• Laboratory Medicine Online
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2011

Background: Laboratory diagnosis of new influenza A (H1N1) is crucial for managing patients and establishing control and prevention measures. We compared the diagnostic accuracies of the real time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) test recommended for the confirmation of the new flu and the viral culture method used conventionally for viral disease with that of the rapid antigen test (RAT). Methods: We performed RAT, R-mix culture, and real-time PCR by using 861 respiratory samples collected from December 2009 to January 2010 and evaluated the abilities of these methods to detect new influenza A. The relationship among the positive rates of RAT, grades of culture, and the cycle threshold (Ct) values of rRT-PCR was also evaluated. Results: Of the 861 patients, 308 (35.8%) were diagnosed with new influenza A. The sensitivities, specificities, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values of the tests were respectively as follows: 59.7%, 99.5%, 98.4%, and 81.6% for RAT; 93.2%, 100%, 100%, and 96.3% for R-mix culture; and 95.8%, 100%, 100%, and 97.7% for rRT-PCR. Samples with weak positive grade in culture and those with Ct values of 30-37 in rRT-PCR showed positivities as low as 25.3% and 2.3% in RAT, respectively. The hospitalization rate and death rate of the confirmed patients were 3.2% and 0.3%, respectively, and gastrointestinal symptoms were observed in 7.2% of the patients. Conclusions: R-mix culture and rRT-PCR tests showed excellent reliability in the diagnosis of new influenza A and could be very useful, especially for samples with low viral load.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.2_1
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• pp.237-248
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• 2018

The vertical distribution of hydrometeor before precipitation near the cloud base has been analyzed using a scanning lidar, rawinsonde data, and Cloud-Resolving Storm Simulator (CReSS). This study mostly focuses on 13 Desember 2016 only. The typical synoptic pattern of lake-effect snowstorm induced easterly in the Yeongdong region. Clouds generated due to high temperature difference between 850 hPa and sea surface (SST) penentrated in the Yeongdong region along with northerly and northeasterly, which eventually resulted precipitation. The cloud base height before the precipitation changed from 750 m to 1,280 m, which was in agreement with that from ceilometer at Sokcho. However, ceilometer tended to detect the cloud base 50 m ~ 100 m below strong signal of lidar backscattering coefficient. As a result, the depolarization ratio increased vertically while the backscattering coefficient decreased about 1,010 m~1,200 m above the ground. Lidar signal might be interpreted to be attenuated with the penetration depth of the cloud layer with of nonspherical hydrometeor (snow, ice cloud). An increase in backscattering signal and a decrease in depolarization ratio occured in the layer of 800 to 1,010 m, probably being associated with an increase in non-spherical particles. There seemed to be a shallow liquid layer with a low depolarization ratio (<0.1) in the layer of 850~900 m. As the altitude increases in the 680 m~850 m, the backscattering coefficient and depolarization ratio increase at the same time. In this range of height, the maximum value (0.6) is displayed. Such a result can be inferred that the nonspherical hydrometeor are distributed by a low density. At this time, the depolarization ratio and the backscattering coefficient did not increase under observed melting layer of 680 m. The lidar has a disadvantage that it is difficult for its beam to penetrate deep into clouds due to attenuation problem. However it is promising to distinguish hydrometeor morphology by utilizing the depolarization ratio and the backscattering coefficient, since its vertical high resolution (2.5 m) enable us to analyze detailed cloud microphysics. It would contribute to understanding cloud microphysics of cold clouds and snowfall when remote sensings including lidar, radar, and in-situ measurements could be timely utilized altogether.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2016

Background: It is necessary to consider the overall countermeasure for analysis of nuclear activities according to the increase of the nuclear facilities like nuclear power and reprocessing plants in the neighboring countries including China, Taiwan, North Korea, Japan and South Korea. South Korea and comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty organization (CTBTO) are now operating the monitoring instruments to detect radionuclides released into the air. It is important to estimate the origin of radionuclides measured using the detection technology as well as the monitoring analysis in aspects of investigation and security of the nuclear activities in neighboring countries. Materials and methods: A three-dimensional forward/backward trajectory model has been developed to estimate the origin of radionuclides for a covert nuclear activity. The developed trajectory model was composed of forward and backward modules to track the particle positions using finite difference method. Results and discussion: A three-dimensional trajectory model was validated using the measured data at Chernobyl accident. The calculated results showed a good agreement by using the high concentration measurements and the locations where was near a release point. The three-dimensional trajectory model had some uncertainty according to the release time, release height and time interval of the trajectory at each release points. An atmospheric dispersion model called long-range accident dose assessment system (LADAS), based on the fields of regards (FOR) technique, was applied to reduce the uncertainties of the trajectory model and to improve the detective technology for estimating the radioisotopes emission area. Conclusion: The detective technology developed in this study can evaluate in release area and origin for covert nuclear activities based on measured radioisotopes at monitoring stations, and it might play critical tool to improve the ability of the nuclear safety field.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 2016

Enzyme immunoassay to analyze specific binding activity of antibody to antigen uses horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or alkaline phosphatase (AP). Chemical methods are usually used for coupling of these enzymes to antibody, which is complicated and random cross-linking process. As results, it causes decreases or loss of functional activity of either antibody or enzyme. In addition, most enzyme assays use secondary antibody to detect antigen binding activity of primary antibody. Enzymes coupled to secondary antibody provide a binding signal by substrate-based color development, suggesting secondary antibody is required in enzyme immunoassay. Additional incubation time for binding of secondary antibody should also be necessary. More importantly, non-specific binding activity caused by secondary antibody should also be eliminated. In this study, we cloned AP isolated from Escherichia coli (E. coli) chromosome by PCR and fused to) hAY4 single-chain variable domain fragment (ScFv) specific to death receptor (DR4) which is a receptor for tumor necrosis factor ${\alpha}$ related apoptosis induced ligand (TRAIL). hAY4 ScFv-AP expressed in E. coli showed 73.8 kDa as a monomer in SDS-PAGE. However, this fusion protein shown in size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) exhibited 147.6 kDa as a dimer confirming that natural dimerization of AP by non-covalent association induced ScFv-AP dimerization. In several immunoassay such as ELISA, Western blot and immunocytochemistry, it showed antigen binding activity by color development of substrates catalyzed by AP directly fused to primary hAY4 ScFv without secondary antibody. In summary, hAY4 ScFv-AP fusion protein was successfully purified as a soluble dimeric form in E. coli and showed antigen binding activity in several immunoassays without addition of secondary antibody which sometimes causes time-consuming, expensive and non-specific false binding.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_4
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• pp.1173-1183
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• 2023

Over the past 20 years, Korea's overall import and export cargo volume has increased at an average annual rate of approximately 5.3%. About 99% of the cargo is still being transported by sea. Due to recent increases in maritime cargo volume, congestion in maritime logistics has become challenging due to factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts. Continuous monitoring of ports has become crucial. Various ground observation systems and Automatic Identification System (AIS) data have been utilized for monitoring ports and conducting numerous preliminary studies for the efficient operation of container terminals and cargo volume prediction. However, small and developing countries' ports face difficulties in monitoring due to environmental issues and aging infrastructure compared to large ports. Recently, with the increasing utility of artificial satellites, preliminary studies have been conducted using satellite imagery for continuous maritime cargo data collection and establishing ocean monitoring systems in vast and hard-to-reach areas. This study aims to visually detect ships docked at berths in the Busan New Port using high-resolution satellite imagery and quantitatively evaluate berth utilization rates. By utilizing high-resolution satellite imagery from Compact Advanced Satellite 500-1 (CAS500-1), Korea Multi-Purpose satellite-3 (KOMPSAT-3), PlanetScope, and Sentinel-2A, ships docked within the port berths were visually detected. The berth utilization rate was calculated using the total number of ships that could be docked at the berths. The results showed variations in berth utilization rates on June 2, 2022, with values of 0.67, 0.7, and 0.59, indicating fluctuations based on the time of satellite image capture. On June 3, 2022, the value remained at 0.7, signifying a consistent berth utilization rate despite changes in ship types. A higher berth utilization rate indicates active operations at the berth. This information can assist in basic planning for new ship operation schedules, as congested berths can lead to longer waiting times for ships in anchorages, potentially resulting in increased freight rates. The duration of operations at berths can vary from several hours to several days. The results of calculating changes in ships at berths based on differences in satellite image capture times, even with a time difference of 4 minutes and 49 seconds, demonstrated variations in ship presence. With short observation intervals and the utilization of high-resolution satellite imagery, continuous monitoring within ports can be achieved. Additionally, utilizing satellite imagery to monitor changes in ships at berths in minute increments could prove useful for small and developing country ports where harbor management is not well-established, offering valuable insights and solutions.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.6_3
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• pp.1187-1195
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• 2019

We, for the first time, developed a Raman lidar system which can remotely detect surface CO₂ volume mixing ratio (VMR). The Raman lidar system consists of the Nd: YAG laser of wavelength 355 nm with 80 mJ, an optical receiver, and detectors. Indoor CO₂ cell measurements show that the accuracy of the Raman lidar system is calculated to be 99.89%. We carried out the field measurement using our Raman lidar at Pukyong National University over a seven-day period in October 2019. The results show good agreement between CO₂ VMRs measured by the Raman lidar (CO₂ Raman Lidar) and those measured by in situ instruments (CO₂ In situ) which located 300 m and 350 m away from the Raman lidar system. The correlation coefficient (R), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean square error (RMSE) between CO₂ In situ and CO₂ Raman Lidar are 0.67, 2.78 ppm, and 3.26 ppm, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.403-408
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• 2003

A general meaning of caricaturing is that a representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect. In other words, a caricature is defined as a rough sketch(dessin) which is made by detecting features from human face and exaggerating or warping those. There have been developed many methods which can make a caricature image from human face using computer. In this paper, we propose a new caricaturing system. The system uses a real-time image or supplied image as an input image and deals with it on four processing steps and then creates a caricatured image finally. The four Processing steps are like that. The first step is detecting a face from input image. The second step is extracting special coordinate values as facial geometric information. The third step is deforming the face image using local warping method and the coordinate values acquired in the second step. In fourth step, the system transforms the deformed image into the better improved edge image using a fuzzy Sobel method and then creates a caricatured image finally. In this paper , we can realize a caricaturing system which is simpler than any other exiting systems in ways that create a caricatured image and does not need complex algorithms using many image processing methods like image recognition, transformation and edge detection.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.225-231
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• 2001

This study was conducted to find out the optimal aeration rates for minimizing odor emission and for increasing biological activities during composting of livestock manure in the enclosed bench-scale reactor system. It was treated with the mixture of poultry manure and sawdust controlled the initial water content of 60%, then aerated continuously at four different aeration rates (0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 L/min/kg dry-solids). The average emitted concentration of ammonia in 0.6 L/min/kg dry-solids during composting reached the level of 40% in comparison with that of 0.2 L/min/kg dry-solids. In cases of sulfur compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, methylmercaptan and ethylmercaptan, their concentrations decreased with increasing aeration rates and the emission time was shortened. But they didn't detect in the treatment of 0.6 L/min/kg dry-solids. The biological activity for composting showed a trend of increasing as aeration rates increased. The treatment of 0.6 L/min/kg dry-solids gave the highest biological activity and the best compost quality.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.595-601
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• 2010

This study was conducted to detect and identify Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Salmonella enterica subsp. using simultaneous multiplex polymerase chain reaction (multiplex PCR) assay. 23S rRNA partial gene (S. aureus), tox R gene (V. parahaemolyticus), and inv A gene (S. enterica subsp.) as diagnostic marker gene were suggested, and their amplicon sizes were 482 bp, 368 bp, and 284 bp, respectively. Non specific amplicons by STA-5F/STA-5R primer, ToxR-F/ToxR-R primer, and 139/141 primer were not observed in genomic DNA of pathogen bacteria as Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Streptococcus pyogenes, Candida albicans, and Shigella sonnei. The extracted crude DNA of targeted bacteria was detected as PCR template successfully. The detection limits were $10^5\sim10^4$ CFU/mL and 10 pg of purified genomic DNA of S. aureus, V. parahaemolyticus, and S. enterica subsp. by using simultaneous multiplex PCR.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1273-1278
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• 1998

Conditions for enzyme-protein binding assay (EPBA) were established in order to detect biotin more rapidly and reproducibly than traditional microbiological assay (MBA). EPBA with streptavidin and biotin-KLH conjugate showed cross-reactivities on biocytin, a derivative with biotin activity, at the rate of 109% $(IC_{50}=0.3\;ppb)\;and\;197%\;(IC_{50}=0.8\;ppb)$, respectively, but not on other derivatives with no biotin activities, such as desthiobiotin, diaminobiotin and 2-iminobiotin. Detection ranges of biotin by EPBA with streptavidin and biotin-KLH conjugates were $0.01{\sim}30\;ng/mL\;and\;0.01{\sim}1.0\;ng/mL(ppb)$, respectively. In the spike test with milk, fruit flake and pine-carrot juice, the correlation coefficience between MBA and EPBA with biotin-KLH conjugates was r=0.994. But MBA showed cross-reactivities both on biocytin and desthiobiotin at the rate of 80.1% and 66.7%, respectively. Detection range of biotin by MBA was $0.1{\sim}0.5\;ng/mL(ppb)$. These results strongly suggest that EPBA is efficient for biotin detection in sensitivity, detection range, cross-reactivity and time consuming.