• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.389-400
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• 2002

Background : The rapid diagnostic tests for tuberculosis are needed to facilitate early treatment of tuberculosis and prevention of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission. The Xeniss Rapid TB kit is a rapid, card-based immunochromatographic test for the detection of antibodies directed against M. tuberculosis antigens including antigen 5(38-kDa antigen). The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Xeniss Rapid TB kit for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis with serums from patients, asymptomatic healthy and close contact controls. Methods : 188 patients with active tuberculosis were tested; 177 with pulmonary tuberculosis(18 with combined pleurisy), and 11 with extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The control groups were composed of 82 close contacts and 57 healthy adults. Study subject were drawn from one national tuberculosis hospital for patients and close contacts, and another private hospital for healthy adults in Masan city, Korea. The Xeniss Rapid TB kit(Xeniss Life Science Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea) was evaluated by using serum samples according to the instructions of the manufacturer by an investigator masked to the clinical and microbiological status of the study subjects. Results : The diagnostic sensitivity of the Xeniss Rapid TB kit was 73.9% in patients and specificities were 73.2% and 93.0% in close contact and healthy adults respectively. The positive predictive value in patients was 84.2% and the negative predictive value in controls was 85.8%. Conclusion : This study shows that the Xeniss Rapid TB test is a simple and fast method to diagnose active TB. The results of the sensitivity and specificites suggest that serodiagnosis using this point of care testing(POCT) device would be valuable and advantageous for screening tuberculosis in the clinical field.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.71-74
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• 2005

A LIM protein gene homologue of the CRP (cysteine­rich protein) family in the whiter-spotted flower chafer, Protaetia brevitarsis, was cloned. The P. brevitarsis LIM protein cDNA encodes a 92 amino acid polypep­tide with a predicted molecular mass of 10,030 Da and a pI of 8.57. The P. brevitarsis LIM protein contains the cysteine-rich consensus sequence of LIM domain and the glycine-rich consensus sequence observed in the cysteine-rich protein family 1 (CRPl). The potential nuclear targeting signal is retained. The deduced amino acid sequence of the P. brevitarsis LIM protein cDNA showed 92$\%$ identity to another beetle, Apriona germari LIM protein. Northern blot analysis showed that P. brevitarsis LIM protein is highly expressed in epidermis and midgut, but not in the fat body.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2006

We have cloned a xylanase gene (xynA) from Streptomyces thermocyaneoviolaceus. The deduced amino acid sequences of the XynA, including the active site sequences of glycosyl hydrolase family 10, showed high sequence homology with several xylanases assigned in this category. The XynA was overexpressed under an IPTG inducible T7 promoter control in E. coli BLR(DE3). The overproduced enzymes were excreted into culture supernatants and periplasmic space. The purified XynA had an apparent molecular mass of near 54 kDa, which corresponds to the molecular mass calculated from its gene. The optimum pH and temperature of the purified XynA were determined to be 5.0 and $65^{\circ}C$, respectively. The XynA retained over $90\%$ its activity after the heat treatment at $65^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. The XynA was highly efficient in producing xylose (X1), xylobiose (X2), xylotriose (X3), and xylotetraose (X4) from xylan.

• Carbon letters
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.57-61
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• 2015

Carbon aerogel is a porous carbon material possessing high porosity and high specific surface area. Nitrogen doping reduced the specific surface area and micropores, but it furnished basic sites to improve the $CO_2$ selectivity. In this work, N-doped carbon aerogels were prepared with different ratios of resorcinol/melamine by using the sol-gel method. The morphological properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Nitrogen content was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the specific surface area and micropore volume were analyzed by $N_2$ adsorption-desorption isotherms at 77 K. The $CO_2$ adsorption capacity was investigated by $CO_2$ adsorption-desorption isotherms at 298 K and 1 bar. Melamine containing N-doped CAs showed a high nitrogen content (5.54 wt.%). The prepared N-doped CAs exhibited a high $CO_2$ capture capacity of 118.77 mg/g (at resorcinol/melamine = 1:0.3). Therefore, we confirmed that the $CO_2$ adsorption capacity was strongly affected by the nitrogen moieties.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.117-122
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• 2004

Bacillus sp. $\beta$-mannanase was purified by DEAE-sephadex ion exchange column chromatography. The specific activity of the purified enzyme was 21.57 units/$m\ell$ protein, representing an 95.33-folds purification of the original crude extract. The final preparation thus obtained showed a single band on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The molecular weight was determined to be 38.9 kDa. Guar gum galactomannan was hydrolyzed by the purified $\beta$-mannanase, and then the hydrolysates was separated by activated carbon column chromatography and Sephadex G-25 gel filtration. The main hydrolysates were composed of D.P. (Degree of Polymerization) 5 and 7 galactomannooligosaccharides. To investigate the effects of guar gum galactomannooligosaccharides on in vitro growth of Bifidobacterium longum, B. bifidum, B. infantis, B. adolescentis, B. animalis, and B. breve, Bifidobacterium spp. were cultivated individually on the modified-MRS medium containing carbon source such as D.P. 5 and D.P. 7 galactomannooligosaccharides, respectively B. longum and B. bifidum grew up l0-fold and 9.8-fold more effectively by the treatment of D.P. 5 galactomannooligosaccharides, compared to those of standard MRS medium. Especially, D.P. 5 was more effective than D.P. 7 galactomannooligosaccharide on the growth of Bifidobacterium spp.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2011

In this paper, a good quality mesh generation for the finite element method is investigated for artificial hip joint simulations. In general, bad meshes with a large aspect ratio or mixed elements can give rise to excessively long computational running times and extremely high errors. Typically, hexahedral elements outperform tetrahedral elements during three-dimensional contact analysis using the finite element method. Therefore, it is essential to mesh biologic structures with hexahedral elements. Four meshing schemes for the finite element analysis of an artificial hip joint are presented and compared: (1) tetrahedral elements, (2) wedge and hexahedral elements, (3) open cubic box hexahedral elements, and (4) proposed hexahedral elements. The proposed meshing scheme is to partition a part before seeding so that we have a high quality three-dimensional mesh which consists of only hexahedral elements. The von Mises stress distributions were obtained and analyzed. We also performed mesh refinement convergence tests for all four cases.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.54-57
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• 1999

We have got several clones from Serratia marcescens which stimulated the cells to use maltose as a carbon source in E. coli TP2139 (${\Delta}$lac, ${\Delta}$crp). One of the cloned genes, pCKB13, was further analyzed. In order to find whether the increased expression of the gene under the direction of maltose metabolism, we constructed several recombinant subclones. We have confirmed that the clone, pCKB13 codes Coenzyme A transferase gene by partial nucleotide sequencing in the terminal region. The enzyme activity of Coenzyme A transferase increased after introduction of the multicopy of the cloned gene in E. coli. The recombinant proteins expressed by multicopy and induction with IPTG, two polypeptide of 26-and 28-kDa, were confirmed by SDS-PAGE. Southern hybridization analysis confirmed that the cloned DNA fragment was originated from S. marcescens chromosomal DNA.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.195-198
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• 2002

This study was performed to investigate whethere there is cross-reactivity between Dirofilaria immitis and three intestinal nematodes of dogs. In ELISA, D. immitis- infected dog sera obtained at the 4th molting stage (9-11 weeks) and microfilaremic stage (25-30 weeks) were shown to be highly reactive with crude extract of T. canis. In immunoblotting, some antigenic fractions, 44, 57 88, 100 kDa of crude extract of T. canis, were found to be positive reaction with sera of dogs infected with D. immitis. However, little or no cross-reaction were observed between sera of D. immitis-infected dogs and crude extract antigen of T. vulpis or A. caninum. These result suggest that there are partial cross reaction between sera of D. immitis-infected dogs and the antigen of T. canis.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.301-309
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• 2005

Trichoderma species/isolates exhibited varied degree of agglutination on sclerotial (Sc) and hyphal (Hy) surface of Macrophomina phaseolina. The agglutination efficiencies on Sc and Hy ranged from $11\;to\;57\%$. Isolates of T. harzianum (Th) and T. viride (Tv) showed greater agglutination on Sc ($23-57\%$) and Hy ($16-47\%$). Different enzymes (trypsin, pepsin, proteinase k, a-chymotrypsin, lyticase and glucosidase) and inhibitors (tunicamycin, cycloheximide, brefeldin A, sodium azide, dithiothreitol and SDS) reduced the agglutination potential of conidia of Th-23/98 and Tv-25/98; however, the extent of response varied greatly in different treatments. Different fractions of Th-23/98 and Tv-25/98 exhibited haemagglutinating reaction with human blood group A, B, AB and O. Haemagglutinating activity was inhibited by different sugars and glycoproteins tested. Crude haemagglutinating protein from outer cell wall protein fraction of Th-23/98 and Tv-25/98 were eluted on Sephadex G-100 column. Initially Th-23/98 and Tv-25/98 exhibited two peaks showing no agglutination activity; however, lectin activity was detected in the third peak. Similar to crude lectin, the purified lectin also exhibited haemagglutinating activity with different erythrocyte source. SDS-PAGE analysis of partially purified lectin revealed single band with an estimated molecular mass of 55 and 52 kDa in Th-23/98 and Tv-25/98, respectively. Trypsin, chymotrypsin and b-1,3-glucanase totally inhibited lectin activity. Similarly, various pH also affected the haemagglutinating activity of Th-23/98 and Tv-25/98. From the present observations, it can be concluded that the recognition/attachment of mycoparasite (T. harzianum and T. viride) to the host surface (M. phaseolina) may be most likely due to lectin-carbohydrate interaction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.85-85
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• 2003

Human lactoferrin (hLF) is an 80 kDa iron-binding glycoprotein that is expressed in high concentration in milk and in lesser amount in the secondary or specific granules of neutrophils and in plasma, LF is classically considered to be related to the binding, transport, and storage of iron. The transgenic mice carrying the human hLF gene in conjunction with the bovine $\beta$-casein promoter produced the human hLF in their milk during lactation. To screen transgenic mice, PCR was carried out using chromosomal DNA extracted from tail or toe tissues. In this study, stability of germ line transmission and expression of hLF were monitored up to generation Fl7 of a transgenic line. When female mouse of generation F9 was crossbred with normal male, generation F9 to Fl7 mice showed similar transmission rates ($66.0 \pm 12.57%, 42.0 \pm 14.98%, 72.2 \pm 25.45%, 50.0 \pm 16.70%, 65.7 \pm 6.45%, 48.6 \pm 14.65%, 54 1 \pm 18 11%, 57.8 \pm 16.16% and 48.6 \pm 20.66$, respectively), implying that the hLF gene can be transmitted stably up to long term generation in the transgenic mice For ELISA analysis, hLF expression levels were determined with an hLF ELISA kit in accordance with the supplier's protocol. Expression levels of human hLF from milk of generation F9 to Fl3 mice were $ 3.2 \pm 0.69 mg/ml, 3.1 \pm 0.81 mg/ml, 4.6 \pm 1.38 mg/ml, 3.1 \pm 0.42 mg/ml, and 4.5 \pm 1,48 mg/ml$, respectively. These expression levels were lower than that of founder (6.6 mg/$m\ell$) mouse. We concluded that transgenic mice faithfully passed the transgene on their progeny and successively secreted target proteins into their milk through several generations.