• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.1127-1134
• /
• 2007

Gels were made from surimi-like pork (SLP) made from muscles obtained at 1, 24 and 72 h post-mortem. The SLP from pre-rigor muscle had higher pH and moisture percentage compared to in- or post-rigor muscles. Also, SLP from pre-rigor muscle showed higher concentration of water-soluble protein that was washed out during the process. Gel from post-rigor muscle exhibited higher a* and b* value, and also resulted in higher Chroma and lower hue values. The dark color of gel from post-rigor muscle was related to higher concentration of sarcoplasmic protein in SLP and denser structure in the gel matrix. SDS-PAGE showed higher intensity of the phosphorylase in the sarcoplasmic protein fraction from pre-rigor muscle. Gel from post-rigor muscle showed higher hardness and sensory firmness, and the greater firmness was related to higher concentration of protein in SLP, and a compact network with smaller pockets in the gel matrix.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.94-104
• /
• 2001

A pilot study was performed at the experimental field of Konkuk University in Seoul, to examine the feasibility of the constructed wetland system for sewage and the effect of treated sewage irrigation on the paddy rice culture and its soil characteristics. The constructed wetland performed well, in that effluent concentrations of pollutants were significantly lower than concentrations of the influent. Median removal efficiencies of BOD$_{5}$ was about 78% and slightly lower during winter. Removal efficiencies form TN and TP were approximately 48 and 21%, respectively, and relatively less effective than that of BOD$_{5}$. Irrigation of treated sewage to paddy rice culture did not affect adversely in both growth and yield of rice. Instead, plots of treated sewage irrigation showed up to 50% more yield in average than the control plot. It implies that treated sewage irrigation might be beneficial to rice culture rather than detrimental as long as it is treated adequately and used properly. Soil was sampled and analyzed before transplanting and after harvesting. pH was slightly increased due to irrigation water, but it may not be concerned as long as the treated sewage is within the normal range. EC was increased in first year but decreased in second year, therefore salts accumulation in the soil could be less concerned. OM and CES was slightly increased, which might be beneficial on growing plants. TN did not show apparent pattern. Available phosphorus was decreased after rice culture, but the quantity of phosphorus(TP-available phosphorus) was rather increased which implies that excessive phosphorus supply may result in phosphorus accumulation in the soil. Overall, the constructed wetland was thought to be an effective sewage treatment alternative, and treated sewage could be reused as a supplemental source of irrigation water for paddy rice culture without causing adverse effect as long as it is treated adequately and used properly. For full-scale application, further investigation should be followed on environmental risk assessment, tolerable water quality, and fraction of supplemental irrigation.ion.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.307-313
• /
• 2010

Stanniocalcin 1 (STC1) is a glycoprotein hormone that is important in the maintenance of calcium and phosphate homeostasis in both fish and mammals. STC1 and its paralog STC2 are expressed in multiple tissues in fishes, although the physiological roles of piscine STCs are still unclear compared with those of mammals. In this study, we cloned olive flounder STC1 (ofSTC1) and ofSTC2 cDNAs into pET28a vector and used E. coli Rosetta (DE3) as the host strain for protein expression. Expression experiments were carried out using isopropyl-$\beta$-D-thiogalactoside (IPTG) and nickel affinity chromatography. We could identify the recombinant proteins as single 29.5 kDa (ofSTC1) and 33.2 kDa (ofSTC2) bands in the insoluble fraction on sodium dodecyl sulfate- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). These results indicate that ofSTC1 and ofSTC2 were expressed as insoluble proteins in E. coli. Furthermore, the injection of ofSTC1 protein into juvenile tilapia resulted in a decrease of the serum calcium level. These results suggest that the purified fish STC1 and STC2 proteins may be used to elucidate the physiological role of STCs in fishes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.23
• /
• pp.10319-10323
• /
• 2015

Background: The incidence rate of brain tumors has increased more than 40% in the past 20 years, especially in adults. We aimed to study the clinical and pathological findings of central nervous system (CNS) tumor patients and to evaluate their 5 year survival rates. Materials and Methods: The archives of all patients with CNS tumors in 6 health care centers in Yazd, Iran, from 2006 to 2013, were studied. Patients data were extracted using a checklist which included age, sex, date of reference and diagnosis, date of death, clinical signs, radiography findings, pathology report, size and location of tumor, patient treatment and grade of tumor. Results: A total of 306 patient records were studied in the 8 year period. The most prevalent type of tumor was astrocytoma (n=113, 36.9%). The frequency of almost all tumor types was statistically higher in male patients (p=0.025). In most cases surgery with radiotherapy was the treatment of choice (49.3%). The most frequent symptom reported was headache (in 60.8% of patients) followed by convulsions (15.7%). Most of the tumors were located in the right hemisphere (46.1%) and the frontal and parietal lobe (26% and 12%, respectively). Radiography findings displayed edema with a nonhomogeneous lesion in majority of the patients (87%). The survival fraction of the patients with malignant tumors decreased over time (0.807 in the first year and 0.358 at the end of the $5^{th}$ year). Conclusions: Astrocytoma was the more common CNS tumor with male predominance. Overall survival rates of malignant tumors decreased over time and this was in relation with tumor grade.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.248-254
• /
• 2008

Candida magnoliae, an osmotolerant and erythritol producing yeast, prefers D-fructose to D-glucose as carbon sources. For the investigation of the fructophilic characteristics with respect to sugar transportation, a sequential extraction method using various detergents and ultracentrifugation was developed to isolate cellular membrane proteins in C. magnoliae. Immunoblot analysis with the Pma1 antibody and two-dimensional electrophoresis analysis coupled with MS showed that the fraction II was enriched with membrane proteins. Eighteen proteins out of 36 spots were identified as membrane or membrane-associated proteins involved in sugar uptake, stress response, carbon metabolism, and so on. Among them, three proteins were significantly upregulated under the fructose supplying conditions. The hexose transporter was highly homologous to Ght6p in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which was known as a predominant transporter for the fructose uptake of S. pombe because it exhibited higher affinity to D-fructose than D-glucose. The physicochemical properties of the ATP-binding cassette transporter and inorganic transporter explained their direct or indirect associations with the fructophilic behavior of C. magnoliae. The identification and characterization of membrane proteins involved in sugar uptake might contribute to the elucidation of the selective utilization of fructose to glucose by C. magnoliae at a molecular level.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.231-243
• /
• 2004

Sequential extraction was carried out on twenty two subsamples of three ferromanganese crusts from three seamounts (Lemkein, Lomilik, and Litakpooki) near the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific. The extraction was designed to fractionate Fe-Mn crust forming elements into low defined groups: (1) exchangeable and carbornate, (2) Mn-oxide, (3) Fe-oxyhyd.oxide, and (4) residual fraction. X-ray diffraction result shows that target material were well removed by each extraction step except for CFA in phosphatized crusts generation. According to chemical analysis of each leachate, most of elements in the Fe-Mn crusts are bound with two major phases. Mn, Ba, Co, Ni, Zn, (Fe, Sr, Cu, and V) are strongly bounded with Mn-oxide $({\delta}-MnO_2)$ phase, whereas Fe, Ti, Zr, Mo, Pb, Al, Cu,(V, P, and Zn) show chemical affinity with Fe-oxyhydroxide phase. This result indicates that significant amount of Al, Ti, and Zr can not be explained by detrital origin. Ca, Mg, K, and Sr mainly occur as exchangeable elements and/or carbonate phase. Outermost layer 1 and inner layer 2 which are both young crusts generations are similar in chemical speciations of elements. However, some of Fe-oxyhydroxide bounded elements (Pb, Y, Mo, Ba, Al, and V) in phosphatized innermost layer 3 are released during phosphatization and incorporated into phosphate (Pb, Y, Mo, and Ba) or Mn-oxide phase (Al and V). Our sequential extraction results reveal that chemical speciations of elements in the hydrogenetic crusts are more or less different from interelemental relationship calculated by statistical method based on bulk chemistry.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.216-231
• /
• 2003

Objectives: To develop a model that predicts a death probability of acute myocardial infarction(AMI) patient, and to evaluate a performance of hospital services using the developed model. Methods: Medical records of 861 AMI patients in 7 general hospitals during 1996 and 1997 were reviewed by two trained nurses. Variables studied were risk factors which were measured in terms of severity measures. A risk model was developed by using the logistic regression, and its performance was evaluated using cross-validation and bootstrap techniques. The statistical prediction capability of the model was assessed by using c-statistic, $R^2$ as well as Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic. The model performance was also evaluated using severity-adjusted mortalities of hospitals. Results: Variables included in the model building are age, sex, ejection fraction, systolic BP, congestive heart failure at admission, cardiac arrest, EKG ischemia, arrhythmia, left anterior descending artery occlusion, verbal response within 48 hours after admission, acute neurological change within 48 hours after admission, and 3 interaction terms. The c statistics and $R^2$ were 0.887 and 0.2676. The Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic was 6.3355 (p-value=0.6067). Among 7 hospitals evaluated by the model, two hospitals showed significantly higher mortality rates, while other two hospitals had significantly lower mortality rates, than the average mortality rate of all hospitals. The remaining hospitals did not show any significant difference. Conclusion: The comparison of the qualities of hospital service using risk-adjusted mortality rates indicated significant difference among them. We therefore conclude that risk-adjusted mortality rate of AMI patients can be used as an indicator for evaluating hospital performance in Korea.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.9-14
• /
• 1979

The hemicellulose fraction of ryegrass straw was extracted with NaOH and used for production of glucose isomerase by Streptomyces flavogriseus. Up to 25％ crude hemicellulose (20％ as pentosan) could he obtained by treating straw with 1 to 24％ NaOH. The yield of hemicellulose was increased proportionately with increasing NaOH concentration up to 4％, but the rate of increase was slowed thereafter. The optimum condition for hemicellulose extraction from ryegrass straw was to treat straw with 4％ NaOH for 3hrs at 9$0^{\circ}C$ or 24hrs at 3$0^{\circ}C$. Highest level of glucose isomerase activity (3.04 units/ml culture) was obtained when the organism was grown for 2 days at 3$0^{\circ}C$ on 2％ straw hemicellulose. The organism also produced a good quantity of glucose isomerase on xylan, xylose or H$_2$SO$_4$-hydrolysate of straw. The hemicellulose-extracted straw residue could be used as animal feed, because the residue had 75％ higher digestibility and 20％ better feed efficiency for weanling meadow voles than the untreated straw.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.209-217
• /
• 2017

In the enduring investigation of the bioactive microbes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain (referred to as CGK-KS-1 (ICTB-315)), isolated from Chumathang hot spring, Ladakh, and India, was identified to possess a major bioactive fraction with antimicrobial and anti-biofilm properties. This bioactive metabolite was purified through bioactivity-guided fractionation. The chemical structure of this major compound was elucidated as phenazine-1-carboxamide (PCN) based on $^1H$ and $^{13}C$ NMR, FT-IR, EI-HR-MS and 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques. In the current study, PCN exhibited antimicrobial activity with MIC values ranging between $1.9-3.9{\mu}g/ml$ against various test human pathogens and Xanthomonas spp. PCN showed the anti-biofilm property with the $IC_{50}$ values ranging from 17.04 to $60.7{\mu}M$ against different test pathogens. The in silico docking studies showed PCN strongly interacted with various proteins of different Xanthomonas spp. with high binding energies. We report herein for the first time the anti-biofilm property and the docking studies of PCN. The extrolite from P. aeruginosa strain CGK-KS-1 showed promising bioactivities and may be considered as a potential candidate for application in various biocontrol strategies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.346-351
• /
• 2009

To investigate concentration and characteristics of dioxins in soil at Cheongju city, total 28 soil samples were collected. The total and I-TEQ concentration of 17 PCDDs/DFs ranged from 2.30 to 630.40 pg/g dry weight and from 0.002 to 9.79 pg I-TEQ/g dry weight with averages of 55.42 pg/g and 1.13 pg I-TEQ/g, respectively. These levels are very lower than those of around various incinerators in Korea (from n.d. to 153.23 with average value of 7.36 I-TEQ/g). The correlation between total concentration and TEQ concentration showed significant with 99% confidence interval (p-value < 0.001). The TEQ concentration as land use was high as follows; industrial area> green area> residential and commercial area> farm land. In terms of congener distribution, OCDD which is highly detected in general soil samples, was predominant and showed various fraction (from 23 to 100%). The ratios of PCDF concentration against to PCDD concentration varied as samples (from 0.1 to 2.4).