• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2015

The aim of this cross sectional case control study was to examine the serofrequency and serointensity of Toxoplasma gondii (Tg) IgG, IgM, and DNA among patients with schizophrenia. A total of 101 patients with schizophrenia and 55 healthy controls from Sungai Buloh Hospital, Selangor, Malaysia and University Malaya Medical Center (UMMC) were included in this study. The diagnosis of schizophrenia was made based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). The presence of Tg infection was examined using both indirect (ELISA) and direct (quantitative real-time PCR) detection methods by measuring Tg IgG and IgM and DNA, respectively. The serofrequency of Tg IgG antibodies (51.5%, 52/101) and DNA (32.67%, 33/101) among patients with schizophrenia was significantly higher than IgG (18.2%, 10/55) and DNA (3.64%, 2/55) of the controls (IgG, P=0.000, OD=4.8, CI=2.2-10.5; DNA, P=0.000, OD=12.9, CI=2.17-10.51). However, the Tg IgM antibody between patients with schizophrenia and controls was not significant (P>0.005). There was no significant difference (P>0.005) in both serointensity of Tg IgG and DNA between patients with schizophrenia and controls. These findings have further demonstrated the strong association between the active Tg infection and schizophrenia.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.139-145
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• 2024

Background Applying into plastic surgery (PS) is competitive. Lacking a home residency program (HRP) is another barrier. Our goal is to characterize challenges faced by PS applicants without HRPs and identify solutions. Methods Surveys were designed for current integrated PS residents and applicants in the 2022 Match without HRPs. Surveys were distributed electronically. Only U.S. allopathic graduate responses were included. Results Of 182 individuals surveyed, 74 responded (39%, 33 residents, 41 applicants). Sixty-six percent reported feeling disadvantaged due to lack of an HRP. Seventy-six percent of applicants successfully matched. Of these, 48% felt they required academic time off (research year) versus 10% of unmatched applicants. Ninety-seven percent of matched applicants identified a mentor versus 40% of unmatched applicants (p < 0.05). Matched applicants identified mentors through research (29%) and cold calling/emailing (25%). Matched versus unmatched applicants utilized the following resources: senior students (74 vs. 10%, p < 0.05) and social media (52 vs. 10%, p < 0.05). Among residents, 16 had PS divisions (48%). Thirty-six percent with divisions felt they had opportunities to explore PS, compared with 12% without divisions. Residents without divisions felt disadvantaged in finding research (94 vs. 65%, p < 0.05), delayed in deciding on PS (50 vs. 28%), and obtaining mentors (44 vs. 35%) and letters of recommendation (31 vs. 24%). Conclusion PS residents and applicants without HRPs reported feeling disadvantaged when matching. The data suggest that access to departments or divisions assists in matching. We identified that external outreach and research were successful strategies to obtain mentorship. To increase awareness for unaffiliated applicants, we should increase networking opportunities during local, regional, and national meetings.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

A gutter is generally a fixed beneath the edge of a roof to carry off rainwater, or a narrow trough that collects rainwater from the roof of a building to diverts it from the structure, typically into a drain. Reasonable designs reduce the mass of the gutters (~ 16.9%), make it faster and easier to assemble, and gives it consistent strength and integrity (about 10%). New gutter systems are presented according to the results of structural analyses performed by ANSYS and ADAMS/Durability Hot Spots. In addition, the CATIA program can improve the precision of the 3D system simulations. The design of a gutter system installations also needs to comply with the specific rainfall intensities and adequate overflow provisions needs to be provided to prevent water from sides of the roofs during heavy rainfall periods. The principle outcome of this work is a computational design tool that can be used to improve the gutter performance considering a variety of factors (gutter geometry, drainage and rainfall intensity). A good gutter design must satisfy many criteria, including durability, low cost, and ease of repair and cleaning.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.4311-4316
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• 2015

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary liver cancer with high global incidence and mortality rates. Current candidate drugs to treat HCC remain lacking and those in use possess undesirable side effects. In this investigation, the antiproliferative effects of dentatin (DTN), a natural coumarin, were evaluated on HepG2 cells and DTN's probable preliminary molecular mechanisms in apoptosis induction were further investigated. DTN significantly (p<0.05) suppressed proliferation of HepG2 cells with an $IC_{50}$ value of $12.0{\mu}g/mL$, without affecting human normal liver cells, WRL-68 ($IC_{50}$ > $50{\mu}g/mL$) causing $G_0/G_1$ cell cycle arrest via apoptosis induction. Caspase colorimetric assays showed markedly increased levels of caspase-3 and caspase-9 activities throughout the treatment period. Western blotting of treated HepG2 cells revealed inhibition of $NF-{\kappa}B$ that triggers the mitochondrial-mediated apoptotic signaling pathway by up-regulating cytoplasmic cytochrome c and Bax, and down-regulating Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL. The current findings suggest DTN has the potential to be developed further as an anticancer compound targeting human HCC.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.89-97
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• 2021

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of coordinative locomotor training on the spine appearance and quality of life of patients with idiopathic scoliosis. METHODS: This study included two patients with idiopathic scoliosis: one with a thoracic and lumbar type scoliosis and the other with thoracic type scoliosis. The study design was a single case study (A-B-A'), with a baseline-intervention/phase-post-intervention. The baseline (A) was designed and measured five times, intervention phase (B) ten times, and post-intervention (A') five times. The coordinative locomotor training program was divided into 10 minutes of warm-up exercise, 30 minutes of the main exercise, and 10 minutes of the finishing exercise, for 50 minutes each time. The primary outcome measurements were measured using the Cobb's angle, Adam's test, and Gait view pro 2.0 to determine the changes in the spine appearance. The secondary outcome measurements were compared before and after using the SRS-22 questionnaire to determine the quality of life of the scoliosis patients. A statistical test analyzed the mean and standard deviation, and the rate of change was presented by a visual analysis method using descriptive statistics and graphs. RESULTS: The findings showed that the spine appearance and quality of life of the two subjects were improved compared to the baseline measurements during the intervention phase, and the improved state was maintained during the post-intervention period. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that coordinative locomotor training may help improve the spine appearance and quality of life of patients with idiopathic scoliosis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.319-324
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• 2005

An integrated approach for prostate cancer detection using proteomic data is presented. Due to the high-dimensional feature of proteomic data, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is used in the first-stage for data reduction as well as noise removal. After the process of DWT, the dimensionality is reduced from 43,556 to 1,599. Thus, each sample of proteomic data can be represented by 1599 wavelet coefficients. In the second stage, a voting method is used to select a common set of wavelet coefficients for all samples together. This produces a 987-dimension subspace of wavelet coefficients. In the third stage, the Autoassociator algorithm reduces the dimensionality from 987 to 400. Finally, the artificial neural network (ANN) is applied on the 400-dimension space for prostate cancer detection. The integrated approach is examined on 9 categories of 2-class experiments, and also 3- and 4-class experiments. All of the experiments were run 10 times of ten-fold cross-validation (i. e. 10 partitions with 100 runs). For 9 categories of 2-class experiments, the average testing accuracies are between 81% and 96%, and the average testing accuracies of 3- and 4-way classifications are 85% and 84%, respectively. The integrated approach achieves exciting results for the early detection and diagnosis of prostate cancer.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.693-701
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• 2014

Background A thin perforator flap is one of the best methods for covering defects. This study aimed to revisit and further test the rapidly advancing field of flap thinning techniques. Methods We performed two cadaveric studies to test the known flap thinning methods, and then applied these methods to a clinical series. In the first study, five cadavers were used to observe the anatomical relation of the perforator with the subdermal plexuses and the subcutaneous fat layer by injecting a colored latex solution. The second study was done on four cadavers independently from the first study. Last, a clinical series was performed on 15 patients. Results The areolar fat lobules of 10 anterolateral thigh perforator (ALT), seven deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEAP), and six thoracodorsal artery perforator (TAP) flaps were dissected to reduce the flap thickness guided by the colored vascular pattern. On average, the ALT, DIEAP, and TAP flaps were reduced to $32.76%{\pm}9.76%$, $37.01%{\pm}9.21%$, and $35.42%{\pm}9.41%$, respectively. In the second study, the areolar fat lobules were directly dissected in six ALT, six TAP, and four MSAP flaps, and an average reduction in flap thickness of $53.41%{\pm}5.64%$, $52.30%{\pm}2.88%$, and $47.87%{\pm}6.41%$, respectively, was found. In the clinical series, 13 out of the 15 cases yielded satisfactory outcomes with an average thickness reduction of $37.91%{\pm}7.15%$. Conclusions These multiple studies showed that the deep fat layer could be safely removed to obtain a thin yet viable perforator flap. This evidence suggests that the macroscopic flap thinning technique can achieve thin flaps. Surgeons should consider this technique before embracing the latest technique of supermicrosurgery.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.363-370
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• 2010

This paper describes the evaluation of structural integrity and dynamic characteristic of inertial load test equipments for performance test of railway vehicle propulsion control system. The propulsion control system of railway vehicle has to be confirmed of safety and reliability prior to its application. Therefore, inertial load test equipments were designed through theoretical equation for performance test of propulsion control system. The structural analysis of inertial load test equipments was conducted using Ansys v11.0 and the dynamic characteristic was evaluated using Adams. The results showed that the structural integrity of inertial load test equipment was satisfied with a safety factor of 10.2 on the bearing part under combined load. Also, the structural stability of flywheel according to dynamic simulation was secured by the maximum oscillation displacement within 0.83mm.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.299-310
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• 2020

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multi-faceted neurodegenerative disease. Thus, current therapeutic strategies require multitarget-drug combinations to treat or prevent the disease. At the present time, single drugs have proven to be inadequate in terms of addressing the multifactorial pathology of AD, and multitarget-directed drug design has not been successful. Based on these points of views, it is judged that combinatorial drug therapies that target several pathogenic factors may offer more attractive therapeutic options. Thus, we explored that the combination therapy with lower doses of cilostazol and aripiprazole with add-on donepezil (CAD) might have potential in the pathogenesis of AD. In the present study, we found the superior efficacies of donepezil add-on with combinatorial mixture of cilostazol plus aripiprazole in modulation of expression of AD-relevant genes: Aβ accumulation, GSK-3β, P300, acetylated tau, phosphorylated-tau levels, and activation of α-secretase/ADAM 10 through SIRT1 activation in the N2a Swe cells expressing human APP Swedish mutation (N2a Swe cells). We also assessed that CAD synergistically raised acetylcholine release and choline acetyltransferase (CHAT) expression that were declined by increased β-amyloid level in the activated N2a Swe cells. Consequently, CAD treatment synergistically increased neurite elongation and improved cell viability through activations of PI3K, BDNF, β-catenin and α7-nicotinic cholinergic receptors in neuronal cells in the presence of Aβ_1-42. This work endorses the possibility for efficient treatment of AD by supporting the synergistic therapeutic potential of donepezil add-on therapy in combination with lower doses of cilostazol and aripiprazole.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.768-775
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• 2016

The Arabidopsis female gametophyte contains seven cells with eight haploid nuclei buried within layers of sporophytic tissue. Following double fertilization, the egg and central cells of the gametophyte develop into the embryo and endosperm of the seed, respectively. The epigenetic status of the central cell has long presented an enigma due both to its inaccessibility, and the fascinating epigenome of the endosperm, thought to have been inherited from the central cell following activity of the DEMETER demethylase enzyme, prior to fertilization. Here, we present for the first time, a method to isolate pure populations of Arabidopsis central cell nuclei. Utilizing a protocol designed to isolate leaf mesophyll protoplasts, we systematically optimized each step in order to efficiently separate central cells from the female gametophyte. We use initial manual pistil dissection followed by the derivation of central cell protoplasts, during which process the central cell emerges from the micropylar pole of the embryo sac. Then, we use a modified version of the Isolation of Nuclei TAgged in specific Cell Types (INTACT) protocol to purify central cell nuclei, resulting in a purity of 75-90% and a yield sufficient to undertake downstream molecular analyses. We find that the process is highly dependent on the health of the original plant tissue used, and the efficiency of protoplasting solution infiltration into the gametophyte. By isolating pure central cell populations, we have enabled elucidation of the physiology of this rare cell type, which in the future will provide novel insights into Arabidopsis reproduction.