• Title/Summary/Keyword: ghosts

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New typhoid vaccine using sponge-like reduced protocol: development and evaluation

  • Rehab Bahy;Asmaa Gaber;Hamdallah Zedan;Mona Mabrook
    • Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.70-76
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    • 2023
  • Purpose: Typhoid remains a major health problem, especially in the developing world. Furthermore, the emergence of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains of Salmonella typhi added a sense of urgency to develop more effective typhoid vaccines, one of which is bacterial ghosts (BGs), prepared by both genetic and chemical means. The chemical method includes incubation with numerous agents for a short time at their minimum inhibitory or minimum growth concentrations. This study included the preparation of BGs by a sponge-like reduced protocol (SLRP). Materials and Methods: Critical concentrations of sodium dodecyl sulfate, NaOH, and H2O2 were used. Moreover, high-quality BGs were visualized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Subculturing was used to confirm the absence of vital cells. Besides, the concentrations of the released DNA and protein were estimated spectrophotometrically. In addition, the integrity of cells was proved by visualizing Gram-stained cells using a light microscope. Furthermore, a comparison between the immunogenicity and safety of the prepared vaccine and the available whole-cell killed vaccine was established. Results: Improved preparation of high-quality BGs of S. typhi, visualized by SEM, revealed punctured cells with intact outer shells. Moreover, the absence of vital cells was confirmed by subculturing. At the same time, the release of respective amounts of proteins and DNA is another evidence of BGs' production. Additionally, the challenge test provided evidence that the prepared BGs are immunogenic and have the same efficacy as the whole cell vaccine. Conclusion: The SLRP provided a simple, economical, and feasible method for BGs preparation.

A Study for Renaming of Paekje's Designed Tiles -Centering Around the Ghost Image Design Excavated at Oe-ri Kyuam-myun, Buyeo- (백제 문양전의 개명(改名)을 위한 연구 -부여 규암면 외리 출토 '귀형문(鬼形文)'을 중심으로-)

  • Hong, Jae-Dong
    • Journal of architectural history
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    • v.10 no.3 s.27
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    • pp.7-23
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    • 2001
  • We Koreans are very proud of this nation's cultural history over some five millenniums. But most of the relics found in the nation date back up to two thousand years. Under this circumstance, we are wondering the gap and missing of three thousand years. In our traditional literature of history, [Chiwoo] was a military god of supreme dignity and virtue. He was a symbol of brave and strong warriors and since the antiquity, he has been kept alive deeply in the mind of the Korean race. Considering findings through this study, the researcher could provide a conclusion as described below. 1) The name of Paekje's designed tiles was initially made by a Japanese scholar who had first found the antique relic. According to studies by a few of Korean researchers, the name is usually called despite its relation with a historical background of the excavated objects has not been fully studied. 2) After the patterned objects of the Korean antique Kingdom, Japanese researchers reported that [Chiwoo] was a military god as exorcist and probably represented something in the form of a ghost, although there were arguments that the military god was the very being to influence the image of the ghost. This report suggests that the Japanese community didn't downgrade the military god onto the level of a ghost. 3) One of our antique nations, Paekje at that time sought to determine the origin and culture of the Koreans by making multiple exchange relations with China, and probably accepting cultures of the Chinese Han nation and those of the Chinese South and North Dynasty period. Based on findings from a relevant literature, [Sulyigi], people of Paekje attempted to show express the image of Chiwoo in their own unique ways and then deliver the strong bravery of [Chiwoo] to us, or their descendents. This can explain that those findings as above mentioned are consistent with the designed tiles of Paekje, and that the tiles should not be named as the design of ghost. 4) The designed tiles involved elements of Taoism and Buddhism and substantially considered the spirit of four gods which was mobilized for the tomb construction and selection at that time. But this should never be a reason why all of the horned figures seen in tomb wall paintings are collectively treated as ghosts. 5) From the view of historic literature, we can no doubt say that the Heavenly Emperor [Chiwoo] was our ancestor. It is not better to say that the relic stuffs as excavated should be referred to the design of ghost image only in that they have yet to be associated historically with other relics. This claim would be newly changed as it becomes clear with historical remains that our antique ancestors kept doing positive activities along the coast of the antique kingdom, Balhae.

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Changes of the Ultrastructure and $Ca^{2+}$ Distribution after Transient Ischemia and after Reperfusion in the Myocardial Cells of Isolated Perfused Guinea Pig Hearts (일과성 허혈 및 허혈후 재관류가 기니픽 심실심근세포의 미세구조 및 칼슘 분포에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Yong-Mun;Kim, Ho-Duk;Rah, Bong-Jin
    • Applied Microscopy
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    • v.19 no.1
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    • pp.1-18
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    • 1989
  • It has been debated whether postischemic reperfusion is necessarily beneficial to salvage the myocardium after ischemic insult or not. Therefore, this study was undertaken to compare the ultrastructural changes as well as the distribution of $Ca^{2+}$ in the ventricular myocardial cells after transient ischemia and after postischemic reperfusion, and to suspect to what extent the postischemic reperfusion is beneficial. After 10 minutes of ischemia, the heart developed wide I bands, glycogen depletion, intramyofibrillar edema, mitochondrial swelling, clumping and migration of chromatin, ghosts of lipid droplets, disintegration of cell junctions, sarcolemmal disruption, and loss of $Ca^{2+}$ binding capacity of the sarcolemma and the mitochondria. In spite of reperfusion, in a large number of cells, the ultrastructure was more severely damaged, however, $Ca^{2+}$ binding capacity of the sarcolemma and the mitochondria restored. These results suggest that postischemic reperfusion may help the myocardial cells to restore their function to control $Ca^{2+}$ to a certain extent, but that it could aggravate the ischemic insult.

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Purification of Band 3 from the Human Erythrocyte Membrane and its Incorporation into Liposome (사람 적혈구막 Band 3의 정제 및 Liposome으로의 도입)

  • Kim, Jae-Ryong;Kim, Jung-Hye;Lee, Ki-Yung
    • Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.41-48
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    • 1986
  • Band 3, the predominent 95,000 dalton anion transport protein, is the major intrinsic glycoprotein of the human erythrocyte membrane. This anion carrier exists as a dimer and binds the cytoskeletons such as spectrin, ankyrin and actin. And the liposomes are vesicular structures which form spontaneouly upon hydration of phospholipids. These artificial lipid vesicles have been investigated as model of the biological membranes and as a mean of improving the delivery of nucleic acids, drugs, proteins and biological substances to specific target tissues and cells. In this study, we were purified Band 3 from the human erythrocyte membrane(ghost) was prepared by hemolysis of intact human erythrocyte with weak alkali-hypotonic solution. Band 6 was removed from ghost by extracting with solution of an ionic strength of 0.15. Band 3 and Band 4 were solubilized selectively by extracting Band 6-depleted ghosts with Triton X-100 under nondenaturing conditions. Band 3 was then purified from Triton X-100 extract treated with p-chloromercuribenzoate by sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation. This purified Band 3 was incorporated into liposomes prepared by reverse-phase evaporation. Phosphatidyl L-serine and cholesterol(1 : 1 molar ratio) were dissolved in chloroform and then chloroform was removed by rotatory evaporation under reduced pressure. Band 3 solution without Triton X-100 was introduced into a mixture of lipids and diethylether. Diethylether was subsequently removed by evaporation. This purified Band 3 and its incorporation into liposomes were confirmed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

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Animation and Horror - Ghost story, Madness, and Cannibalism (애니메이션과 공포 -괴담(怪談), 광기(狂氣), 식인(食人))

  • Cho, Mi-Ra
    • Cartoon and Animation Studies
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    • s.42
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    • pp.1-24
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    • 2016
  • The 'fear' in animation has a couple of problems to apply the criteria for identical genre as in movie or literature. First, the mutilation and destruction of one's body and the appearance of monsters and ghosts are not a normal way of expression and could not apply to one genre. Second, the cause of fear comes from the subject of fear which is a reality that is something 'unrealistic' and 'special' and is approachable. This is all possible in a three dimensional world, but animation is not founded on realism. According to this logic, the horror genre in animation or the esthetic experience of animation is not possible. However, many of the powerful images you can see from the horror genre are all created from animation. Therefore, many writers are drawn to the horror in animation and tried to express in many different ways. This study will include the general idea of fear which drives the audience to the felling of fear and terror but we will mainly focus on the three types of fear - ghost story, cannibalism, and madness - and discover the meaning of fear used in animation. Through this process, we anticipate that fear in animation is not just for pure amusement, but will be able to investigate the meaning of fear philosophically even if the hidden side of reality is terrifying.

Effect of Gentamicin on Sodium Transport in Human Erythrocytes (Gentamicin이 적혈구막을 통한 $Na^+$ 이동에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Kyung-Hyo;Park, Kae-Sook;Kim, Hee-Jin;Shin, Ho-Im;An, Mi-Ra;Kang, Bok-Soon
    • The Korean Journal of Physiology
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.23-34
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    • 1989
  • Gentamicin (GM) is a polybasic, aminoglycoside antibiotic used frequently for the treatment of serious gram-negative infections. The major limiting factors in the clinical use of GM as well as other aminoglycoside antibiotics are their nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity. The primary mechanism of cell injury in aminoglycoside toxicity appears to be the disruption of normal membrane function and the inhibition of $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase activity. There are both indirect and direct evidences which suggests that the effect of aminoglycoside antibiotics on $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase may explain, or contribute to, their toxicity. It has been shown that aminoglycoside reduce total ATPase activity (Kaku et al., 1973) and $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase activity (linuma et al., 1967) in the stria vascularis and spiral ligament of the guinea-pig cochlea. Lipsky and Lietman (1980) reported that aminoglycoside antibitoics inhibited the activity of $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase in microsomal fractions of the cortex and medulla of the guinea-pig kidney, isolated rat renal tubule and human erythrocyte ghosts. The present invstigation was undertaken to elucidate the mechanism of GM on human erythrocytes by examining its effect on $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase activity, actives sodium and potassium transport across red blood cell and $^{3}H-ouabain$ binding to red blood cell membranes. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1) CM inhibited significantly both the activity of total ATPase and $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase at all concentrations tested. 2) GM inhibited active $^{22}Na$ efflux across red blood cell. When ouabain is present, the rate of $^{22}Na$ efflux was completely inhibited. When both GM and ouabain were added, the inhibitory effect of active $^{22}Na$ efflux was more pronounced. 3) Active $^{86}Rb$ influx was inhibited significantly by GM. In the presence of ouabain, the rate of $^{86}Rb$ influx is markedly inhibited. But $^{86}Rb$ influx is not appreciably altered by the presence of both GM and ouabain. 4) In the presence of GM, $^{3}H-ouabain$ binding to red blood cell membrane increased. From the above results, it may be concluded that the inhibition of active sodium and potassium transport across red blood cell by gentamicin appears to be due to the inhibition of $Na^{+}-K^{+}$ ATPase activity and an increase in ouabain binding to red blood cell membranes.

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Knowledge and Perceptions of Cancer and Cancer Prevention among Malaysian Traditional Healers: a Qualitative Study

  • Al-Naggar, Redhwan A.;Bobryshev, Yuri V.;Abdulghani, Mahfoudh Al-Musali Mohammed;Rammohan, Subramanian;Al-Jashamy, Karim
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.13 no.8
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    • pp.3841-3850
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    • 2012
  • Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the knowledge and perceptions of Malaysian tradition healers towards cancer and cancer prevention. Methodology: A total of 25 participants agreed to participate in this qualitative study during the period from $20^{th}$ July 2011 until $24^{th}$ of September 2011. The proposal of this study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Management and Science University (MSU). Once the participant agreed to be interviewed, date, time and place of the interviews were determined. Consent form was obtained from participants before the interview began. Participants were briefed about the study and its purpose, and after asking their permissions, their replies were recorded. The data was organized into themes and analyzed manually. Results: Twenty-five Malaysian traditional healers participated in this qualitative study. The age of participants ranged between 26 to 78 years old. The majority were in the age group of 31-60 years old, male, Chinese, degree holders with a monthly income ranging from 1,000-5,000 Ringgit Malaysia (RM) and were married (56%, 80%, 48%, 52%, 68%, 84% respectively). The majority defined cancer as having high cholesterol or abscess accumulation. A few of them defined cancer as a type of cell growth. The majority mentioned that food and unhealthy lifestyles are the primary causes of cancer. Surprisingly some of them mentioned that cancer is caused by interference by ghosts. Regarding the diagnosis of cancer, the majority mentioned that they refer their patients to modern physicians' medical report when it comes to diagnosing or treating patients with cancer. The most common cancers that many patients came to seek treatment were breast cancers, followed by colon cancers, liver and lung cancers. Conclusions: Despite good knowledgeabout the causes of cancer among traditional healers, misconceptions still exist. Insufficient knowledge about the definition of cancer was noted among the traditional healers. This urges immediate action by the Ministry of Health of Malaysia to set up a strict regulation and regular monitoring of the traditional healers nationally. Traditional and Complementary Medicine may be integrated into the healthcare system and need to have sustained cooperation for the benefit of patients since about 80% of patients use traditional medicines.

A Study on the Fantastic Trend of Korean Movies in the late 90s : Focused on Kim Giduk's Bad Guy (90년대 말 한국영화의 환상성 경향 연구 - 김기덕의 <나쁜 남자>를 중심으로)

  • LEE, Jihyun
    • Trans-
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    • v.4
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    • pp.87-109
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    • 2018
  • The genres of fantastic of Korean films created in the 90s are diverse. The fantastics of these works are not manifested only in 'Ghosts' movies. For example, If the film Mystery Of The Cube, which is based on the mystery of Lee Sang, has a story of structuralist fantasy, we can say that a movie like Tell Me Something has a psychologically conventional fantastic. This study examines the fantastic of contemporary Korean films through 'completion of allegory based on realism'. For this, we borrows the fantastic concept of Etienne Souriau. In some films, fantastics can be found directly in the developing nature. In this case, the human being who justifies their domination of nature by upgrading their position as the objectifying subject of nature becomes 'alienated' in return. The notion of this alienation in film narratives is often revealed through allegories, particularly in the manifestation of fantasy by Étienne Souriau in the early 'personal experience'. Kim kiduk's film is a representative example of allegorizing elements of society through individual experience. Focusing on Kim Giduk's Bad Guy, this essay analyzes the process in which fantastic films of Korea in the 90s build up aesthetic fantastic through imitation of society.

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Evaluation of Optimal Condition for Recombinant Bacterial Ghost Vaccine Production with Four Different Antigens of Streptococcus iniae-enolase, GAPDH, sagA, piaA (연쇄구균증 항원-enolase, GAPDH, sagA, piaA에 대한 재조합 고스트 박테리아 백신의 생산 최적화)

  • Ra, Chae-Hun;Kim, Yeong-Jin;Son, Chang-Woo;Jung, Dae-Young;Kim, Sung-Koo
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.19 no.7
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    • pp.845-851
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    • 2009
  • A vector harboring double cassettes; a heterologous gene expression cassette of pHCE-InaN-antigen and a ghost formation cassette of pAPR-cI-E lysis 37 SDM was constructed and introduced to E. coli DH5a. For the production of a bacterial ghost vaccine, bacterial ghosts from E. coli / Streptococcus iniae with four different types of antigens - enolase, GAPDH, sagA and piaA - were produced by the optimization of fermentation parameters such as a glucose concentration of 1 g/l, agitation of 300 rpm and aeration of 1 vvm. Efficiency of ghost bacteria formation was evaluated with cultures of OD$_{600}$=1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. The efficiency of the ghost bacteria formation was 99.54, 99.67, 99.99 and 99.99% with inductions at OD$_{600}$=3.0, 1.0, 2.0 and 1.0 for E. coli/S. iniae antigens enolase, piaA, GAPDH and sagA, respectively. Ghost bacteria as a vaccine was harvested by centrifugation. The antigen protein expressions were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and western blot analysis, and the molecular weights of the enolase, piaA, GAPDH and sagA were 78, 26, 67 and 26 kDa, respectively. The molecular weights of the expressed antigens were consistent with theoretical sizes obtained from the amino acid sequences.

The Legend's Modernization and Horror Strategy - Focus on uncanny stories concerning army (전설의 현대화와 공포의 전략 - 군대괴담을 중심으로 -)

  • Jin, Eun-Jin
    • (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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    • no.68
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    • pp.439-472
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    • 2017
  • The purpose of this paper is to confirm how traditional legends are changing and existing in modern times, and how they are inheriting and developing legendary values and meanings. The subject of the study is uncanny stories concerning army that is judged to be worthwhile alongside uncanny stories concerning school. The uncanny stories concerning army are urban legends that are active in the internet. It can be defined as 'a narrative story that raises fear with supernatural and strange experiences in the army'. In addition to the internet community sites, humor sites and game sites are actively handed down. Recently, ghost stories have appeared on the site, and uncanny stories concerning army are easily collected from these various sites. The uncanny stories concerning army can be divided into three types: ghost experience type, Bulgogi GP type, mystery radio type. The ghost experience type has the largest number of version, the contents are rich and varied. It does not deviate much from the traditional notion of ghosts. Bulgogi GP type has a frenzied horror from its name. It is related to actual events and raises horror. Mystery radio type is a romantic material used in movies and dramas. However, unlike movies and dramas, uncanny stories concerning army are perceived as fearsome. The uncanny stories concerning army continues to emphasize that the story is actually experienced in the title and content. It has presented concrete evidence. The emphasis on truthfulness is intended to make fear more realistic. This comes from the desire for safety. Uncanny stories concerning army focus on horror. So It tries to reveal the history and truthfulness of the story itself. As a result, the history of reality, the truth of reality, and the realistic ideology are erased. Historical and truthfulness of traditional legends has been varied in the case of uncanny stories concerning army.