• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제53권2호
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• pp.174-180
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• 2020

The mouse bioassay has been used widely for the monitoring of paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) in many countries. However, this method shows low sensitivity and high limit of detection (LOD), as well as it cannot confirm toxic profiles. Recently, LC-MS/MS method was studied for the quantitative of PSTs, however, the method has any problems with unstable retention times by ionization suppression caused by high salt concentration in shellfish extracts. To establish an alternative method for PSTs analysis, we tried to original LC-MS/MS methods adding desalting operation using amorphous graphitized polymer carbon solid-phase extraction cartridges. The method validation was conducted to determine linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy, and precision in quantifying PSTs. The correlation coefficients for all tested PSTs maintained over 0.999. The LODs and LOQs for all PSTs were about 0.19-1.05 ㎍/kg and 0.58-3.18 ㎍/kg, respectively. The accuracies for PSTs were 95.4-107.7% for saxitoxin group, 97.1-100.9% for gonyautoxin group, 99.0-100.8% for N-sulfocarbamoyl toxin group, and 96.8-104.6% for decarbamoyl toxin group. These results indicate that the modified LC-MS/MS method was appropriate for analyzing the PSTs in shellfish and tunicates.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제17권2호
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• pp.609-614
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• 2016

Background: Although breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, economic evaluation of breast cancer screening is not fully addressed in developing countries. The main objective of the present study was to analyze the cost-effectiveness of breast cancer screening using mammography in 35-69 year old women in an Iranian setting. Materials and Methods: This was an economic evaluation study assessing the cost-effectiveness of a population-based screening program in 35-69 year old women residing in rural areas of South east Iran. The study was conducted from the perspective of policy-makers of insurance. The study population consisted of 35- to 69-year old women in rural areas of Kerman with a population of about 19,651 in 2013. The decision tree modeling and economic evaluation software were used for cost-effectiveness and sensitivity analyses of the interventions. Results: The total cost of the screening program was 7,067.69 US$ and the total effectiveness for screening and no-screening interventions was 0.06171 and 0.00864 disability adjusted life years averted, respectively. The average cost-effectiveness ratio DALY averted US$ for screening intervention was 7,7082.5 US$ per DALY averted and 589,027 US $ for no-screening intervention. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio DALY averted was 6,264 US$ per DALY averted for screening intervention compared with no-screening intervention. Conclusions: Although the screening intervention is more cost-effective than the alternative (noscreening) strategy, it seems that including breast cancer screening program in health insurance package may not be recommended as long as the target group has a low participation rate.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권12호
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• pp.7315-7319
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• 2013

Background: The metastasis gene osteopontin (OPN) is subject to alternative splicing, which yields three messages, osteopontin-a, osteopontin-b and osteopontin-c. Osteopontin-c is selectively expressed in invasive, but not in noninvasive tumors. In the present study, we examined the expression of OPN-c in esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs) and assessed its value as a diagnostic biomarker. Methods: OPN-c expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in 63 ESCC samples and correlated with clinicopathologic factors. Expression was also examined in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 120 ESCC patients and 30 healthy subjects. The role of OPN-c mRNA as a tumor marker was investigated by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Results: Immunohistochemistry showed that OPN-c was expressed in 30 of 63 cancer lesions (48%)and significantly associated with pathological T stage (P=0.038) and overall stage (P=0.023). Real time PCR showed that OPN-c mRNA was expressed at higher levels in the PBMCs of ESCC patients than in those of healthy subjects (P<0.0001) with a sensitivity as an ESCC biomarker of 86.7%. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that expression of OPN-c is significantly elevated in ESCCs and this upregulation could be a potential diagnostic marker.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.588-595
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• 2016

IFN-γ release assays (IGRAs) have been developed as viable alternative diagnostic tools for detecting latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). A customized homogeneous sandwich luminescent oxygen channeling immunoassay (LOCI) was used to quantify IFN-γ levels in IGRAs. Samples were collected from healthy volunteers (n = 40) who were T-Spot-negative and T-Spot-positive patients (n = 32) at rest. Then the amount of IFN-γ in the supernatant of IGRAs was measured by LOCI. The results demonstrated a low background, and high sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and reproducibility, and a short assay time (only 30 min) with LOCI for IFN-γ. The recovery range was 81.63-102.06%, the coefficients of variation were below 5%, and the limit of detection was 19.0 mIU/ml. Excellent agreement between LOCI IFN-γ and the T-SPOT.TB test was obtained (97.2% agreement, κ = 0.94). The LOCI IFN-γ concentrations were significantly higher in T-Spot-positive patients than in the healthy group (p < 0.001). Moreover, as observed for the comparative LOCI IFN-γ assay, IFN-γ concentrations were related to the numbers of T-SPOT.TB spots. We have established an in vitro blood test for LTBI diagnosis, defined as LOCI IFN-γ. A high level of agreement between the LOCI IFN-γ method and T-SPOT.TB assay was observed in clinical studies that showed the LOCI IFN-γ method could determine LTBI. This study shows acceptable performance characteristics of the LOCI IFN-γ assay to diagnose LTBI.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제46권2호
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• pp.154-159
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• 2013

The AOAC Mouse Bioassay method (MBA) has been widely used for routine monitoring of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) for more than 50 years. However, this method has low sensitivity and experiences interference from other components in the extract. Also, ethical issues have been raised against the continued use of this live-mouse assay. To establish an alternative method for PSP analysis, we attempted to develop PSP analysis conditions using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The LC-MS/MS analysis of reference material showed very reasonable accuracy, and the analysis time was just 15 min. However, the recovery rate of toxin spike samples using the LC-MS/MS analysis was 59.4-91.0%. We also attempted to remove the matrix effect using shellfish extracts, but recoveries of C1 and C2 did not improve. A comparison between the results of MBA and LC-MS/MS analysis revealed good correlations, with values of 0.8878 and 0.9211 for oyster and mussel matrices, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 한국재료학회 2011년도 춘계학술발표대회
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• pp.16.1-16.1
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• 2011

$TiO_2$ is a promising material for gas sensors. To achieve high sensitivities, the material should exhibit a large surface-to-volume ratio and possess the high accessibility of the gas molecules to the surface. Accordingly, a wide variety of porous $TiO_2$ nanomaterials synthesized by wet-chemical methods have been reported for gas sensor applications. Nonetheless, achieving the large-area uniformity and comparability with well-established semiconductor production processes of the methods is still challenging. An alternative method is soft-templating which utilizes nanostructured inorganic or organic materials as sacrificial templates for the preparation of porous materials. Fabrication of macroporous $TiO_2$ films and hollow $TiO_2$ tubes by soft-templating and their gas sensing applications have been reported recently. In these porous materials composed of assemblies of individual micro/nanostructures, the form of links or necks between individual micro/nanostructures is a critical factor to determine gas sensing properties of the material. However, a systematic study to clarify the role of links between individual micro/nanostructures in gas sensing properties of a porous metal oxide matrix is thoroughly lacking. In this work, we have demonstrated a fabrication method to prepare highly-ordered, embossed $TiO_2$ films composed of anatase $TiO_2$ hollow hemispheres via soft-templating using polystyrene beads. The form of links between hollow hemispheres could be controlled by $O_2$ plasma etching on the bead templates. This approach reveals the strong correlation of gas sensitivity with the form of the links. Our experimental results highlight that not only the surface-to-volume ratio of an ensemble material composed of individual micro/nanostructures but also the links between individual micro/nanostructures play a critical role in evaluating the sensing properties of the material. In addition to this general finding, the facileness, large-scale productivity, and compatability with semiconductor production process of the proposed fabrication method promise applications of the embossed $TiO_2$ films to high-quality sensors.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• 제23권5호
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• pp.655-667
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• 2009

An experimental study is performed on reducing the pollutants supplied by storm water through enhancing efficiency of SS from the detention storage tank where CSOs are kept temporarily before discharge to the receiving water system. SS removal efficiency is investigated in accordance with various conditions of the detention pond-such as its length, the existence of training wall, and the use of gravel filling. The removal efficiency is strongly affected by the detention pond's length until the critical falling distance of the suspended solids is reached. For cases where the tank has a length longer than this critical condition, the removal rate shows less sensitivity. To enhance the SS removal efficiency of tanks of shorter than the critical length, we studied alternative types of tank in which inside training walls are installed. The results showed improvement of 14 to 37% in removal efficiency in 2hours detention(2 training walls). The important factor in achieving a high SS removal rate is ensuring the critical length of the detention pond, but for the cases where the basin length cannot be guaranteed, baffles or a gravel filling scheme may be introduced to attain considerable efficiency. The results of studying and comparing different storage tank conditions show that, in terms of elimination efficiency, a storage tank with gravel filling and training walls > a storage tank with gravel filling > a storage tank with training walls > an empty tank. The experimental results should contribute to development of related further research, by empirically verifying the already assumed importance of critical falling distance, training walls, and gravel filling schemes.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.229-237
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• 2017

Rye (Secale cereale L.) serves as an alternative host of Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (PTR) the cause of tan spot on wheat. Rye is cultivated as a forage or cover crop and overlaps with a significant portion of wheat acreage in the U.S. northern Great Plains; however, it is not known whether the rye crop influences the evolution of PTR races. We evaluated a global collection of 211 rye accessions against tan spot and assessed the diversity in PTR population on rye in South Dakota. All the rye genotypes were inoculated with PTR races 1 and 5, and infiltrated with Ptr ToxA and Ptr ToxB, at seedling stage. We observed 21% of the genotypes exhibited susceptibility to race 1, whereas, 39% were susceptible to race 5. All 211 accessions were insensitive to both the Ptr toxins. It indicates that though rye exhibits diversity in reaction to tan spot, it lacks Ptr ToxA and ToxB sensitivity genes. This suggests that unknown toxins or other factors can lead to PTR establishment in rye. We characterized the race structure of 103 PTR isolates recovered from rye in South Dakota. Only 22% of the isolates amplified Ptr ToxA gene and were identified as race 1 based on their phenotypic reaction on the differential set. The remaining 80 isolates were noted to be race 4. Our results show that races 1 and 4 are prevalent on rye in South Dakota with a higher frequency of race 4, suggesting a minimal role of rye in the disease epidemiology.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.45-52
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• 2017

PURPOSES : The main purpose of this study is to develop a high elastic modulus and low-shrinkage roller-compacted concrete base (RCCB) in order to prevent fatigue cracking and reflective cracking in the asphalt surface layer of composite pavement. Using a rigid base material with low shrinkage can be a solution to this problem. Moreover, a strong rigid base with high elastic modulus is able to shift the location of critical tensile strain from the bottom of the asphalt layer to the bottom of the rigid base layer, which can prevent fatigue cracking in the asphalt layer. METHODS : Sensitivity analysis of composite pavement via numerical methods is implemented to determine an appropriate range of elastic modulus of the rigid base that would eliminate fatigue cracking. Various asphalt thicknesses and elastic moduli of the rigid base are used in the analysis to study their respective influences on fatigue cracking. Low-shrinkage RCC mixture, as determined via laboratory testing with various amounts of a CSA expansion agent (0%, 7%, and 10%), is found to achieve an appropriate low-shrinkage level. Shrinkage of RCC is measured according to KS F 2424. RESULTS : This study shows that composite pavements comprising asphalt thicknesses of (h1) 2 in. with E2 > 19 GPa, 4 in. with E2 > 15 GPa, and 6 in. with E2 > 11 GPa are able to eliminate tensile strain in the asphalt layer, which is the cause of fatigue cracking in this layer. Shrinkage test results demonstrate that a 10% CSA RCC mixture can reduce shrinkage by 84% and 93% as compared to conventional RCC and PCC, respectively. CONCLUSIONS : According to the results of numerical analyses using various design inputs, composite pavements are shown to be able to eliminate fatigue cracking in composite pavement. Additionally, an RCC mixture with 10% CSA admixture is able to reduce or eliminate reflective cracking in asphalt surfaces as a result of the significant shrinkage reduction in the RCC base. Thus, this low-shrinkage base material can be used as an alternative solution to distresses in composite pavement.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.991-995
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• 2006

The layered double hydroxide with the insertion of chloride ions (LDH-Cl), which was synthesized by the co-precipitation method, was applied to investigate the fundamental aspects of the absorptive agent for phosphate removal from wastewater. The adsorption capacity was best described by the Langmuir-FreundIich isotherm, and the estimated isotherm parameters indicate that the LDH-CI capacity for the phosphate removal is much higher than that observed using a natural adsorbent material such iron oxide tailing. The kinetic experiment also showed that the LDH-Cl adsorption reaction rapidly at the adsorptive rate of 0.55 mg-P/g-LDH/min, implying that this adsorbent can be of use in the full-scale applications. The pH had a minimal effect on the LDH adsorption capacity in the range of 5 to 11, although the capacity dropped at the low pHs because of the change in LDH surface properties. Furthermore, other anions such as $Cl^-$ and $NO_3{^-}$ commonly found in the wastewater streams insignificantly affected the phosphate removal efficiencies, while $HCO_3{^-}$ ions had a negative effect on the LDH adsorption capacity due to its high selectivity. The phosphate removal experiment using the actual secondary effluent from a wastewater treatment plant showed the similar decrease in adsorption capacity, indicating that the bicarbonate ions in the wastewater were competing with phosphate for the adsorptive site in the surface of the LDH-Cl. Overall, the synthetic adsorbent material, LDH-Cl, can be a feasible alternative over other conventional chemical agents, since the LDH-Cl exhibits the high phosphate removal capacity with the low sensitivity to other environmental conditions.