island. Clinical signs of the infected flounder which are the most commons symptoms are as follows: erratic swimming, darkening of the body colour, unilateral or bilateral exophthalmia, corneal opacity, hemorrhages in the opercular and the bases of the fins, and the ulceration of the body surface. Biochemical characteristics of pathogenic fish Streptococcus spp, were gram positive, spherical form, catalase negative, oxidase negative and $\beta$-haemolytic, respectively, The viable cells counted from the tissue of the diseased flounder were the largest in the order of the ulcer, the kidney, the blood and the brain, The drugs used were ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, gentamycin, tetracycline, erythromycin, streptomycin and oxytetracycline, Streptococcus spp. were found to be sensitive to ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline and gentamycin, but were resistant to tetracycline, erythromycin, streptomycin and oxytetracycline. The pathogenicity of Streptococcus spp. on the cultured flounder with an abdominal cavity injection was high. The haemolytic activity of the toxin against the sheep red blood cells reached the maximum after 30 min incubation at $37^{\circ}C$ or $50^{\circ}C$. The toxin showed highest activity at pH $5.5\sim6.5$.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2005

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between salivary flow, salivary buffer capacity, level of mutans streptococci and dental caries experience in Korean dental college students. A total of 81 students of the school of dentistry, Chonbuk national university, mean age of 26.1 years, were subjected to oral examination to establish the DMFT and DMFS according to WHO guidelines. Saliva samples from the students were collected for quantitating stimulated and unstimulated salivary flow rate. Buffering capacity was estimated using a commercial colorimetric strip test, and number of mutans streptococci was determined from stimulated saliva using a strip mutans test. The means of DMFT and DMFS were 6.57 and 12.65, respectively. The stimulated salivary flow rate was correlated with DMFT(${\acute{o}}\;=\;-0.219$) and high levels of salivary mutans streptococci were significantly correlated with higher DMFT and DMFS scores(P<0.05). Level of mutans streptococci was significantly correlated with dental caries experience, in both DMFT and DMFS score, and buffering capacity was inversely correlated to DMFT score. However, unstimulated salivary flow rate was not correlated with caries experience.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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• v.14D no.1 s.111
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• pp.9-20
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• 2007

Groups of genes control the functioning of a cell by complex interactions. Such interactions of gene groups are tailed Gene Regulatory Networks(GRNs). Two previous data mining approaches, clustering and classification, have been used to analyze gene expression data. Though these mining tools are useful for determining membership of genes by homology, they don't identify the regulatory relationships among genes found in the same class of molecular actions. Furthermore, we need to understand the mechanism of how genes relate and how they regulate one another. In order to detect regulatory relationships among genes from time-series Microarray data, we propose a novel approach using frequent pattern mining and chain rules. In this approach, we propose a method for transforming gene expression data to make suitable for frequent pattern mining, and gene expression patterns we detected by applying the FP-growth algorithm. Next, we construct a gene regulatory network from frequent gene patterns using chain rules. Finally, we validate our proposed method through our experimental results, which are consistent with published results.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.569-576
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• 2011

In this paper a new analysis procedure for evaluation of progressive collapse resisting capacity of a structure was proposed based on the nonlinear static analysis procedure. The proposed procedure produces analysis results identical to those obtained by the linear static analysis procedure specified in the GSA guidelines without iteration, therefore saving a lot of computation time and excluding the possibility of human errors during the procedure. To verify the validity of the proposed procedure, the two methods were applied to the analysis of a reinforced concrete moment frame and a steel braced frame subjected to loss of a first story column and the results were compared. According to the analysis results, the two methods produce identical results in the prediction of progressive collapse and the hinge formation. As iterative analysis is not required in the proposed method, significant amount of analysis time is saved in the proposed analysis procedure.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.276-281
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• 1985

This study was conducted to examine the morphological, physical and chemical characteristics of the Song-jeong (residuum), Dae-gog (local colluvium-alluvium), Ji-san and Og-cheon (local-alluvium) series with fine loamy texture derived from fine granitic parent materials on the drainage catena. 1. These soils consist of a catena, and then a color sequence due to the influence of topography, water table and free iron content. 2. The poorer the drainage, the higher were the silt/clay ratio, soil reaction, organic matter, and available phosphate content in soils but the active iron content was lower.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 1988

For the rapid diagnosis of bacterial diseases of cultured fishes, the immunoperoxidase method was applied to the detection of $\beta$-haemolitic Streptococcus sp. strain KST-2 isolated from tilapia(Oreochromis niloticus). The suitability of field analysis and the sensitivity of the immunoperoxidase method was compared with those of the counterimmunoelectrophoresis(CIE) and the immunodiffusion(ID). Results of testing cross-reactivity which did not indicate any cross reactivity with other fish pathogens, this method was specific to Streptococcus sp. The sensitivity of this method was $1{\times}10^3CFU/ml$ which was at least $10^2$times greater than the CIE and $10^4$times greater than the ID. The immunoperoxidase method was more suitable for field application and more sensitive than other diagnostic techniques tested on this study.