• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2014

Dirofilaria immitis (heartworm) infections affect domestic dogs, cats, and various wild mammals with increasing incidence in temperate and tropical areas. More sensitive antibody detection methodologies are required to diagnose asymptomatic dirofilariasis with low worm burdens. Applying current transcriptomic technologies would be useful to discover potential diagnostic markers for D. immitis infection. A filarial homologue of the mammalian translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) was initially identified by screening the assembled transcriptome of D. immitis (DiTCTP). A BLAST analysis suggested that the DiTCTP gene shared the highest similarity with TCTP from Loa loa at protein level (97%). A histidine-tagged recombinant DiTCTP protein (rDiTCTP) of 40 kDa expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) showed immunoreactivity with serum from a dog experimentally infected with heartworms. Localization studies illustrated the ubiquitous presence of rDiTCTP protein in the lateral hypodermal chords, dorsal hypodermal chord, muscle, intestine, and uterus in female adult worms. Further studies on D. immitis-derived TCTP are warranted to assess whether this filarial protein could be used for a diagnostic purpose.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.144-151
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• 2014

Increasing the gene copy number has been commonly used to enhance the protein expression level in the yeast Pichia pastoris. However, this method has been shown to be effective up to a certain gene copy number, and a further increase of gene dosage can result in a decrease of expression level. Evidences indicate the gene dosage effect is product-dependent, which needs to be determined when expressing a new protein. Here, we describe a direct detection of the gene dosage effect on protein secretion through expressing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene under the direction of the ${\alpha}$-factor preprosequence in a panel of yeast clones carrying increasing copies of the EGFP gene (from one to six copies). Directly examined under fluorescence microscopy, we found relatively lower levels of EGFP were secreted into the culture medium at one copy and two copies, substantial improvement of secretion appeared at three copies, plateau happened at four and five copies, and an apparent decrease of secretion happened at six copies. The secretion of EGFP being limiting at four and five copies was due to abundant intracellular accumulation of proteins, observed from the fluorescence image of yeast and confirmed by western blotting, which significantly activated the unfolded protein response indicated by the up-regulation of the BiP (the KAR2 gene product) and the protein disulfide isomerase. This study implies that tagging a reporter like GFP to a specific protein would facilitate a direct and rapid determination of the optimal gene copy number for high-yield expression.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1358-1364
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• 2011

The sex-determining region on the Y (SRY) gene is important in mammalian sex determination and differentiation. We report a study of the abundance of SRY gene products in bovine ejaculate. RT-PCR experiments using RNA extracted from bovine spermatozoa with SRY-specific primers yielded a 456 bp product, but the amount of SRY mRNA in sperm was lower than that in the testes (p<0.01). A protein of approximately 27 KDa was detected by western blotting. The SRY transcript was detected in the midpiece of approximately half the spermatozoa by in situ hybridization, and the SRY protein was detected in the heads of half the spermatozoa by immunofluorescence, indicating that SRY mRNA and protein may only be present in Y-bearing spermatozoa. These results suggest that the SRY transcript and protein are present in bovine ejaculated Y-sperm. The roles of the SRY gene in spermatogenesis, sperm motility, and the sperm-oocyte interaction merit further investigation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1431-1437
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• 2012

The growth of many breast tumors is stimulated by IGF-1, which activates signal transduction pathways inducing cell proliferation. $ER{\alpha}$ is important in this process. The aim of the study was to investigate relationships in vitro among inhibitory effects of luteolin on the growth of MCF-7 cells, IGF-1 pathway and $ER{\alpha}$. Our results showed that luteolin could effectively block IGF-l-stimulated MCF-7 cell proliferation in a dose- and time-dependent manner and block cell cycle progression and induce apoptosis evidenced by the flow cytometric detection of sub-G1DNA content. Luteolin markedly decreased IGF-l-dependent IGF-IR and Akt phosphorylation without affecting Erk1/2 phosphorylation. Further experiments pointed out that $ER{\alpha}$ was directly involved in IGF-l induced cell growth inhibitory effects of luteolin, which significantly decreased $ER{\alpha}$ expression. Knockdown of $ER{\alpha}$ in MCF-7 cells by an $ER{\alpha}$-specific siRNA decreased the IGF-l induced cell growth inhibitory effects of luteolin. $ER{\alpha}$ is thus a possible target of luteolin. These findings indicate that the inhibitory effect of luteolin on the growth of MCF-7 cells is via inhibiting IGF-l mediated PI3K-Akt pathway dependent of $ER{\alpha}$ expression.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.3307-3311
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• 2013

A new fiber optical sensor was developed for the determination of 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP). The sensor was based on DCP oxidation by oxygen with the catalysis of iron(III) tetrasulfophthalocyanine (Fe(III)PcTs). The optical oxygen sensing film with $Ru(bpy)_3Cl_2$ as the fluorescence indicator was used to determine the consumption of oxygen in solution. A lock-in amplifier was used for detecting the lifetime of the oxygen sensing film by measuring the phase delay change of the sensor head. The different variables affecting the sensor performance were evaluated and optimized. Under the optimal conditions (i.e. pH 6.0, $25^{\circ}C$, Fe(III)PcTs concentration of 0.62 mg/mL), the linear detection range and response time of the sensor are $1.0{\times}10^{-6}-9.0{\times}10^{-6}$ mol/L and 250 s, respectively. The sensor displays high selectivity, good repeatability and stability, and can be used as an effective tool in analyzing DCP concentration in practical samples.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.45-50
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• 2007

We present a auto compensating quantum key distribution system based on optical fiber at 1550nm. In the quantum key transmission system, main control board and phase modulation driving board are fabricated for auto controlling quantum key distribution(QKD). We tested the single photon counts per dark counts for a single photon detector, quantum key distribution rate($R_{sift}$) and the quantum bit error rate (QBER). Quantum bit error rate of 3.5% in 25km QKD is obtained. This system is commercially available.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.829-835
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• 2011

A dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic droplet (DLLME-SFO) has been developed as a new approach for the extraction of trace copper in water and beverage samples followed by the determination with flame atomic absorption spectrometry. In the DLLME-SFO, 8-hydroxy quinoline, 1-dodecanol, and methanol were used as chelating agent, extraction solvent and dispersive solvent, respectively. The experimental parameters related to the DLLME-SFO such as the type and volume of the extraction and dispersive solvent, extraction time, sample volume, the concentration of chelating agent and salt addition were investigated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factor for copper was 122. The method was linear in the range from 0.5 to $300\;ng\;mL^{-1}$ of copper in the samples with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9996 and a limit of detection of $0.1\;ng\;mL^{-1}$. The method was applied to the determination of copper in water and beverage samples. The recoveries for the spiked water and beverage samples at the copper concentration levels of 5.0 and $10.0\;ng\;mL^{-1}$ were in the range between 92.0% and 108.0%. The relative standard deviations (RSD) varied from 3.0% to 5.6%.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.4145-4149
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• 2012

A novel and simple method of luminescence enhancement effect for the determination of trace amounts of bile acid was proposed. The procedure was based on the luminescence intensity of the balofloxacin-europium(III) complex that could be strongly enhanced by bile acid in the presence of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS). Under the optimum conditions, the enhanced luminescence intensity of the system exhibited a good linear relationship with the bile acid concentration in the range $5.0{\times}10^{-9}-7.0{\times}10^{-7}\;mol\;L^{-1}$ with a detection limit of $1.3{\times}10^{-9}\;mol\;L^{-1}$ ($3{\sigma}$). The relative standard deviation (RSD) was 1.7% (n = 11) for $5.0{\times}10^{-8}\;mol\;L^{-1}$ bile acid. The applicability of the method to the determination of bile acid was demonstrated by investigating the effect of potential interferences and by analyzing human serum and urine samples. The possible enhancement mechanism of luminescence intensity in balofloxacin-europium(III)-bile acid-SDBS system was also discussed briefly.

• ALGAE
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.177-186
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• 2024

Red rot disease is one of the notorious algal diseases that threaten the cultivation of Pyropia in China, and two Pythium pathogens, i.e., Pythium porphyrae and P. chondricola, have been reported as causative agents. To monitor the pathogens, a fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method was developed to quantitatively detect their abundance. Using overlapping PCR and pathogen-specific primer pairs, two pathogen-specific fragments were concatenated to construct an internal standard plasmid, which was used for quantification. For zoospores of known numbers, the results showed that this method can detect as less as 100 and 10 zoospores mL^-1 in a 200 mL solution for P. porphyrae and P. chondricola, respectively. Using monthly collected seawater at 10 sites in Haizhou Bay, a typical aquaculture farm in China, a significantly higher temperature and a significantly lower salinity were determined in December 2021. P. porphyrae was determined to be more abundant than P. chondricola, though with similar temporal distribution patterns from December 2021 to February 2022. When a red rot disease occurred in December 2021, the two pathogens were significantly more abundant at two infected sub-sites than the uninfected sub-site within both seawater and sediment, though they were all significantly more enriched in sediment than in seawater. The present method provides the capability to quantify and compare the abundance of two pathogens and also has the potential to forecast the occurrence of red rot disease, which is of much significance in managing and controlling the disease.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.398-405
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• 2018

In the HCI, hand gesture recognition is attracting attention as a method for interaction and information exchange between users and devices along with the development of IT devices. In hand gesture recognition through image processing, palm region detection is a key process contributing to improvement of processing speed and recognition rate. In this paper, we propose a new method for image segmentation between the hand and wrist for palm area detection. The anatomical characteristics of the hand are used to calculate the distance between the iliac bones of the thumb and little finger, which have the widest width, by the horizontal projection histogram of the hand image, and then the palm area is detected by drawing a circle having the width as the diameter. In order to verify the superiority of this method, multiple stage template matching is used to compare and evaluate recognition performance against the four conventional methods for 10 hand gestures. Note that the literatures to offer palm area detection performance evaluation are few although there are many studies on hand gesture recognition.