• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.247-253
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• 2013

Neospora caninum is the etiologic agent of bovine neosporosis, which affects the reproductive performance of cattle worldwide. The transmembrane protein, NcSRS2, and dense-granule protein, NcGRA7, were identified as protective antigens based on their ability to induce significant protective immune responses in murine neosporosis models. In the current study, NcSRS2 and NcGRA7 genes were spliced by overlap-extension PCR in a recombinant adenovirus termed Ad5-NcSRS2-NcGRA 7, expressing the NcSRS2-NcGRA7 gene, and the efficacy was evaluated in mice. The results showed that the titer of the recombinant adenovirus was $10^9TCID_{50}/ml$. Three weeks post-boost immunization (w.p.b.i.), the IgG antibody titer in sera was as high as 1:4,096. IFN-${\gamma}$ and IL-4 levels were significantly different from the control group (P<0.01). This research established a solid foundation for the development of a recombinant adenovirus vaccine against bovine N. caninum.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.411-415
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• 2002

We compared the hypoglycemic effects of Ginseng Radix Alba (GRA) and Mori Folium (MF) in multiple low dose (MLD) streptozotocin(STZ)-induced diabetic rats. In order to induce hyperglycemic state 25 mg/kg of STZ was injected intraperitoneally for 5 consecutive days. SD rats were randomly divided into diabetic control and treatment groups. Treatment groups were administered with either 500 mg/kg of GRA (G500), 500 mg/kg of MF (M500), or 250 mg/kg of GRA mixed with same dose of MF (GM250) for 3 weeks. Blood glucose level and body weight were measured every 5th day. G500 and M500 both significantly reduced blood glucose levels as compared to the diabetic control group (diabetic control, 458.3$\pm$25.4 mg/dl; G500, 275.0$\pm$12.0; M500, 278.0$\pm$15.4; GM250, 324.0$\pm$18.4). While body weight in diabetic control group was decreased slightly after 3 weeks, treatment groups showed gradual increases of body weight during 3 week-period. Plasma insulin level was increased by treatment with GRA, but those levels in M500 and GM250 groups were similar to the diabetic control (normal control, 32.0$\pm$13.9 $\mu$IU/mι; diabetic control, 12.4$\pm$1.9; G500, 17.5$\pm$3.4; M500, 11.1$\pm$3.2; GM250, 10.5$\pm$t3.7). Urine glucose levels were also remarkably reduced in all treatment groups (normal control, 0.0$\pm$0.0 g/day; diabetic control, 11.4$\pm$2.5; G500, 4.9$\pm$0.2; M500, 5.7$\pm$1.6 ; GM250, 8.2$\pm$0.2). At the second and third week of the treatment, food and water intakes were determined. At the third week, food and water intakes were significantly decreased in all treatment groups. Taken together, we may conclude that GRA and MF alone may prevent or delay the development of hyperglycemia, however, synergistic hypoglycemic activity was not be seen in group treated with mixed formula of GRA and MF when compared to GRA or MF alone.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.325-334
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• 2018

Toxoplasma gondii is an apicomplexan zoonotic protozoan parasite that infects most species of warm-blooded animals, including humans. The heavy incidence and severe or lethal damage caused by T. gondii infection clearly indicate a need for the development of an effective vaccine. T. gondii GRA8 is a member of the dense granules protein family and is used as a marker of acute infection. In the present study, we evaluated the protective immunity induced by DNA vaccination based on a recombinant eukaryotic plasmid, pDsRed2-GRA8, against acute toxoplasmosis in mice. BALB/c mice were intramuscularly immunized with the pDsRed2-GRA8 plasmid and then challenged by infection with the highly virulent GFP-RH strain of T. gondii. The specific immune responses and protective efficacy against T. gondii of this vaccine were analyzed by measuring cytokine and serum antibody titers, splenocyte proliferation assays, and the survival times of mice after challenge. Our results showed that mice immunized with pDsRed2-GRA8 demonstrated specific humoral and cellular responses, induced higher IgG antibody titers with predominant IgG2a production; increased levels of IL-10, IL-12 (p70), $IFN-{\gamma}$, $TNF-{\alpha}$, and splenocyte proliferation; and prolonged survival times compared to those of control mice. The present study showed that DNA immunization with pDsRed2-GRA8 induced humoral and cellular immune responses, and all immunized mice showed greater Th1-type immune responses and longer survival times than those of control mice. These results indicated that T. gondii GRA8 DNA immunization induces a partial protective effect against acute toxoplasmosis.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.3071-3076
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• 2014

Proteomic analyses of the excretory/secretory proteins from the RH strain of Toxoplasma gondii have been performed to understand their functions in the host-parasite interaction. A total of 34 proteins were identified from LC/MS/MS analysis and their abundance was estimated by spectral counting methods. Among them, 8 species of micronemal proteins (MICs), 2 species of rhoptry proteins (ROPs), and 6 species of dense granular proteins (GRAs) were confirmed. Besides these, 18 species of protein were newly identified, and their cellular functions were estimated from sequence analysis. The three most abundant of the 34 identified extractor/secretory proteins-GRA1, GRA7 and GRA2-were confirmed to be highly expressed in T. gondii using the spectral count method. This phenomenon is another demonstration of the importance of GRA proteins for the penetration and survival of T. gondii.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.503-510
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• 2013

Toxoplasma gondii is an apicomplexan parasite with a broad host range of most warm-blooded mammals including humans, of which one-thirds of the human population has been infected worldwide which can cause congenital defects, abortion, and neonatal complications. Here, we developed a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for T. gondii infection. Antigenic N-terminal half of the major surface antigen (SAG1) was linked with intrinsically unstructured domain (IUD) of dense granule protein 2 (GRA2). The recombinant GST-GRA2-SAG1A protein was successfully expressed and purified as 51 kDa of molecular weight. Furthermore, antigenicity and solubility of the rGST-GRA2-SAG1A protein were significantly increased. The overall specificity and sensitivity of GST-GRA2-SAG1A loaded RDT (TgRDT) were estimated as 100% and 97.1% by comparing with ELISA result which uses T. gondii whole cell lysates as the antigen. The TgRDT tested with Uganda people sera for field trial and showed 31.9% of seroprevalence against T. gondii antibody. The TgRDT is proved to be a kit for rapid and easy to use with high accuracy, which would be a suitable serodiagnostic tool for toxoplasmosis.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.37-49
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• 2023

In this study, we proposed resource allocation methodologies to improve the productivity of steel bridge manufacturing plants based on the constraint theory which is very popular in the area of manufacturing industries. To this end, after defining the painting process as a bottleneck, three resource allocation methodologies were developed: Operation Specific Resource Allocation (OSRA), Product Specific Resource Allocation (PSRA), and General Resource Allocation (GRA). As a result of experiments for performance evaluation using a simulation model of the steel bridge supply chain, GRA showed the best performance in terms of the Number of Work-In-Process (NWIP) and Waiting Time (WT), in particular, as workload itself and its variability were increased, the performance gap with the specific resource allocation became further deepened. On average, GRA reduced NWIP by 36.2% and WT by 34.6% compared to OSRA, and reduced NWIP by 71.0% and WT by 70.4% compared to PSRA. The reduction of NWIP and WT means alleviating the bottleneck of the painting process, which eventually means that the productivity of the steel bridge manufacturing plant has improved.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.149-159
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• 2019

Six sigma is an innovative management movement which provides improved business process by adapting the paradigm and the trend of market and customers. Suitable selection of six sigma project could highly reduce the costs, improve the quality, and enhance the customer satisfaction. There are existing studies on the selection of Six Sigma projects, but few studies have been conducted to select the correct project under an incomplete information environment. The purpose of this study is to propose the application of integrated MCDM techniques for correct project selection under incomplete information. The project selection process of six sigma involves four steps as follows: 1) determination of project selection criteria 2) calculation of relative importance of team member's competencies 3) assessment with project preference scale 4) finalization of ranking the projects. This study proposes the combination methods by applying group fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), an easy defuzzified number of Trapezoidal Fuzzy Number (TrFN) and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA). Both of the weight of project selection criteria and the relative importance of team member's competencies can be evaluated by group fuzzy AHP. Project preferences are assessed by easy defuzzified scale of TrFN in case of incomplete information.)

• Mycobiology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.195-203
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• 2020

Marine yeasts have tremendous potential in industrial applications but have received less attention than terrestrial yeasts and marine filamentous fungi. In this study, we have screened marine yeasts for amylolytic activity and identified an amylase-producing strain PH-Gra1 isolated from sea algae. PH-Gra1 formed as a coral-red colony on yeast-peptone-dextrose (YPD) agar; the maximum radial growth was observed at 22 ℃, pH 6.5 without addition of NaCl to the media. Based on the morphology and phylogenetic analyses derived from sequences of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and a D1/D2 domain of large subunit of ribosomal DNA, PH-Gra1 was designated Sporidiobolus pararoseus. S. pararoseus is frequently isolated from marine environments and known to produce lipids, carotenoids, and several enzymes. However, its amylolytic activity, particularly the optimum conditions for enzyme activity and stability, has not been previously characterized in detail. The extracellular crude enzyme of PH-Gra1 displayed its maximum amylolytic activity at 55 ℃, pH 6.5, and 0%-3.0% (w/v) NaCl under the tested conditions, and the activity increased with time over the 180-min incubation period. In addition, the crude enzyme hydrolyzed potato starch more actively than corn and wheat starch, and was stable at temperatures ranging from 15 ℃ to 45 ℃ for 2 h. This report provides a basis for additional studies of marine yeasts that will facilitate industrial applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.139-145
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• 2004

It is well known that human errors is involved in most of maritime accidents. For the purpose of reducing the influence of human elements on maritime activities, it is necessary to identify the human unsafe acts in those activities. The commonly used methods in identification of human unsafe acts are maritime accident statistics or case analysis. With the statistics data, people could roughly identify what kinds of unsafe acts or human errors have played active role in the accident, however, they often neglected some active unsafe acts while overestimated some mini-unsafe acts because of the inherent shortcoming of the methods. There should be some more accurate approaches for human error identification in maritime accidents. In this paper, the application of technique called grey relational analysis (GRA) into the identification of human unsafe acts is presented. GRA is used to examine the extent of connections between two digits by applying the, methodology of departing and scattering measurement to actual distance measurement. Based on the statistics data of maritime accidents occurred in Chinese waters in last 10years, the relationship between the happening times of maritime accidents and that of unsafe acts are established with GRA. In accordance with the value of grey relational grade, the identified main human unsafe acts involved in maritime accidents are ranked in following orders: improper lookout, improper use of radar and equivalent equipment, error of judgment, act not in time, improper communication, improper shiphandling, use of unsafe speed, violating the rule and ignorance of good seamanship. The result shows that GRA is an effective and practical technique in improving the accuracy of human unsafe acts identification.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.82-90
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• 2015

Location selection of distribution centers is a crucial task for logistics operators and key decision makers of an organization. This is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) process which includes both quantitative and qualitative criteria. In order to propose an optimized location selection model, this research suggests a hierarchical group of evaluation criteria : 5 major criteria with 15 sub-criteria. The MCDM approach presented in this research, by integrating Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), tends to rectify the overall quality and uncertainty of the values of evaluation criteria. An example of a location selection case in Korea is illustrated in this study to show the effectiveness of this method.