• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.125-130
• /
• 1997

Taxol, an anticancer drug that has diterpenoid conformation, has been used as an effective chemotherapeutical agent in the treatment of breast and ovarian cancers. Because of its toxicity like other anticancer drugs, monitoring the taxol level in serum is important procedure during cancer therapy. The various monitoring methods using HPLC, ELISA, and RIA have been adopted, and RIA technique is known to be superior than other methods in trems of sensitivity and convenience. In this study, in order to develope taxol RIA system using $^{125}$I labelled antigen, first of all we synthesized taxol derivatives. 2'-hemisuccinyltaxol was obtained with about 80％ yield by esterification of taxol at C-2' hydroxyl group on C-13 carbon with succinic anhydride. [$^{125}$I]iodotyramine was prepared with 58％ labelling yield by radioiodination of tyramine and purified by gel chromatography. 2'-[$^{125}$I]iodotyramine-hemisuninyltaxol, $^{125}$I labelled antigen for taxol RIA, was synthesized with 96% yield from conjugation of 2'-hemisuccinyltaxol and [$^{125}$I]iodotyramine. Anti-taxol serum was produced from the rabbit immunized with 2'-hemisuccinyltaxol-BSA synthesized by 2'-hemisuccinyltaxol and BSA. The antiserum titer was determined by RIA using 2'-[$^{125}$I]iodotyramine-hemisuccinyltaxol. The titer of 1:20 was obtained with about 40% of B/T. The results suggest that taxol RIA using $^{125}$I labelled antigen can be applied to monitor the taxol level in serum.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.151-157
• /
• 2019

Recently, monitoring respiration of people has been of interest using non-invasive method. Among the vital signals usually used for indicating health status, non-invasive and portable device based monitoring respiratory status is practically useful and enable one to promptly deal with abnormal physical status. This paper proposes the approach to real-time detection of apnea signal based on Short-Time-Fourier-Transform(STFT). Contrary to the analysis of a signal in frequency domain using Fast-Fourier Transform, this paper employs Short-time-Fourier-Transform so that frequency response can be analyzed in short time interval. The respiratory signal is acquired using UWB radar sensor that enables one to obtain respiration signal in contactless way. Detection of respiratory status is carried out by analyzing frequency response, and classification of respiratory status can be provided. In particular, STFT is employed to analyze respiratory signal in real-time, leading to effective analysis of the respiratory status in practice. In the case of existence of noise in the signal, appropriate filtering process is employed as well. The proposed method is straightforward and is workable in practice to analyze the respiratory status of people. To evaluate the proposed method, experimental results are provided.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.127-134
• /
• 2014

Gonad maturation of Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum was induced in this study using a recirculation system over 8 weeks in early spring. Clams used in the experiment were collected in $15^{th}$ April 2010 from the west coast of Korea, as the surface water temperature remained $11^{\circ}C$. To induce gametogenesis and subsequent maturation seawater temperature was elevated $1^{\circ}C$ per day over 10 days to reach $20^{\circ}C$. For the experiment, clams were raised in 120 L quadrangle tank maintained with re-circulated seawater system over 57 days. Water quality parameters including the water temperature, salinity dissolved oxygen, ammonium ion and nitrate levels in the tanks were monitored daily. Mixture of concentrated microalgae including Tetraselmis, Isochrysis, Pavlova and Thalassiosira weissflogii was supplied to clams twice a day, and quantity of the daily ration was adjusted as 3% of clam body dry weight. Histology was applied to examine gonad maturation. Daily monitoring of the water quality parameters indicated that the recirculation system supplied suitable environment to Manila clam; the nitrogenous components stayed below toxic levels (< 0.2 mg/L). At the beginning of the study, clams were mostly in early developing stage. As the seawater temperature reached $20^{\circ}C$, 10 days after the experiment, 20% of clams reached late development at 12 days. First ripe clams were observed at 42 days and 40% of clams were in ripe and ready for spawning at the end of study, 57 days after the experiment. In this study, gametogenesis of Manila clam was successfully induced by elevating water temperature and supplying commercially produced microalgae in a recirculation tank system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.41-54
• /
• 2013

Concrete is known as a heterogeneous product which is composed of complex chemical composition and reaction. The development of concrete thermal effect during early age is critical on its future structural health and long term durability. When cement is mixed with water, the exothermic chemical reaction generates hydration heat, which raises the temperature within the concrete. Consequently, cracking may occur if the concrete temperature rises too high or if there is a large temperature difference between the interior and the exterior of concrete structures during early age hydration. This paper describes the contribution of novel Fabry-Perot (FP) fiber optic temperature sensors to investigate the thermal effects of concrete hydration process. Concrete specimens were manufactured under various water-to-cement (w/c) ratios from 0.40 to 0.60. During the first 24 hours of concreting, two FP fiber optic temperature sensors were inserted into concrete specimens with the protection of copper tubing to monitor the surface and core temperature change. The experimental results revealed effects of w/c ratios on surface and core temperature developments during early age hydration, as well as demonstrating that FP fiber optic sensors are capable of capturing temperature variation in the concrete with reliable performance. Temperature profiles are used for calculating the apparent activation energy ($E_a$) and the heat of hydration (H(t)) of concrete, which can help us to better understand cement hydration.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.8 no.12
• /
• pp.63-69
• /
• 2017

This study is about the development of a smart bed control system to be able to detect the human position and body signal on bed. The main control board in the bed control system consists of the human sensing part, motor driving part and MCU. Here, to increase the credibility to check the human presence on bed, the human sensing part is combined with the human position part by membrane sensor and the body-signal detecting part of EMFI sensor. Also, remotely connecting the two detected signal to the application program of the app mode makes it possible to monitor human information on bed. In this paper, the remote function monitoring of the on-bed human information by bluetooth communication will be abe to make it applicable to the technical prevention method of the bed fall and absence accident in hospital and care facilities.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to detect cell death in the liver of mice treated with thioacetamide (TAA) using fluorescence bioimaging and compare this outcome with that using conventional histopathological examination. At 6 weeks of age, 24 mice were randomly divided into three groups: group 1 (G1), control group; group 2 (G2), fluorescence probe control group; group 3 (G3), TAA-treated group. G3 mice were treated with TAA. Twenty-two hours after TAA treatment, G2 and G3 mice were treated with Annexin-Vivo 750. Fluorescence in vivo bioimaging was performed by fluorescence molecular tomography at two hours after Annexin-Vivo 750 treatment, and fluorescence ex vivo bioimaging of the liver was performed. Liver damage was validated by histopathological examination. In vivo bioimaging showed that the fluorescence intensity was increased in the right upper part of G3 mice compared with that in G2 mice, whereas G1 mice showed no signal. Additionally ex vivo bioimaging showed that the fluorescence intensity was significantly increased in the livers of G3 mice compared with those in G1 or G2 mice (p < 0.05). Histopathological examination of the liver showed no cell death in G1 and G2 mice. However, in G3 mice, there was destruction of hepatocytes and increased cell death. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling staining confirmed many cell death features in the liver of G3 mice, whereas no pathological findings were observed in the liver of G1 and G2 mice. Taken together, fluorescence bioimaging in this study showed the detection of cell death and made it possible to quantify the level of cell death in male mice. The outcome was correlated with conventional biomedical examination. As it was difficult to differentiate histological location by fluorescent bioimaging, it is necessary to develop specific fluorescent dyes for monitoring hepatic disease progression and to exploit new bioimaging techniques without dye-labeling.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.195-201
• /
• 2003

Aromatic hydrocarbons are of major concern among genotoxic chemicals due to their toxicity and persistence. Some microorganisms can utilize aromatic hydrocarbons as carbon and energy sources by inducing expression of catabolic operon(s). The XylR regulatory protein activates transcription of the catabolic enzymes to degrade BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) from its cognate promoters, Pu and Ps upon exposure of the cells to the aromatic hydrocarbons. The activity of XylR on the promoters was previously monitored using luciferase luc reporter system. The xylR, its promoter Pr and the promoter Po for the phenolic compound catabolic operon were introduced upstream of firefly luciferase luc in the pGL3b vector to generate about 7.1 kb of pXRBTEX. Here E. coli harboring the plasmid was freeze-dried under various conditions to fin,d optimal conditions for storage and transport. The cell viability and luciferase activity were maintained better, when the cells were freeze-dried at -7$0^{\circ}C$ in the addition of the 10% skim milk or 12% sucrose. However, coaddition of protectants such as 10% skim milk plus 10% glucose or 12% sucrose plus 10% glucose, resulted in much better viability and bioluminescence activity compared with the effect of single addition of each protectant. In addition, it was shown that the freeze-dried cells maintained almost intact bioluminescent activities and cell viability for at least 1 week after freeze-drying. This work demonstrated that the properly freeze-dried recombinant bacterial cells could be utilized as a whole-cell biosensor for simple and rapid monitoring of BTEX in the environment.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.352-356
• /
• 2007

The present study was investigated the anti-oxidative effects of aloe vera ingestion on brain and kidney in aged rats by monitoring several oxidative-related parameters. Male specific pathogen-free Fischer 344 rats were randomly divided into four groups of five rat each: Group A was fed test chow without aloe supplementation; Group B was fed a diet containing a 1% freeze-dried aloe filet; Group C was fed a diet containing a 1% charcoal-processed, freeze-dried aloe filet; and Group D was fed a diet containing a charcoal-processed, freeze-dried, whole leaf aloe in drinking water. Analyses of tissues were done at 4 months and 16 months of age. Results showed that a long-term intake of aloe, regardless of the preparation used, enhanced antioxidant defenses against lipid peroxidation, as indicated by reduced phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxide levels in both brain and kidney. The additional benefit of aloe intake on the anti-oxidative action was evidenced by enhanced superoxide dismutase and catalase activity in all aloe-ingested groups. Another beneficial effect of aloe shown in this study, although not an anti-oxidative parameter, was its cholesterol-lowering effect as detected in brain and kidney with significant decreases at age16 months of aloe-fed rats. Based on these findings, we conclude that a long-term dietary aloe supplementation modulated the anti-oxidative defense systems and cholesterol level.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.230-237
• /
• 2017

Changes in the activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) isoenzymes and isoforms in human serum have a major diagnostic value, therefore the regulation of ALP activities is a valuable target for therapeutic interventions. To assess the pharmacological activity of retinoids, i.e., all-trans retinoic acid and 13-cis retinoic acid, their tissue-specific inhibitory effect on human serum ALP activity was elucidated by chemical inhibition methods, heat-sensitive inactivation, and wheat-germ lectin precipitation test. Retinoids showed significant inhibition of the total ALP activity in human serum at a concentration of 5 mM. All-trans retinoic acid (5 mM) and 13-cis retinoic acid (5 mM) inhibited ALP activities by up to 12% and 15%, respectively, compared to that by guanidine hydrochloride (200 mM). L-phenylalanine (100 mM) and urea (30 mM) had no further inhibitory effect on ALP activities in human serum pretreated with retinoids (5 mM). Retinoids significantly inhibited ALP activities by up to 20% compared with that of tetramisole (30 mM). The ALP activities in retinoid-pretreated serum remained unchanged after the heat inactivation process. These results suggest that retinoids are inhibitors of the intestinal ALP isoenzyme. Remarkably, retinoids revealed potent inhibitory activities against ALP in wheat-germ lectin precipitant serum, indicating that they also function as inhibitors of the bone ALP isoform. The results show that retinoids inhibit the specific tissue-derived human serum ALP activities, moreover, the inhibitory effect of retinoids against bone ALP activity suggests their clinical utility as monitoring and prevention of metastasis of bone cancer.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.115-123
• /
• 1997

$\alpha$-Fetoprotein (AFP) has been a useful marker in screening and/or monitoring patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, gonadal germ cell tumor, gastric carcinoma and neural tube defects. In the present study, it was attempted to produce anti-human AFP polyclonal antibodies and to develop a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the measurement of AFP in human plasma and amniotic fluid. AFP was isolated from amniotic fluid using an isolation procedure consisting of affinity chromatography and preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The antibody directed against AFP was raised in rabbits. Double immunodiffusion and Western blotting methods showed that the antiserum was highly specific, reacting with only AFP-containing samples. Standard curve was obtained by using purified AFP and specific antiserum. The assay sensitivity was 5ng/ml and the working range was 5~l,000ng/ml. The within-assay and between-assay coefficient of variance (CV) was 4.5% and 8.5%, respectively. These results indicate that the assay is valuable for the measurement of AFP and found to be simple, reproducible, and accurate.