• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 2011

Rapid serodiagnostic methods for Toxoplasma gondii infection in cats are urgently needed for effective control of transmission routes toward human infections. In this work, 4 recombinant T. gondii antigens (SAG1, SAG2, GRA3, and GRA6) were produced and tested for the development of rapid diagnostic test (RDT). The proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli, affinity-purified, and applied onto the nitrocellulose membrane of the test strip. The recombinant SAG1 (rSAG1) showed the strongest antigenic activity and highest specificity among them. We also performed clinical evaluation of the rSAG1-loaded RDT in 182 cat sera (55 household and 127 stray cats). The kit showed 0.88 of kappa value comparing with a commercialized ELISA kit, which indicated a significant correlation between rSAG1-loaded RDT and the ELISA kit. The overall sensitivity and specificity of the RDT were 100% (23/23) and 99.4% (158/159), respectively. The rSAG1-loaded RDT is rapid, easy to use, and highly accurate. Thus, it would be a suitable diagnostic tool for rapid detection of antibodies in T. gondii-infected cats under field conditions.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2011

The infection rate of syphilis is still increasing in the world especially in developing countries and the infection is often seen in large amounts of clinical specimens. For the diagnosis of this disease, Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR)/Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) has still been used as one of major primary methods to diagnose syphilis even though the test readings are somewhat subjective with high false positive rates. Recently, the automatic ARCHITECT Syphilis TP, which is based on the detection of the TP-specific antibodies, has been introduced in many laboratories. Therefore, the clinical assessment of the method is needed to provide primary diagnosis of syphilis at the moment. We evaluated 3 different manual rapid kits and ARCHITECT Syphilis TP comparing with RPR/FTA-ABS and analysed their diagnostic properties. From February 2006 to April 2008, 203 positive and 250 negative specimens, obtained from Chungbuk National University Hospital were used for the evaluation. In the evaluation between manual rapid kits, their specificities were as high as 99.2 ~ 99.6% while their sensitivities were observed with little differences; 98.0% (199/203) for Kit A, 96.6% (196/203) for Kit B, and 97.4% (197/203) for Kit S. In the case of ARCHITECT Syphilis TP test, it showed 100% specificity (250/250) and 98.5% sensitivity (249/250). Kappa values comparing with RPR/FTA-ABS were 0.978 for Kit A, 0.964 for Kit B and Kit S, and 0.987 for ARCHITECT Syphilis TP. From our evaluation, we found out that manual rapid tests and ARCHITECT Syphilis TP have very good clinical accuracies and high kappa agreements with RPR/FTA-ABS. Due to its automation and quick simultaneous diagnosis with another serological markers, we suggest that the ARCHITECT Syphilis TP is one of best suitable method for the primary diagnosis of syphilis and that it might be able to replace RPR method in the laboratories.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.40.1-40.12
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• 2021

Background: The microsporidian parasite Nosema ceranae is a global problem in honeybee populations and is known to cause winter mortality. A sensitive and rapid tool for stable quantitative detection is necessary to establish further research related to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of this pathogen. Objectives: The present study aimed to develop a quantitative method that incorporates ultra-rapid real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (UR-qPCR) for the rapid enumeration of N. ceranae in infected bees. Methods: A procedure for UR-qPCR detection of N. ceranae was developed, and the advantages of molecular detection were evaluated in comparison with microscopic enumeration. Results: UR-qPCR was more sensitive than microscopic enumeration for detecting two copies of N. ceranae DNA and 24 spores per bee. Meanwhile, the limit of detection by microscopy was 2.40 × 10⁴ spores/bee, and the stable detection level was ≥ 2.40 × 10⁵ spores/bee. The results of N. ceranae calculations from the infected honeybees and purified spores by UR-qPCR showed that the DNA copy number was approximately 8-fold higher than the spore count. Additionally, honeybees infected with N. ceranae with 2.74 × 10⁴ copies of N. ceranae DNA were incapable of detection by microscopy. The results of quantitative analysis using UR-qPCR were accomplished within 20 min. Conclusions: UR-qPCR is expected to be the most rapid molecular method for Nosema detection and has been developed for diagnosing nosemosis at low levels of infection.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2023

Background and Objective: With the advancement of cancer treatments and increased life expectancy, managing breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) is essential to improve the quality of life for cancer patients. This study aimed to compare the major rapid onset opioids in Korea based on their characteristics and costs to determine the best option for each patient. Methods: Based on sales information from IQVIA-MIDAS, sublingual fentanyl tablet (SLF), fentanyl buccal tablet (FBT), and oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) were selected as the top three drugs for the treatment of BTcP in Korea, considering them the most comparable drugs. The cost and cost-pain relief ratio of the drugs for short-term (1 month) and long-term (1 year) treatment were compared and the ease of administration based on various factors, including pharmacokinetics, onset of action, and administration procedures were evaluated. Results: SLF was evaluated as the best overall in terms of rapid onset of action, ease of administration, and drug cost and also had the highest market share. SLF had the lowest cost pain relief ratio for both the initial and supplemental treatment for the 1-month pain intensity difference 15 (PID15) ratio. However, for the 1-month PID30 ratio, SLF was not superior to OTFC or FBT. The longer the breakthrough cancer pain duration, the more cost-effective the other rapid onset opioids. Conclusion: The rapid onset opioids that fit the patient's breakthrough cancer pain pattern have the best cost-effectiveness.

• Journal of the Korean Arthroscopy Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.180-185
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• 2005

Purpose: To purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical and radiological results of arthroscopic meniscus repair using Rapid Loc device. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was performed on 44 cases which had been turned out longitudinal tear without degeneration. We repaired all cases with Rapid Loc device. Patients were evaluated using clinical examination, Orthopaedische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Knie (OAK) scheme, and MRI. We regarded patients with joint line tenderness, swelling or McMurray positive test as clinical failure. Results: A mean age was 33.3 years and follow-up period was average 15 months. Clinical results were excellent 15 cases(34.1%), good 20 cases(45.5%), fair 7 cases(15.9%), poor 2 cases(4.5%). MRI showed grade 115 cases(33.3%), grade II 22 cases(50%), grade III 7 cases(16.7%). Clinical failures were 8 cases and only one complication was developed. Conclusion: Rapid Loc device showed the excellent results in meniscus repair. We regard it has a lot of advantages in safety, softness, ease, ability to control tension at repair site.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.191-200
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• 2000

Objective: This study was carried out to compare the effects of the stepwise exposure treatments on the morphological normality, fertilization and blastocyst formation rate of the frozen-thawed mouse mature oocytes by vitrification or ultra-rapid freezing and to use as a fundamental data for the cryopreservation of human oocytes. Materials and Methods: The morphological normality and fertilization rates of the vitrified and ultra-rapid frozen mouse mature oocytes after three-stepwise exposure treatments (1step, 3step and 5step) were observed. After choosing the 3step exposure treatment groups, we observed the morphological normality and fertilization, blastocyst formation rate of the vitrified and ultra-rapid frozen mouse mature oocytes. Results: The morphological normality and fertilization rates of the vitrified mouse mature oocytes after three-stepwise exposure treatments (1step, 3step and 5step) were 75%, 85%, 88% and 58%, 61 %, 54% respectively. There were no significant differences among treatments(p>0.05). The morphological normality and fertilization rate of the control was 92% and 65%. There were no significant differences in fertilization rate among control and treatments (p>0.05). The morphological normality and fertilization rates of the ultra-rapid frozen mouse mature oocytes after three-stepwise exposure treatments (1step, 3step and 5step) were 83%, 83%, 84% and 75%, 63%, 56% respectively. There were no significant differences among treatments (p>0.05). The morphological normality and fertilization rate of the control was 95% and 67%. There were no significant differences among control and treatments (p>0.05). The morphological normality and fertilization rate of the vitrified or ultra-rapid frozen mouse mature oocytes after 3step exposure treatment were 69% and 75%, respectively. The blastocyst formation rate was 60% and 57%. The results did not differ significantly between vitrification and ultra-rapid freezing (p>0.05). Conclusion: As known in the above results, there were no significant differences in the fertilization and blastocyst formation rate of the frozen-thawed mouse mature oocytes by vitrification or ultra-rapid freezing among the control and treatments. It is suggested that vitrification and ultra-rapid freezing method were effective for the cryopreservation of mouse mature oocytes.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.233-243
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• 1999

Food safety or sanitation are terms broadly applicable to procedures designed to ensure that food quality is high and free of factors which may adversely affect human health. These factors include zoonotic diseases and acute and chronic effects of ingesting natural and human-made xenobiotics. Use of drugs in animal production for the treatment and control of animal diseases, to promote growth rate, and to improve feed conversion efficiency has expanded year by year, thus increasing the possibilities for occurrences in animal products of residues harmful to humans. Governmental agencies have made efforts to control or prevent residue problems. The Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) is charged with the responsibility of establishing tolerances for veterinary drugs, pesticides, and mycotoxins and other non-pharmaceutical substances. The Department of Veterinary Service is responsible for establishing guidelines regarding withdrawal times of drugs, approval of drugs, their uses, and sanitation enforcement of livestock products. The authors describe the toxicological basis for the establishment of tolerance levels for xenobiotics and the pharmacokinetic basis for establishing withdrawal time for veterinary drugs. The regulatory tolerance levels of chemicals in pork and swine feed, Korean regulations on the use of feed additives, rapid residue test methods, the National Residue Program, and the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank are discussed. Rapid EIA methods that are under development for the screening of live animals are described These methods predict tissue residues from an examination of blood samples taken from pigs before they are slaughtered.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.43 no.1 s.133
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• pp.15-18
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• 2005

The diagnosis of human hydatidosis is primarily made using radiological and serological methods. Radiological methods are generally of low specificity and serological methods lack sensitivity, especially for pulmonary disease. In this study the capabilities of a new rapid test, the hydatid antigen dot immunobinding assay (HA-DIA), which was developed for the diagnosis of pulmonary hydatidosis, were studied and compared with another immunodiagnostic method, indirect hemagglutination (IHA). The study subjects included 18 patients, 9 women, 9 men; range 7 to 63 years; mean 30 years, with surgically proven pulmonary hydatidosis, a control group comprised of 14 patients; viral respiratory infections (1), cirrhosis (2), connective tissue disease (2), taeniasis (3), and 6 healthy donors. We found that the HA-DIA test had a sensitivity of $67\%$ and specificity of $100\%$, and that the IHA test had a sensitivity of $50\%$ and specificity of $100\%$. We conclude that HA-DIA is a simple, rapid, low cost assay that does not require instrumentation and has a higher sensitivity than IHA for the diagnosis of pulmonary hydatidosis.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 2018

Electromagnetic forming is a type of high-speed forming process to deform a workpiece through a Lorentz force. As the high strain rate in an electromagnetic-forming simulation causes infeasibility in determining constitutive parameters, we employed inverse parameter estimation in the previous study. However, the inverse parameter estimation process required us to spend considerable time, which leads to an increase in computational cost. To overcome the computational obstacle, in this research, we applied two types of surrogate modeling methods and compared them to each other to evaluate which model is best for the electromagnetic-forming simulation. We exploited an artificial neural network and we reduced-order modeling methods. During the construction of a reduced-order model, we extracted orthogonal bases with proper orthogonal decomposition and predicted basis coefficients by utilizing an artificial neural network. After the construction of the surrogate models, we verified the artificial neural network and reduced-order models through training and testing samples. As a result, we determined the artificial neural network model is slightly more accurate than the reduced-order model. However, the construction of the artificial neural network model requires a considerably larger amount of time than that of the reduced-order model. Thus, a reduced order modeling method is more efficient than an artificial neural network for estimating the electromagnetic forming and for the rapid approximation of structural simulations which needs repetitive runs.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.651-657
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• 2020

Lotus is one of the most important aquatic vegetables in China. Previously, we detected sweet potato latent virus from lotus (SPLV-lotus) and found that it has highly significant sequence diversity with SPLV-sweet potato isolates (SPLV-sp). Here, we developed serological methods for the detection of SPLV-lotus in Chinese lotus cultivation areas. Based on the high sensitivity of SPLV-lotus coat protein antiserum, rapid, sensitive and large-scale diagnosis methods of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and dot blot in lotus planting area were developed. The established ELISA and dot blot diagnostic methods can be used to detect SPLV-lotus from samples successfully. And our results also showed that the SPLV-lotus and sweet potato isolates appeared clearly distinction in serology. Our study provides a high-throughput, sensitive, and rapid diagnostic method based on serology that can detect SPLV on lotus, which is suggested to be included in viral disease management approach due to its good detection level.