• Annals of Laboratory Medicine
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.569-577
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• 2018

Background: The increasing prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) infection represents a global public health emergency. We evaluated the usefulness of a newly developed multiplexed, bead-based bioassay (Quantamatrix Multiplexed Assay Platform [QMAP], QuantaMatrix, Seoul, Korea) to rapidly identify the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and detect rifampicin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) resistance-associated mutations. Methods: A total of 200 clinical isolates from respiratory samples were used. Phenotypic anti-TB drug susceptibility testing (DST) results were compared with those of the QMAP system, reverse blot hybridization (REBA) MTB-MDR assay, and gene sequencing analysis. Results: Compared with the phenotypic DST results, the sensitivity and specificity of the QMAP system were 96.4% (106/110; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.9072-0.9888) and 80.0% (72/90; 95% CI 0.7052-0.8705), respectively, for RIF resistance and 75.0% (108/144; 95% CI 0.6731-0.8139) and 96.4% (54/56; 95% CI 0.8718-0.9972), respectively, for INH resistance. The agreement rates between the QMAP system and REBA MTB-MDR assay for RIF and INH resistance detection were 97.6% (121/124; 95% CI 0.9282-0.9949) and 99.1% (109/110; 95% CI 0.9453-1.0000), respectively. Comparison between the QMAP system and gene sequencing analysis showed an overall agreement of 100% for RIF resistance (110/110; 95% CI 0.9711-1.0000) and INH resistance (124/124; 95% CI 0.9743-1.0000). Conclusions: The QMAP system may serve as a useful screening method for identifying and accurately discriminating MTBC from non-tuberculous mycobacteria, as well as determining RIF- and INH-resistant MTB strains.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1687-1692
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• 2012

Background: Few studies have examined theoretically informed constructs related to hepatitis B (HBV) testing, and comparisons across studies are challenging due to lack of uniformity in constructs assessed. The present analysis examined relationships among Health Behavior Framework factors across four Asian American groups to advance the development of theory-based interventions for HBV testing in at-risk populations. Methods: Data were collected from 2007-2010 as part of baseline surveys during four intervention trials promoting HBV testing among Vietnamese-, Hmong-, Korean- and Cambodian-Americans (n = 1,735). Health Behavior Framework constructs assessed included: awareness of HBV, knowledge of transmission routes, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, doctor recommendation, stigma of HBV infection, and perceived efficacy of testing. Within each group we assessed associations between our intermediate outcome of knowledge of HBV transmission and other constructs, to assess the concurrent validity of our model and instruments. Results: While the absolute levels for Health Behavior Framework factors varied across groups, relationships between knowledge and other factors were generally consistent. This suggests similarities rather than differences with respect to posited drivers of HBV-related behavior. Discussion: Our findings indicate that Health Behavior Framework constructs are applicable to diverse ethnic groups and provide preliminary evidence for the construct validity of the Health Behavior Framework.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.173-178
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• 1983

This paper deals with the isolation of citrate-utilizing variants of Escherichia coli ($Cit^+$ E. coli) from the animals, their biochemical reactivity and antibiotic susceptibility, and whether the citrate utilizing ability is transmissible. One hundred arid twenty-three isolates of $Cit^+$ E. coli were obtained from cattle and pigs. but from other animals, no isolates were obtaied. Antibiotic susceptibility testing of $Cit^+$ E. coli was performed by the agar dilution method, using the following 9 antibiotics, chloramphenicol(CP), tetracycline(TC), streptomycine(SM), kanamycin(KM), colistin(CL), gentamicin(GM), cephaloridine(CR), aminobenzycillin and nalidixic acid(NA). All the variants tested were susceptible to KM, CL, GM, CR and NA. Of all the variants, 80(65%) were resistant to the drugs tested and resistance to TC and SM was most frequent. The transmission of the ability to utilize citrate on Simmons citrate agar at $37^{\circ}C$ was demonstrated in 78(67.8%) out of the 115 $Cit^+$ E. coli. There were no significant difference in the transfer rates of citrate utilizing ability between resistant and susceptible variants to above 9 drugs. Of 123 isolates, 8 were lost their citrate utilizing ability, spontaneously.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.136-139
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• 2014

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the severe nosocomial infectious agents. The traditional diagnostic methods including biochemical test, antibiotic susceptibility test and PCR amplification are time consuming and require much work. The Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) biosensor is a rapid and powerful tool for analyzing the chemical composition within a single living cell. To identify the biochemical and genetic characterization of clinical MRSA, all isolates from patients were performed with VITEK2 gram positive (GP) bacterial identification and Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (AST). Virulence genes of MRSA also were identified by DNA based PCR using specific primers. All isolates, which were placed on a gold coated nanochip, were analyzed by a confocal Raman microscopy system. All isolates were identified as S. aureus by biochemical tests. MRSA, which exhibited antibiotic resistance, demonstrated to be positive gene expression of both femA and mecA. Furthermore, Raman shift of S. aureus and MRSA (n=20) was perfectly distinguished by a confocal Raman microscopy system. This novel technique explained that a SERS based confocal Raman microscopy system can selectively isolate MRSA from non-MRSA. The study recommends the SERS technique as a rapid and sensitive method to detect antibiotic resistant S. aureus in a single cell level.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.336-343
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• 2006

We compared the antimicrobial resistance and clonal relationships among the community-acquired (CA) and hospital-acquired (HA) methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains that were isolated from blood cultures in a university hospital over a 4-year period. A total of 131 MRSA isolates, including 28 CA-MRSA and 103 HA-MRSA strains, were identified; antimicrobial susceptibility testing indicated that the CA-MRSA isolates were more susceptible to erythromycin (21 % vs 6% ; P=0.02), clindamycin (46% vs 12%; P<0.01), ciprofloxacin (43% vs 11%; P<0.01), and gentamicin (43% vs 6%; P<0.01) than were the HA-MRSA isolates. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing and antimicrobial resistance profiles separated the 20 CA-MRSA isolates into 14 and 10 different patterns, respectively, and the 53 HA-MRSA isolates were separated into 24 and 7 different patterns, respectively. Twenty-one (40%) of the 53 HA-MRSA isolates belonged to two predominant PFGE types, and most of them showed multi-drug resistant patterns. Four (20%) of the 20 CA-MRSA and 10 (19%) of the 53 HA-MRSA isolates fell into two common PFGE patterns, and each of them showed the same multi-drug resistant pattern. This study suggests that, although the CA-MRSA blood isolates showed diverse PFGE and antimicrobial resistance patterns, some of these isolates may have originated from the HA-MRSA strains.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2021

The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial resistance among Pseudomonas (P.) aeruginosa isolated from dogs and cats. A total of 45 (6.2%) P. aeruginosa was isolated from 710 dogs and 21 cats with clinical signs. Resistance to one or more of the antimicrobials tested was observed in 26 (57.8%) P. aeruginosa. Resistance to cefepime was the most frequent (44.4%), followed by ofloxacin (22.2%), levofloxacin (17.8%), norfloxacin (8.9%), ciprofloxacin (6.7%), ceftazidime, aztreonam, colistin, polymixin B and gentamicin (4.4%, respectively), while resistance to piperacillin/tazobactam, imipenem, tobramycin and amikacin was 2.2%, respectively. All isolates were susceptibility to doripenem and meropenem. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing should be a crucial step in selection of appropriate antimicrobial therapy in veterinary medicine. Also, the prudent use of antimicrobials and continuous monitoring for companion animals are required.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.4427-4433
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• 2013

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women. HLA class I and II alleles polymorphisms have been shown to be associated with cervical cancer risk, but results have varied among different populations. In this study, the HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 alleles among 100 southern Chinese women with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were compared to 254 controls. Our results showed that $B^*51$:01:02 allele frequency was significantly higher in patients with SCC than in healthy controls ($P=3.17{\times}10^{-5}$, $P_c$=0.005, OR=26.7). Statistical analysis also revealed a significantly decreased frequency of $B^*51$:01:02 ($P=7.01{\times}10^{-4}$, $P_c$=0.03, OR=0.12) in patients with SCC when compared with healthy controls. These results indicate that HLA-$B^*51$:01:02 may confer susceptibility to SCC and HLA-$B^*51$:01:02 may contribute to resistance to the development of SCC in Chinese women. None of the HLA-A-B or HLA-A-B-DRB1 haplotypes were significantly different in cases and controls after multiple testing corrections, indicating the individual allele associations to be independent of the identified haplotypes. These results support the hypothesis that some HLA-B alleles could be involved with susceptibility for developing SCC.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 2009

A new system of modified freeze-thaw testing apparatus is introduced. This system is developed to evaluate the geotechnical parameters and their dependence upon freezing-thawing history of frost-susceptibility soil. A necessary condition for stationary frost heaving is clarified in this paper. The method changes the thermal boundary condition up to the net heat flow at the freezing frost becomes zero. The effectiveness of this method is verified by freeze-thaw tests. Frost heaving observed after the application of the method is found to be due to another frost heaving action called long-term frost heaving. This frost heaving has already been studied and is considered ignorable as engineering factor because of its small heaving amount.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.587-593
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• 2021

Infertility is a key issue affecting mood and behavior in men. Microorganisms are one of the primary etiological agents that may be associated with infertility. The objective of the present study was to identify bacterial causative agents from the semen of infertile subjects and determine the effect of bacterial infection on sperm quality, as well as determine the susceptibility of these bacteria to drugs. Forty semen samples from 30 infertile patients and 10 fertile individuals were collected. The pH, volume, motility, and concentration of semen were analyzed. The samples were processed and identified by biochemical testing using API identification kits. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern was determined using the disc diffusion method. Abnormal sperm quality was observed. The mean age of the individual and their sperm morphology, concentration, progressive motility, pH level, and pus cell content were 31.9 years, 2.7%, 10.4 million/ml, 27.3%, 8.3, and 5.7, respectively. Among the tested samples, oligoasthenozoospermia was found to show the highest occurrence, at 27/30 samples, followed by teratozoospermia, at 25/30 samples, and asthenozoospermia, at 22/30 samples. Of the tested infertile patients' sperm, 19, 6, and 5 isolates were identified as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Staphylococcus epidermidis, respectively. The results also revealed multi-drug resistance in the bacteria. Compared to that shown by the other tested antibiotics, amikacin showed higher activity against all isolated bacteria. However, the bacteria exhibited maximum resistance against gentamicin, cefotaxime, levofloxacin, and ampicillin. In conclusion, leukocytospermia and bacterial infections are possibly responsible for sperm abnormalities. Multi-drug resistant bacteria were detected. Gentamicin, cefotaxime, levofloxacin and ampicillin were shown the highest resistance, while amikacin was the most effective antimicrobial agent against the isolated bacteria.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.33-39
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• 2022

Objectives The early growth response 3 (EGR3) gene located in chromosome 8p21.3 is one of the susceptibility loci in many psychiatric disorders. EGR3 gene plays critical roles in signal transduction in the brain, which is involved in neuronal plasticity, neuronal development, learning, memory, and circadian rhythms. Recent studies have suggested EGR3 as a potential susceptibility gene for bipolar disorder (BPD). However, this requires further replication with an independent sample set. Methods To investigate the genetic role of EGR3 in Korean patients, we genotyped six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the chromosome region of EGR3 in 1076 Korean BPD patients and 773 healthy control subjects. Results Among the six examined SNPs of EGR3 (rs17088531, rs1996147, rs3750192, rs35201266, rs7009708, rs1008949), SNP rs35201266, rs7009708, rs1008949 showed a significant association with BPD (p = 0.0041 for rs35201266 and BPD2, p = 0.0074 for rs1008949 and BPD, p = 0.0052 for rs1008949 and BPD1), which withstand multiple testing correction. In addition, the 'G-C-C-C' and 'G-C-G-C' haplotypes of EGR3 were overrepresented in the patients with BPD (p = 0.0055, < 0.0001, respectively) and the 'G-T-G-C' haplotype of EGR3 was underrepresented in patients with BPD (p = 0.0040). Conclusions In summary, our study supports the association of EGR3 with BPD in Korean population sample, and EGR3 could be suggested as a compelling susceptibility gene in BPD.