• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.867-870
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• 2014

Purpose: This study used receiver operating characteristic curve to analyze Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) ependymoma data to identify predictive models and potential disparity in outcome. Materials and Methods: This study analyzed socio-economic, staging and treatment factors available in the SEER database for ependymoma. For the risk modeling, each factor was fitted by a Generalized Linear Model to predict the outcome ('brain and other nervous systems' specific death in yes/no). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was computed. Similar strata were combined to construct the most parsimonious models. A random sampling algorithm was used to estimate the modeling errors. Risk of ependymoma death was computed for the predictors for comparison. Results: A total of 3,500 patients diagnosed from 1973 to 2009 were included in this study. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 79.8 (82.3) months. Some 46% of the patients were female. The mean (S.D.) age was 34.4 (22.8) years. Age was the most predictive factor of outcome. Unknown grade demonstrated a 15% risk of cause specific death compared to 9% for grades I and II, and 36% for grades III and IV. A 5-tiered grade model (with a ROC area 0.48) was optimized to a 3-tiered model (with ROC area of 0.53). This ROC area tied for the second with that for surgery. African-American patients had 21.5% risk of death compared with 16.6% for the others. Some 72.7% of patient who did not get RT had cerebellar or spinal ependymoma. Patients undergoing surgery had 16.3% risk of death, as compared to 23.7% among those who did not have surgery. Conclusion: Grading ependymoma may dramatically improve modeling of data. RT is under used for cerebellum and spinal cord ependymoma and it may be a potential way to improve outcome.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.209-214
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• 2010

Cells that have endogenous multipotent properties can be used as a starting source for the generation of induced pluripotent cells (iPSC). In addition, small molecules associated with epigenetic reprogramming are also widely used to enhance the multi- or pluripotency of such cells. Skinderived precursor cells (SKPs) are multipotent, sphereforming and embryonic neural crest-related precursor cells. These cells can be isolated from a juvenile or adult mammalian dermis. SKPs are also an efficient starting cell source for reprogramming and the generation of iPSCs because of the high expression levels of Sox2 and Klf4 in these cells as well as their endogenous multipotency. In this study, valproic acid (VPA), a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, was tested in the generation of iPSCs as a potential enhancer of the reprogramming potential of SKPs. SKPs were isolated from the back skins of 5-6 week old C57BL/6 X DBA/2 F1 mice. After passage 3, the SKPs was treated with 2 mM of VPA and the quantitative real time RT-PCR was performed to quantify the expression of Oct4 and Klf4 (pluripotency specific genes), and Snai2 and Ngfr (neural crest specific genes). The results show that Oct4 and Klf4 expression was decreased by VPA treatment. However, there were no significant changes in neural crest specific gene expression following VPA treatment. Hence, although VPA is one of the most potent of the HDAC inhibitors, it does not enhance the reprogramming of multipotent skin precursor cells in mice.

• 대한약침학회지
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.225-230
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• 2016

Objectives: Mellitine, a major component of bee venom (BV, Apis mellifera), is more active against gram positive than gram negative bacteria. Moreover, BV has been reported to have multiple effects, including antibacterial, antivirus, and anti-inflammation effects, in various types of cells. In addition, wasp venom has been reported to have antibacterial properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of BV against selected gram positive and gram negative bacterial strains of medical importance. Methods: This investigation was set up to evaluate the antibacterial activity of BV against six grams positive and gram negative bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia mallei and Burkholderia pseudomallei. Three concentrations of crude BV and standard antibiotic (gentamicin) disks as positive controls were tested by using the disc diffusion method. Results: BV was found to have a significant antibacterial effect against E. coli, S. aureus, and Salmonella typhyimurium in all three concentrations tested. However, BV had no noticeable effect on other tested bacteria for any of the three doses tested. Conclusion: The results of the current study indicate that BV inhibits the growth and survival of bacterial strains and that BV can be used as a complementary antimicrobial agent against pathogenic bacteria. BV lacked the effective proteins necessary for it to exhibit antibacterial activity for some specific strains while being very effective against other specific strains. Thus, one may conclude, that Apis mellifera venom may have a specific mechanism that allows it to have an antibacterial effect on certain susceptible bacteria, but that mechanism is not well understood.

• 한국환경과학회지
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.141-148
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• 2022

In this study, the inhibition of ammonia on anaerobic digestion of butyric acid was evaluated and the potential alleviating effects of such ammonia inhibition by the addition of magnetite particles were investigated. Independent anaerobic batch tests fed with butyric acid as a sole organic source were conducted in twenty 60-mL glass bottles with 10 different treatment conditions, comprising ammonia: 0.5, 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, and 7.0 g total ammonia nitrogen (TAN)/L and magnetite particles: 0 mM and 20 mM. The increase in ammonia concentration did not cause significant inhibition on methane yield; however, a significant inhibition on lag time and specific methane production rate was observed. The IC₅₀ in the control treatments (without magnetite addition) was estimated as 6.2654 g TAN/L. A similar inhibition trend was observed in magnetite-added treatments; however, the inhibition effect by ammonia was significantly alleviated in lag time and specific methane production rate when compared to those in the control treatments. The lag time was shortened by 1.6-46.3%, specific methane production rate was improved by 6.0-69.0%. In the magnetite-added treatments, IC₅₀ was estimated as 8.5361 g TAN/L. This study successfully demonstrated the potential of magnetite particles as an enhancer in anaerobic digestion of butyric acid under conditions of ammonia stress.

• 환경영향평가
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.357-372
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• 2006

The excessive land activities in farming can cause soil erosion, inundation by a flood, and fallow. So far land evaluation has been analyzed using the land use limitation derived from the excessive land activities. This study was done for evaluating the agricultural fields by using 3 land use limitations, inundation potential, soil erodibility potential, and fallow potential. The study area is Ibang-myeon, Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongnam-province, Korea. A logistic regression model was applied to recognize the inundation potential by a flood in the Nakdong river basin. And potential soil erodibility index (PSEI) was derived from USLE model to analyze the soil erodibility potential. And a probability model from a logistic regression model was applied to detect the fallow potential. Therefore, we found 220.7ha for the 4th grade and 86.1ha for the 5th grade was analyzed as water damage potential. Large area near Nakdong river have problem to grow the rice due to the damage by water inundation. And 213.6ha for the 3rd grade and 103.3ha for 4th grade was detected as a result of the analysis of soil erosion potential. The soil erosion potential was high when within-field integrity of soil was not stable, or the kinetic energy was high or the slope length was long due to a steep slope of a specific land. And 869.1ha for 3rd grade, 174.9ha for 4th grade, and 110.6ha for 5th grade was detected to be distributed having the fallow potential. Especially, a village, having a steep mountain, had 249.5ha for the 3rd grade, which was 28.7% of total area showing the 3rd grade. Finally, Three villages, including An-ri, Geonam-ri, Songgok-ri, showed they had largest area of the suitable land in the study area. These villages had similar topographic condition where they were far from Nakdong river, and they had relatively higher elevation and flat lands.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.143-151
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• 1998

Protein -surfactant interactions have been investigate by measuring ζ-potential of $\beta$-lactoglobulin-coated emulsion droplets and $\beta$-lactoglobulin in solution in the rpesenceof surfactant, with particular emphasis on the effect of protein heat treatment(7$0^{\circ}C$, 30min). When ionic surfactant (SDS or DATEM) is added to the protein solution, the ζ-potential of the mixture is found to increase with increasing surfactant concentration, indicating surfactant binding to the protein molecules. For heat-denatured protein,it has been observed that the ζ-potential tends to be lower than that of the native protein. The effect of surfactant on emulsions is rather complicated .With SDS, small amounts of surfactant addition induce a sharp increase in zeta potential arising from the specific interaction of surfactant with protein. With further surfacant addition, there is a gradual reductio in the ζ-potential, presumably caused by the displacement of adsorped protein (and protein-surfactant complex) from the emulsion droplet surfac by the excess of SDS molecules. At even higher surfactant concentrations, the measured zeta potential appears to increase slightly, possibly due to the formation of a surfactant measured zeta potential appears to increase slightly, possibly due to the formation of surfactant micellar structure at the oil droplet surface. This behaviour contrastswith the results of the corresponding systems containing the anionic emulsifier DATEM, in which the ζ-potential of the system is found to increase continuously with R, particularly at very low surfactant concentration. Overall, such behaviour is consisten with a combination of complexation and competitive displacement between surfactant and protein occurring at the oil-water interface. In addition, it has also been found that above the CMC, there is a time-dependent increase in the negative ζ-potential of emulsion droplets in solutions of SDS, possibly due to the solublization of oil droplets into surfactant micelles in the aqueous bulk phase.

• 한국결정성장학회지
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• 제15권6호
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• pp.239-243
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• 2005

The effect of pH and particle size on the dispersion stability of ultra-fine $BaTiO_3$ suspensions in aqueous medium have been investigated by means of zeta potential, sediment experiments, and powder properties (particle analysis, specific surface area) etc. Zeta potential as a function of pH for two particles of different size increases from -75 to +10 mV with decreasing pH from 8.5 to 1.4. The curve of zeta potential for small particle (150 nm) has slow slope than that of large particle (900nm), giving IEP (isoelectric point) value of pH=1.6 for small particle and pH=1.9 for large particle respectively, which means that it is more difficult to control zeta potential with pH fur small particle than large particle. The dispersion stability of $BaTiO_3$ particles in aqueous medium was found to be strongly related with the agglomeration of colloidal suspensions with time through the sedimentation behaviors of colloidal particles with time and pH value.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권9호
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• pp.4091-4094
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• 2014

Background: This study used the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) to analyze Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) bronchioaveolar carcinoma data to identify predictive models and potential disparity in outcomes. Materials and Methods: Socio-economic, staging and treatment factors were assessed. For the risk modeling, each factor was fitted by a Generalized Linear Model to predict cause specific survival. The area under the ROC was computed. Similar strata were combined to construct the most parsimonious models. A random sampling algorithm was used to estimate modeling errors. Risk of cause specific death was computed for the predictors for comparison. Results: There were 7,309 patients included in this study. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 24.2 (20) months. Female patients outnumbered male ones 3:2. The mean (S.D.) age was 70.1 (10.6) years. Stage was the most predictive factor of outcome (ROC area of 0.76). After optimization, several strata were fused, with a comparable ROC area of 0.75. There was a 4% additional risk of death associated with lower county family income, African American race, rural residency and lower than 25% county college graduate. Radiotherapy had not been used in 2/3 of patients with stage III disease. Conclusions: There are socio-economic disparities in cause specific survival. Under-use of radiotherapy may have contributed to poor outcome. Improving education, access and rates of radiotherapy use may improve outcome.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.7-13
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• 2016

Effectiveness of transgene transfer into genome is crucially concerned in mass production of the bio-pharmaceuticals using genetically modified transgenic animals as a bioreactor. Recently, the mammary gland has been considered as a potential bioreactor for the mass production of the bio-pharmaceuticals, which appears to be capable of appropriate post-translational modifications of recombinant proteins. The mammary gland tissue specific vector system may be helpful in solving serious physiological disturbance problems which have been a major obstacle in successful production of transgenic animals. In this study, to minimize physiological disturbance caused by constitutive over-expression of the exogenous gene, we constructed new retrovirus vector system designed for mammary gland-specific expression of the hEPO gene. Using piggyBac vector system, we designed to express hEPO gene under the control of mammary gland tissue specific and lactogenic hormonal inducible goat ${\beta}$-casein or mouse Whey Acidic Protein (mWAP) promoter. Inducible expression of the hEPO gene was confirmed using RT-PCR and ELISA in the mouse mammary gland cells treated with lactogenic hormone. We expect the vector system may optimize production efficiency of transgenic animal and reduce the risk of global expression of transgene.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.971-976
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• 2005

In a 30-1 bioreactor culture, whole differentiation occurred from 48 h, and then proceeded rapidly. As swollen hyphal fragments and arthrospores increased, cephalosporin C (CPC) production increased exponentially to $1.85\;g/1^{-1}$ at 72 h. To explain the morphological changes of Cephalosporium acremonium M25 more quantitatively, specific differentiation rates and fractal analysis were employed. Specific differentiation rates of morphological factors varied greatly during the period of culture time from 48 h to 72 h, when CPC production increased significantly. Changes of fractal dimensions showed a pattern similar to that of the specific rate of arthrospores. Furthermore, it was inversely related to the specific rate of tips. Overall, it was suggested that the fractal dimension had potential for a new morphological parameter of fungal morphology, showing complex differentiation patterns.