• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.406-413
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• 2018

The emergence of carbapenem resistance among Pseudomonas aeruginosa has become an increasing problem worldwide. In particular, $metallo-{\beta}-lactamases$ (MBLs) are responsible for the high-level resistance to carbapenem. Sequence type 235 (ST235) has been found internationally in a multidrug-resistant clone and is involved in the dissemination of genes encoding IMP-6 and VIM-2. This study examined the prevalence of MBLs and the epidemiological relationship in carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (CRPA) isolates obtained from a tertiary hospital in Daejeon, Korea, between March 2008 and June 2014. The antimicrobial susceptibilities were determined using the disk-diffusion method and PCR and DNA sequencing were used to identify the MBL genes. In addition, an epidemiological relationship was investigated by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Among the 110 CRPA isolates, 32 isolates (29.1%) were MBL-producers; the major type was IMP-6 (29 isolates, 90.6%). VIM-2 was identified in 3 isolates (9.4%) of ST357. IMP-6-producing isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR) and belonged to ST235. ST235 (55 isolates, 50.0%) was the clone most frequently detected and has gradually emerged during a seven-year period. To prevent the spread of MDR ST235 P. aeruginosa isolates, the current widespread use of carbapenems needs to be curtailed, and novel continuous monitoring strategies should be developed as soon as possible.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.949-954
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• 2019

Membrane topology is a key characteristic of membrane proteins. We previously reported the cloning of the chromosome 4 open-reading frame 32 (C4orf32) gene as a potential membrane protein; however, the cellular localization and membrane topology of C4orf32 was as yet unknown. In this study, we found that green fluorescent protein (GFP) fused to the C-terminus of C4orf32 (C4orf32-GFP) was localized to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). We applied three tools to identify determinants of C4orf32 topology: protease protection, fluorescence protease protection (FPP), and an inducible system using the ternary complex between FK506 binding protein 12 (FKBP), rapamycin, and the rapamycin-binding domain of mTOR (FRB) (the FRB-rapamycin-FKBP system). Using protease protection and FPP assays, we found that the GFP tag in C4orf32-GFP was localized to the cytoplasmic surface of the ER membrane of HeLa cells. Protease protection and FPP assays are useful and complimentary tools for identifying the topology of GFP fusion membrane proteins. The FRB-rapamycin-FKBP system was also used to study the topology of C4orf32. In the absence of rapamycin, a monomeric red fluorescent protein-FKBP fusion (mRFP-FKBP) and C4orf32-GFP-FRB were localized to the cytoplasm and the ER membrane, respectively. However, in the presence of rapamycin, the mRFP-FKBP was shifted from the cytoplasm to the ER and colocalized with the C4orf32-GFP-FRB. These results indicate that the FRB moiety is facing the cytoplasmic surface of ER membrane. Overall, our results clearly suggest that C4orf32 belongs to the family of type I ER resident membrane proteins.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.153-170
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• 2019

With the breathtaking stride beingmade in the field of biotechnology, biocatalyst research using genetically modified microorganism (GMM) is actively being pursued in food industry. However, domestic food and food additive regulation standards and the number of examination management examples currently used in industry is lacking significantly. Up till now, there are only 6 examples of domestic GMM examination and approval cases for food production purposes and furthermore they are limited to the production of functional sweeteners. Domestically, although GMM is developed as a processing aid (contained use), if they are used in the production of food, the safety of GMM, including environmental safety, is evaluated. Also the produced food or food additives using GMM need to be separately examined and approved as a novel food. On the other hand, imported products produced using GMM need to gain approval for the final product only. Thus the expense and the time to obtain regulatory approval is advantageous for imported products versus domestically produced products. This commentary is written to create the opportunity to reform the current domestic food GMM regulation by comparing and discussing domestic and foreign case analyses of safety evaluation of GMM and related regulations.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.414-422
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• 2019

There is accumulating evidence that microRNAs are emerging as pivotal regulators in the development and progression of neuropathic pain. MicroRNA-15a/16 (miR-15a/16) have been reported to play an important role in various diseases and inflammation response processes. However, whether miR-15a/16 participates in the regulation of neuroinflammation and neuropathic pain development remains unknown. In this study, we established a mouse model of neuropathic pain by chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerves. Our results showed that both miR-15a and miR-16 expression was significantly upregulated in the spinal cord of CCI rats. Downregulation of the expression of miR-15a and miR-16 by intrathecal injection of a specific inhibitor significantly attenuated the mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia of CCI rats. Furthermore, inhibition of miR-15a and miR-16 downregulated the expression of interleukin-$1{\beta}$ and tumor-necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ in the spinal cord of CCI rats. Bioinformatic analysis predicted that G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2), an important regulator in neuropathic pain and inflammation, was a potential target gene of miR-15a and miR-16. Inhibition of miR-15a and miR-16 markedly increased the expression of GRK2 while downregulating the activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and $NF-{\kappa}B$ in CCI rats. Notably, the silencing of GRK2 significantly reversed the inhibitory effects of miR-15a/16 inhibition in neuropathic pain. In conclusion, our results suggest that inhibition of miR-15a/16 expression alleviates neuropathic pain development by targeting GRK2. These findings provide novel insights into the molecular pathogenesis of neuropathic pain and suggest potential therapeutic targets for preventing neuropathic pain development.

• Journal of Platform Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.52-62
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• 2021

Quality control is critical at manufacturing sites and is key to predicting the risk of quality defect before manufacturing. However, the reliability of manual quality control methods is affected by human and physical limitations because manufacturing processes vary across industries. These limitations become particularly obvious in domain areas with numerous manufacturing processes, such as the manufacture of major nuclear equipment. This study proposed a novel method for predicting the risk of quality defects by using natural language processing and machine learning. In this study, production data collected over 6 years at a factory that manufactures main equipment that is installed in nuclear power plants were used. In the preprocessing stage of text data, a mapping method was applied to the word dictionary so that domain knowledge could be appropriately reflected, and a hybrid algorithm, which combined n-gram, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency, and Singular Value Decomposition, was constructed for sentence vectorization. Next, in the experiment to classify the risky processes resulting in poor quality, k-fold cross-validation was applied to categorize cases from Unigram to cumulative Trigram. Furthermore, for achieving objective experimental results, Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine were used as classification algorithms and the maximum accuracy and F1-score of 0.7685 and 0.8641, respectively, were achieved. Thus, the proposed method is effective. The performance of the proposed method were compared and with votes of field engineers, and the results revealed that the proposed method outperformed field engineers. Thus, the method can be implemented for quality control at manufacturing sites.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.264-272
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• 2021

Background: Gintonin is a ginseng-derived exogenous G-protein-coupled lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptor ligand, which exhibits in vitro and in vivo functions against Alzheimer disease (AD) through lysophosphatidic acid 1/3 receptors. A recent study demonstrated that systemic treatment with gintonin enhances paracellular permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) through the LPA1/3 receptor. However, little is known about whether gintonin can enhance brain delivery of donepezil (DPZ) (Aricept), which is a representative cognition-improving drug used in AD clinics. In the present study, we examined whether systemic administration of gintonin can stimulate brain delivery of DPZ. Methods: We administered gintonin and DPZ alone or coadministered gintonin with DPZ intravenously or orally to rats. Then we collected the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and serum and determined the DPZ concentration through liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. Results: Intravenous, but not oral, coadministration of gintonin with DPZ increased the CSF concentration of DPZ in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Gintonin-mediated enhancement of brain delivery of DPZ was blocked by Ki16425, a LPA1/3 receptor antagonist. Coadministration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) + gintonin with DPZ similarly increased CSF DPZ concentration. However, gintonin-mediated enhancement of brain delivery of DPZ was blocked by axitinip, a VEGF receptor antagonist. Mannitol, a BBB disrupting agent that increases the BBB permeability, enhanced gintonin-mediated enhancement of brain delivery of DPZ. Conclusions: We found that intravenous, but not oral, coadministration of gintonin facilitates brain delivery of DPZ from plasma via LPA1/3 and VEGF receptors. Gintonin is a potential candidate as a ginseng-derived novel agent for the brain delivery of DPZ for treatment of patients with AD.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.69-83
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• 2020

For the development of the chitosan industry in Korea, the catch of red snow crabs caught on the east coast is rapidly decreasing. Therefore, it is urgent to develop raw materials that can replace the red snow crab as the top priority to solve the supply and demand problems, as well as wastewater treatment costs account for a large proportion of the cost of chitosan. In order to solve the problems, continuous research on biological extraction methods such as enzymatic extraction and microbial fermentation will increase production efficiency and lower unit cost as well as chemical extraction methods. Further efficient manufacturing method can be established. Establishing of novel techniques is indispensable for production of high-purity chitosan and the ability to regulate and separate the molecular weight, as well as joint research with industry, academia and research institute for the research and development of high-functional chitosan derivatives.

• Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.343-362
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• 2019

Background/Aims There has been major progress in our understanding of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and novel treatment classes have emerged. The Rome IV guidelines were published in 2016 and together with the growing body of Asian data on IBS, we felt it is timely to update the Asian IBS Consensus. Methods Key opinion leaders from Asian countries were organized into 4 teams to review 4 themes: symptoms and epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and investigations, and lifestyle modifications and treatments. The consensus development process was carried out by using a modified Delphi method. Results Thirty-seven statements were developed. Asian data substantiate the current global viewpoint that IBS is a disorder of gut-brain interaction. Socio-cultural and environmental factors in Asia appear to influence the greater overlap between IBS and upper gastrointestinal symptoms. New classes of treatments comprising low fermentable oligo-, di-, monosacharides, and polyols diet, probiotics, non-absorbable antibiotics, and secretagogues have good evidence base for their efficacy. Conclusions Our consensus is that all patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders should be evaluated comprehensively with a view to holistic management. Physicians should be encouraged to take a positive attitude to the treatment outcomes for IBS patients.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.175-182
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• 2020

The non-contact eye tracking is a nonintrusive human-computer interface providing hands-free communications for people with severe disabilities. Recently. it is expected to do an important role in non-contact systems due to the recent coronavirus COVID-19, etc. This paper proposes a novel approach for an eye mouse using an eye tracking method based on a context-aware based AdaBoost multi-region classifier and ASSL algorithm. The conventional AdaBoost algorithm, however, cannot provide sufficiently reliable performance in face tracking for eye cursor pointing estimation, because it cannot take advantage of the spatial context relations among facial features. Therefore, we propose the eye-region context based AdaBoost multiple classifier for the efficient non-contact gaze tracking and mouse implementation. The proposed method detects, tracks, and aggregates various eye features to evaluate the gaze and adjusts active and semi-supervised learning based on the on-screen cursor. The proposed system has been successfully employed in eye location, and it can also be used to detect and track eye features. This system controls the computer cursor along the user's gaze and it was postprocessing by applying Gaussian modeling to prevent shaking during the real-time tracking using Kalman filter. In this system, target objects were randomly generated and the eye tracking performance was analyzed according to the Fits law in real time. It is expected that the utilization of non-contact interfaces.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.59-66
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• 2021

Humans mainly recognize surrounding objects using visual and auditory information among the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste). Major research related to the latest object recognition mainly focuses on analysis using image sensor information. In this paper, after emitting various chirp audio signals into the observation space, collecting echoes through a 2-channel receiving sensor, converting them into spectral images, an object recognition experiment in 3D space was conducted using an image learning algorithm based on deep learning. Through this experiment, the experiment was conducted in a situation where there is noise and echo generated in a general indoor environment, not in the ideal condition of an anechoic room, and the object recognition through echo was able to estimate the position of the object with 83% accuracy. In addition, it was possible to obtain visual information through sound through learning of 3D sound by mapping the inference result to the observation space and the 3D sound spatial signal and outputting it as sound. This means that the use of various echo information along with image information is required for object recognition research, and it is thought that this technology can be used for augmented reality through 3D sound.