• Title/Summary/Keyword: Pre-Screening

Search Result 248, Processing Time 0.024 seconds

Recent Trends of Advanced Biosensors for Mycotoxin Analysis

  • Shim, Won-Bo
    • 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
    • /
    • 2016.05a
    • /
    • pp.35-35
    • /
    • 2016
  • A mycotoxin is a toxic secondary metabolite produced by organisms of the fungus kingdom, commonly known as molds and has been widely contaminated in agricultural products such as grains and cereals. Many methods including high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC) have already been proposed and reviewed for mycotoxins. These methods are either expensive or time-consuming due to the complication of sample preparation and pre-concentration before determination. In addition, both methods are unsuitable for the routine screening of large sample numbers. A biosensor is a fictive analytical device that combines a biological component with a physicochemical detector for the detection of an analyte. Biosensors represent a rapidly expanding field, at the present time, with an estimated 60% annual growth rate; the major impetus coming from the health-care industry but with some pressure from other areas, such as food safety and environmental monitoring. Antibodies and aptamers are bioreceptors which have been used in the development of biosensors. There are many kinds of antibodies and aptamers specific to mycotoxin, and antibody (or aptamer)-based biosensors have been successfully developed for the detection of mycotoxin. The biosensors permit the rapid, sensitive, simple, and on-site detection of a range of mycotoxins and can be an alternative method to traditional methods such as HPLC and GC. This presentation provides the development trends of biosensors to mycotoxins and their application to food and agricultural products.

  • PDF

Update on genetic screening and treatment for infertile men with genetic disorders in the era of assisted reproductive technology

  • Lee, Seung Ryeol;Lee, Tae Ho;Song, Seung-Hun;Kim, Dong Suk;Choi, Kyung Hwa;Lee, Jae Ho;Kim, Dae Keun
    • Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
    • /
    • v.48 no.4
    • /
    • pp.283-294
    • /
    • 2021
  • A genetic etiology of male infertility is identified in fewer than 25% of infertile men, while 30% of infertile men lack a clear etiology, resulting in a diagnosis of idiopathic male infertility. Advances in reproductive genetics have provided insights into the mechanisms of male infertility, and a characterization of the genetic basis of male infertility may have broad implications for understanding the causes of infertility and determining the prognosis, optimal treatment, and management of couples. In a substantial proportion of patients with azoospermia, known genetic factors contribute to male infertility. Additionally, the number of identified genetic anomalies in other etiologies of male infertility is growing through advances in whole-genome amplification and next-generation sequencing. In this review, we present an up-to-date overview of the indications for appropriate genetic tests, summarize the characteristics of chromosomal and genetic diseases, and discuss the treatment of couples with genetic infertility by microdissection-testicular sperm extraction, personalized hormone therapy, and in vitro fertilization with pre-implantation genetic testing.

In vitro screening of anti-skin aging and antioxidant properties of aqueous/solvent extracts from distinctive stages of silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) pupae

  • Rahul, Kamidi;Kweon, HaeYong;Kim, Hyun-Bok;Lee, Ji Hae
    • International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
    • /
    • v.45 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-11
    • /
    • 2022
  • Silkworm pupae, a by-product of the silk industry are known to be valuable resource of nutrients for humans as well as animals besides encompassing diverse bioactive constituents. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on their role in amelioration of oxidative stress and anti-skin aging properties. In the present study, we evaluated the inhibitory effect of aqueous as well as ethanolic (30% and 70%) extracts from distinct stages of male and female silkworm pupae belonging to two silkworm varieties on skin aging-related enzymes. The activities of collagenase, elastase and tyrosinase were effectively inhibited by 70% ethanolic silkworm pupal extracts (SPE), followed by 30% with aqueous extracts exhibiting meager inhibitory potential. SPE were also investigated for their antioxidant activity in oxidative-stressed murine fibroblasts (L929). The intracellular ROS and lipid peroxidation induced by tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP) in fibroblasts was better attenuated by pre treatment with ethanolic (30%) and aqueous extracts, respectively. The safety of the extracts was determined by studying their effect on fibroblast cell viability and it was found that none of the extracts were cytotoxic. Our findings indicate the potential utility of SPE as anti-aging components in cosmeceuticals.

Evaluation of Deep Learning Model for Scoliosis Pre-Screening Using Preprocessed Chest X-ray Images

  • Min Gu Jang;Jin Woong Yi;Hyun Ju Lee;Ki Sik Tae
    • Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
    • /
    • v.44 no.4
    • /
    • pp.293-301
    • /
    • 2023
  • Scoliosis is a three-dimensional deformation of the spine that is a deformity induced by physical or disease-related causes as the spine is rotated abnormally. Early detection has a significant influence on the possibility of nonsurgical treatment. To train a deep learning model with preprocessed images and to evaluate the results with and without data augmentation to enable the diagnosis of scoliosis based only on a chest X-ray image. The preprocessed images in which only the spine, rib contours, and some hard tissues were left from the original chest image, were used for learning along with the original images, and three CNN(Convolutional Neural Networks) models (VGG16, ResNet152, and EfficientNet) were selected to proceed with training. The results obtained by training with the preprocessed images showed a superior accuracy to those obtained by training with the original image. When the scoliosis image was added through data augmentation, the accuracy was further improved, ultimately achieving a classification accuracy of 93.56% with the ResNet152 model using test data. Through supplementation with future research, the method proposed herein is expected to allow the early diagnosis of scoliosis as well as cost reduction by reducing the burden of additional radiographic imaging for disease detection.

The Relationship between Admission to University of Education and Private Education through Perceptions of Pre-service Teachers and High School Teachers (예비교사와 고등학교 교사의 인식을 통한 교육대학 입학과 사교육의 관련성)

  • Lee, Jong-Hak;Kim, Yoo-Young;Yoon, Ma-Byong
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
    • /
    • v.19 no.11
    • /
    • pp.132-143
    • /
    • 2019
  • The purposes of this study are to identify how university's entrance examination system is related to private education, and to explore how to improve the university of education entrance system in order to reduce private education costs. For these purposes, 116 teachers of senior students in high school in Daegu and Gyeongbuk and 107 pre-service teachers who had experienced the entrance of the university were surveyed in order to find out the perception of the relationship between admissions elements and private education. As a result, it is possible to concentrate more on school education by strengthening high school grades in the entrance examination. However, there was other opinion that the strengthening high school grades in the university entrance could lead to the further increase in the cost of private education. As there are big differences in the perception of the screening factors between rural areas (Gyeongsangbuk-do) and large cities (Daegu), it is necessary to introduce the entrance examination system considering the characteristics of each region. Third-year teachers in high schools argued that university admissions should reduce the rate of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) and increase the rate of interviews. The results of this study suggest that the improvement of the university entrance examination system to reduce the cost of private tutoring requires securing fairness of document evaluation, strengthening interviews, and opening interview questions.

The Analysis of Experience and Requirement of Field Practice in Pre-service Education Perceived by Vocational Teachers (전문교과 교원이 인식한 양성단계에서의 산업체 현장실습 경험 및 필요성 분석)

  • Lee, Chan;Jeon, Yeong-Uk;Choi, Yu-Hyun;Cho, Kyung-Hee;Ryu, Ji-Eun;Jung, Bo-Young;Lee, Su-Gie
    • Journal of vocational education research
    • /
    • v.35 no.6
    • /
    • pp.21-38
    • /
    • 2016
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze an experience of field practice perceived by vocational teachers. Data for analysis were collected from 689 vocational teachers who participated in the training at the Center for in-service teacher education in the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University and at the Center for in-service teacher education of Chungnam National University. After screening, 685 responses were used in the analysis. As a result, it turned out that only 112 vocational teachers(16.5%) participated in the field practice for more than 4 weeks when they were in pre-service education. However, vocational teachers seemed to perceive that experience of field practice was generally required in pre-service education(average 4.07). In-depth questionnaire was conducted on 143 respondents who replied that they participated in field practice program for more than 4 weeks and those who participated in the program for less than 4 weeks but completed the paperwork. Most of vocational teachers who participated in field practice were placed in small and medium sized enterprises, stayed at home or relatives' home and commuted by the bus or subway. In this research, 34.8% of the vocational teachers who participated in field practice received financial compensation and 80.3% of the teachers got credit recognition. The perception of satisfaction on field practice program was found to be moderate(average 3.51).

Repeated Dose and Reproductive/Developmental Toxicities of Acetanilide in Rats (랫드를 이용한 Acetanilide의 반복투여 및 생식/발생독성 병행시험)

  • Chung, Moon-Koo;Baek, Sung-Soo;Lee, Sang-Hee;Kim, Hyun-Mi;Choi, Kyung-Hee;Han, Sang-Seop
    • Toxicological Research
    • /
    • v.23 no.4
    • /
    • pp.391-403
    • /
    • 2007
  • The study was conducted to assess the repeated dose and reproduction and developmental toxicities of acetanilide, an intermediate for drug production, as a part of OECD Screening Information Data Set (SIDS) program. The test agent was administered by gavage at dose levels of 0, 22, 67, 200 and 600 mg/kg to Sprague-Dawley rats (12/group/sex) during pre-mating and mating period for males(up to 30 days) and females and pregnancy and early lactation period for females (up to 39-50 days). At 22 mg/kg, decreases in HGB, HCT (males) and MCHC (females), hyperplasia of spleen red pulp, hyperplasia of femur bone marrow (both sexes) were observed. At 67 mg/kg, salivation (males), reduced food consumption (both sexes), decreases in RBC, HGB, HCT and MCHC (males), increases in MCV (males) and spleen weight (males), hyperplasia of spleen red pulp and femur bone marrow (both sexes) were observed. At 200 mg/kg, decreases in locomotor activity and salivation (both sexes), reduced food consumption (both sexes), decreases in RBC, HGB, HCT and increases in MCV, MCH, BUN, T-BIL (males), enlargement of spleen (both sexes), increased weight of spleen (males), hyperplasia of spleen red pulp and femur bone marrow and extramedullary hematopoiesis of liver (both sexes), atrophy of thymus and corpus luteum hyperplasia of ovary (females) were observed. At 600 mg/kg, decreases in locomotor activity, cyanosis (both sexes), reddish tear, and salivation (males), mortality (4 out of 12 females), decreased body weight (females), reduced food consumption (both sexes), decreases in RBC, HGB, HCT and MCHC and increases in WBC, MCV, MCH, reticulocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, AST, ALT, BUN, T-BIL, ALB, Ca and A/G ratio (males), enlargement of spleen, increased weights of spleen (both sexes), liver (males), kidney and ovary, decreased weights of thymus (females), hyperplasia of spleen red pulp, hyperplasia of femur bone marrow and extramedullary hematopoiesis of liver (both sexes), and atrophy of thymus and corpus luteum hyperplasia of ovary (females) were observed. Regarding the reproduction and development toxicities, there were no treatment-related changes in precoital time, mating index, fertility index and pregnancy index at all doses tested. At 22 and 67 mg/kg, there were no adverse effects on all the parameters observed. At 200 mg/ kg, decreased body weight of pups (day 4 p.p.) were observed. At 600 mg/kg, decreased body weight of pups (day 0 and 4 p.p.) and viability index (day 4 p.p.), increased incidence of newborns dead or with abnormal clinical signs were observed. The results suggest that the NOAELs for general toxicity are < 22 mg/kg, LOAELs are 22 mg/kg and the NOAELs for reproductive toxicity are 67 mg/kg.

Use of Fast Transfer Analysis Cartridges for Cervical Sampling and Real Time PCR Based High Risk HPV Testing in Cervical Cancer Prevention - a Feasibility Study from South India

  • Vijayalakshmi, Ramshankar;Viveka, Thangaraj Soundara;Malliga, JS;Murugan, Kothandaraman;Kanchana, Albert;Arvind, Krishnamurthy
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
    • /
    • v.16 no.14
    • /
    • pp.5993-5999
    • /
    • 2015
  • Background: Molecular testing for human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most objective and reproducible of all cervical cancer screening tests and also less demanding in terms of training and quality assurance. However, there is an impending need for cost effective molecular HPV testing methods with sampling ease, easy storage measures and minimum turn around times suitable for a low resource setting. Objective : Our aim was to evaluate the feasibility of using a fast transfer analysis (FTA) mini elute cartridge for cervical sampling to identify high risk HPV by real time PCR and to compare molecular HPV testing and Pap cytology testing to predict histologically confirmed cervical precancer (CIN 2+ lesions) in a cervical cancer prevention program. Materials and Methods: This was conducted as a pilot study (n=200) on women sampled using FTA mini elute cartridges, genotyped by two different real time PCR assays, detecting 13 high risk HPV (HR HPV) species, including HPV16 along with its physical DNA status. Results obtained from each of the tests were compared and analysed using suitable statistical tests. Results: With FTA mini elute cartridge samples HR HPV positivity was seen in 48/200 (24%). Of these, presence of HPV 16 DNA was observed in 28/48 (58.3%) women. High risk HPV was positive in 20% (37/185) of women with benign cytology and 73.3% (11/15) of women with abnormal cytology findings. A very significant correlation (${\chi}^2=22.090$ ; p=0.000) was observed between cytology and HR HPV findings showing an increasing trend of HR HPV prevalence in 50% (1/2) of LSIL, 75% (3/4) of HSIL and 100% (3/3) of SCC. Of the CIN 2+ lesions identified by histopathology, 88.9% (8/9) had HR HPV. A significant association (${\chi}^2=11.223$ ; p=0.001) of HR HPV and histopathologically confirmed CIN 2+ lesions was found. Sensitivity of the two tests were comparable but specificity of Pap testing was better (90.7% vs 70.4%) to predict histopathologically diagnosed cervical precancers. Conclusions: The current study explored the feasibility of using a FTA mini elute cartridge for cervical sampling for the first time in India as a part of a community based cervical cancer prevention program. We suggest that FTA based sampling is suitable and feasible for real time based HPV testing. Molecular HR HPV testing can be more sensitive and useful to identify high risk women requiring Pap testing which is more specific to detect histologically confirmed cervical precancer.

Strategies for the development of GM crops in accordance with the environmental risk assessment (I) (환경위해성 평가를 고려한 GM작물의 개발 전략 (I))

  • Lee, Shin-Woo
    • Journal of Plant Biotechnology
    • /
    • v.38 no.2
    • /
    • pp.125-129
    • /
    • 2011
  • Environmental risk assessment (RA) is essential prior to the environmental release of GM crops. RA, however, costs at least 7 to 15 million US dollars and requires several years to complete field tests. Therefore, it is strongly suggested that developers of GM crops must consider all criteria for RA at the beginning stage of the development if it aims for commercialization. Previous review papers have pointed out that the "death valley" for the commercialization of GM crops is the screening stage of early GM events since many candidates are given up due to insufficient data on the molecular characterization of a GM event such as inserted gene's copy number, position of inserted site of a chromosome, flanking sequence of recombinant T-DNA, rearrangement of chromosome, and knock out of endogenous gene of host plant. Recently, Rural Development Administration (RDA) in South Korea has launched a Grand National Project named as "Next Generation of BioGreen 21 Project" from 2011 to 2020 and research funding for the development of global GM crops has been allocated to accelerate the commercialization of GM crops. In this regard, I strongly suggest that researchers involved in the development of GM crops for commercialization must conduct RA by themselves at the screening stage of pre-GM event based on the data for molecular characterization.

Evaluation of Phototoxicity for Cosmetics and Alternative Method (화장품 광독성 평가와 동물대체시험법)

  • Lee, Jong-Kwon;Sin, Ji-Soon;Kim, Jin-Ho;Eom, Jun-Ho;Kim, Hyung-Soo;Park, Kui-Lea
    • Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
    • /
    • v.31 no.3 s.52
    • /
    • pp.245-251
    • /
    • 2005
  • Safety is one of the key issue in the regulation of cosmetics. Cosmetic Act deals with it in Korea. The guidance for the testing cosmetic ingredients and their safety evaluation are prepared by Korea Food and Drug Administration. Ultraviolet radiation could Induce skin damage, edema, erythema, photoaging, immune dysfunction and skin cancer. Ultraviolet radiation is classified as Group 2A(probably carcinogenic to humans) by International Agenry for Reaserch on Cancer(IARC). The in vitro methodologies for evaluating the toxic potential of ingredients reported in the literature have not yet been sufficiently validated for use in areas other than the study for mutagenicity/genotoxicity, for pre-screening for severe irritancy, for screening of phototoxicity and for evaluating the percutaneous absorption. The 3T3 neutral red uptake photoxicity test (3T3 NRU PT) was accepted as OECD toxicity guideline in 2002. The 3T3 NRU PT is an in vitro method based on a comparison of the cytotoxicitv of a chemical when tested in the presence and in the absence of exposure to a non-cytotoxic dose of UVA/visible light.