• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2006

Purpose: Acute gastroenteritis in children is one of the frequently encountered diseases with relatively high admission rate. The aim of this study is to determine the isolation trends of common and emerging pathogens in acute gastroenteritis in children over a 12-month period in a community hospital. Methods: The study group included the children who were hospitalized to Seoul National University Boramae Hospital from April, 2003 to March, 2004 or visited outpatient clinic from April, 2003 to July, 2003 with presenting features of acute gastroenteritis. Stool specimens were obtained within 2 days after the visit and examined for the following pathogens: rotavirus, adenovirus, Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio, pathogenic Escherichia coli (E.coli), Campylobacter and Yersinia species. Viral study was done with commercial kits for antigen detection. Identification of the bacterial pathogens was done by culture using selective media. For pathogenic E.coli, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was done with the target genes related to the pathogenecity of enterotoxigenic E.coli (ETEC), enteropathogenic E.coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC). Results: The 130 hospitalized children and 28 outpatients were included in this study. The majority of children (>93%) were less than 6 years. Pathogens were isolated in 47% of inpatients and 43% of outpatients, respectively. Rotavirus was the most frequently identified pathogen, accounting for 42.3% of inpatients and 29.6% of outpatients. Nontyphoidal salmonella is the most commonly isolated bacterial pathogen (3.9%) in hospitalized children. Pathogenic E.coli (EPEC, ETEC) was detected in 2.1% (2/97) of inpatients and 25% (3/12) of outpatients. EHEC, adenovirus, Campylobacter, Yersinia and Shigella species were not detected in this study. Conclusion: Rotavirus is the most common enteropathogen in children with acute gastroenteritis. Nontyphoidal salmonella and pathogenic E.coli are important bacterial pathogens. Campylobacter species may not be commonly detected organism in hospitalized children with acute diarrhea.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.366-374
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• 2012

Recently pathogenic E. coli is one of the main foodborne pathogens resulting in many patients in Korea. To understand the characteristics of pathogenic E. coli outbreaks in Korea, the epidemiological investigation reports of pathogenic E. coli outbreak in 2009 (41 reports) and in 2010 (27 reports) were collected in the web site of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reviewed and analysed in this study. The main places of the pathogenic E. coli outbreaks were food catering service area (64.8%) and restaurants (25.0%). The main type of the pathogens were EPEC (44.7%) and ETEC (34.2%). EAEC and EHEC was responsible for 10.5 and 9.2%, respectively. Eight of 68 outbreak cases were caused by more than 2 types of pathogenic E. coli which implicates the complicated contamination pathways of pathogenic E. coli. The incidence rate of pathogenic E. coli was $33.6{\pm}30.5%$ and the main symptoms were diarrhea, stomach ache, nausea, vomiting, and fever etc. The two identified food sources were identified as frozen hamburger pattie and squid-vegetable mixture. To improve the food source identification by epidemiological investigation, food poisoning notification to the agency should not be delayed, whole food items attributed the outbreak should be collected and detection method of the various pathogenic E. coli in food has to be improved. In conclusion, the characteristics between the EHEC outbreaks in the western countries and the EPEC or ETEC outbreaks in Korea needs to be distinguished to prepare food safety management plan. In addition, the development of the trace back system to find the contamination pathway with the improved detection method in food and systemic and cooperative support by the related agencies are necessary.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.653-661
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• 2019

The first small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics have recently been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S., and the demand for a new RNA therapeutics bioanalysis method-which is essential for pharmacokinetics, including the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of siRNA therapeutics-is rapidly increasing. The stem-loop real-time qPCR (RT-qPCR) assay is a useful molecular technique for the identification and quantification of small RNA (e.g., micro RNA and siRNA) and can be applied for the bioanalysis of siRNA therapeutics. When the anti-HPV E6/E7 siRNA therapeutic was used in preclinical trials, the established stem-loop RT-qPCR assay was validated. The limit of detection was sensitive up to 10 fM and the lower limit of quantification up to 100 fM. In fact, the reliability of the established test method was further validated in three intra assays. Here, the correlation coefficient of $R^2$>0.99, the slope of -3.10 ~ -3.40, and the recovery rate within ${\pm}20%$ of the siRNA standard curve confirm its excellent robustness. Finally, the circulation profiles of siRNAs were demonstrated in rat serum, and the pharmacokinetic properties of the anti-HPV E6/E7 siRNA therapeutic were characterized using a stem-loop RT-qPCR assay. Therefore, the stemloop RT-qPCR assay enables accurate, precise, and sensitive siRNA duplex quantification and is suitable for the quantification of small RNA therapeutics using small volumes of biological samples.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.165-171
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• 2019

Marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) is useful for selecting an offspring with a highly recovered genetic background for a recurrent parent at early generation to various crops. Moreover, marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) along with marker-assisted selection (MAS) contributes immensely to overcome the main limitation of the conventional breeding and it accelerates recurrent parent genome (RPG) recovery. In this study, we were employed to incorporate rin gene(s) from the donor parent T13-1084, into the genetic background of HK13-1151, a popular high-yielding tomato elite inbred line that is a pink color fruit, in order to develop a rin HK13-1084 improved line. The recurrent parent genome recovery was analyzed in early generations of backcrossing using SNP markers obtained from genotyping-by-sequencing analysis. From the $BC_1F_1$ and $BC_2F_1$ plants, 3,086 and 4868 polymorphic SNP markers were obtained via GBS analysis, respectively. These markers were present in all twelve chromosomes. The background analysis revealed that the extent of RPG recovery ranged from 56.7% to 84.5% and from 87.8% to 97.8% in $BC_1F_1$ and $BC_2F_1$ generations, respectively. In this study, No 5-1 with 97.8% RPG recovery rate among $BC_2F_1$ plants was similar to HK13-1151 strain in the fruit shape. Therefore, the selected plants were fixed in $BC_2F_2$ generation through selfing. MAS allowed identification of the plants that are more similar to the recurrent parent for the loci evaluated in the backcross generations. MABC can greatly reduce breeding time as compared to the conventional backcross breeding. For instance, MABC approach greatly shortened breeding time in tomato.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.457-470
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• 2019

Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been attracted attention in the fields of surveillance, reconnaissance, and national security due to its advantage of all-weather and day-and-night imaging capabilities. However, there have been some difficulties in automatically identifying targets in real situation due to various observational and environmental conditions. In this paper, ATR problems in Extended Operating Conditions (EOC) were investigated. In particular, we considered partial occlusions of the target (10% to 50%) and differences in the depression angle between training ($17^{\circ}$) and test data ($30^{\circ}$ and $45^{\circ}$). To simulate various occlusion conditions, SARBake algorithm was applied to Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition (MSTAR) images. The ATR accuracies were evaluated by using the template matching and Adaboost algorithms. Experimental results on the depression angle showed that the target identification rate of the two algorithms decreased by more than 30% from the depression angle of $45^{\circ}$ to $30^{\circ}$. The accuracy of template matching was about 75.88% while Adaboost showed better results with an accuracy of about 86.80%. In the case of partial occlusion, the accuracy of template matching decreased significantly even in the slight occlusion (from 95.77% under no occlusion to 52.69% under 10% occlusion). The Adaboost algorithm showed better performance with an accuracy of 85.16% in no occlusion condition and 68.48% in 10% occlusion condition. Even in the 50% occlusion condition, the Adaboost provided an accuracy of 52.48%, which was much higher than the template matching (less than 30% under 50% occlusion).

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.10-24
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the dangers of biodiesel and general diesel mixtures currently used as alternative fuels by equipment (tag method and penski Marten method) and to determine the difference between flash point and combustion point (closed, open) according to test methods. It is intended to be used as a reference material for identification and evaluation of firecausing substances by confirming the risk of mixtures by comparative analysis and measurement, and establishing a risk assessment method for chemical substances. Method: Flash point test method and result treatment were tested based on ASTM and KS M mode, which are tag sealing and pen schematense test methods used as flash point and combustion point test methods for crude oil and petroleum products. The manufacturer of the equipment used in this experiment was a test equipment that satisfies the test standards of KS M 2010 with equipment produced by TANAKA of Japan. The flash point and combustion point were measured, and the flash point according to the test method of biodiesel and general diesel mixture ( Closed, open), and the ignition point of a mixture of biodiesel and general diesel was compared and analyzed for ignition risk compared with conventional diesel. Results: Looking at the experimental results, first, as an analysis of the risk of flammability of the mixture, the flash point of a substance containing 70% biodiesel was found to be about 92℃ based on general diesel with a flash point of 64.5℃, and gasoline and biodiesel or When the biodiesel mixture was synthesized, it was confirmed that the flash point tends to decrease. In addition, the difference between the flash point and the combustion point was analyzed as about 20 ~ 30℃, and when a small amount of gasoline or methanol was mixed, the flash point was lowered, but it was confirmed that the combustion point was similar to that of the existing mixture. Conclusion: In this study, in order to secure the effectiveness of the details of the criteria for judging dangerous materials in the existing Dangerous Materials Safety Management Act, and to secure the reliability and reproducibility of the judgment of dangerous materials, we confirm the criteria for judging the risk of the mixture through an experimental study on flammable mixtures. It will be able to provide reference data for experimental criteria for flammable liquids that are regulated in the field. In addition, if this study accumulates know-how on experiment by test method, it is expected that it can be used as a basis for research on risk assessment and research on dangerous goods.

• Journal of the Korean Burn Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.21-29
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• 2021

Purpose: Frostbite is a hazard to people exposed to cold environments. With the progression of modern industrial development and change of leisure behavior encountering cold environments, frequent accidental exposure to frostbite injury during work and human behavior is increasing, and the predisposing factors of frostbite were greatly changed than before. The purpose of this study was to make epidemiological analysis, and to review the treatment outcomes of frostbite. Methods: From March 2010 to February 2021, this study has included 27 patients with second- to third-degree frostbite injuries in Advanced Burn Reconstruction Center, Bundang Jesaeng Hosptial. A retrospective study was made about the distribution of age, gender, predisposing factors, prevalent area, type of managements, and the length of treatment period. Results: In our institution, acute management of frostbite patients has included rewarming, anticoagulation therapy (acetylsalicylic acid), and agents to improve vascular perfusion (lipo-prostaglandin E1 [Eglandin^®]). The 25 frostbite patients with second-degree frostbite (92.6%) were successfully managed by the conservative treatment alone with a mean of 20.3 days healing time. Two patients with third-degree frostbite (7.4%) also showed good outcomes after surgical reconstruction with a mean of 59 days healing time. In our clinical experiences of third-degree frostbite, definitive surgical reconstruction should be recommended to wait for more than 4~6 weeks for identification of clear demarcation of necrotic tissue caused by frostbite. In this study, 43 frostbite injuries site in 27 frostbite patients occurred. Among them, 15 patients (55.6%) had multiple-site frostbite injury. The most common predisposing cause of frostbite was refrigerant gas accidents (44.4%), followed by outdoor activity in cold environments (40.8%), misapplying ice pack for treatment purposes (7.4%), barefoot walking on the cold ground (3.7%), and loss of consciousness in cold grounds (3.7%). The most prevalent sites of frostbite injuries revealed as the hand (58.1%), followed by the foot (32.6%), face (7.0%), and abdomen (2.3%). And in the winter season from the November to March, the incidence rate of frostbite injuries was high at 74.1%. Conclusion: This study included 27 frostbite patients with 43 frostbite sites since last decade in a single institution at the community hospital. The frostbite patients with second-degree frostbite (92.6%) were successfully healed by the conservative treatment alone with a mean of 20.3 days healing time. The most common predisposing cause of frostbite was refrigerant gas accidents (44.4%), followed by outdoor activity in cold environments, etc. The most prevalent site of frostbite injuries was the hand (58.1%). And the most prevalent seasonal incidence of frostbite was from November to March (74.1%).

• The Korean Journal of Medicine
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• v.99 no.3
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• pp.149-157
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• 2024

Background/Aims: Carbapenems are recommended for treating bacteremia caused by extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E). However, this has resulted in a significant rise in the utilization of carbapenems in cases of ESBL-E infection. We evaluated the clinical outcomes of patients with ESBL-E bacteremia treated with non-carbapenem antimicrobials. Methods: We conducted a retrospective case-control study of a cohort of patients with documented ESBL-E bacteremia from January 2021 to December 2021. The patients were divided into two groups according to whether they received non-carbapenem or carbapenem therapy. The rates of treatment failure, 30-day mortality and microbiologic failure, and the durations of hospitalization and of antimicrobial therapy were compared between the two groups. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing and phenotypic identification of ESBL-E were performed using the Vitek 2 system. Results: Of 118 patients with ESBL-E bacteremia, 54 received non-carbapenem drugs (non-carbapenem group [NCG]) and 64 received carbapenems (carbapenem group [CG]). Treatment failure at 30 days occurred in 16.7% of the patients in the NCG and in 18.8% in the CG (p = 0.65). The 30-day mortality rate was 14.8% in the NCG and 17.2% in the CG (p = 0.63). Extra-urinary tract infection and prior antimicrobial therapy within 30 days were risk factors for treatment failure in patients with ESBL-E bacteremia. The clinical outcomes did not differ significantly between the two groups, challenging the prevailing preference for carbapenems in the treatment of ESBL-E bacteremia. Conclusions: Non-carbapenem antimicrobials such as piperacillin/tazobactam are recommended for patients with mild ESBL-E bacteremia in South Korea.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.371-384
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• 1982

Highly cold tolerant varieties are requested not only at high latitute cool area but also tropical high elevated areas, and the required tolerance is different from location to location. IRRI identified 6 different types of cold tolerance required in the world for breeding purpose; a) Hokkaido type, b) Suweon type, c) Taipei 1st season type, d) Taipei 2nd season type, e) Tropical alpine type and, f) Bangladesh type. The cold tolerance requested in Korea is more eargent in Tongil group cultivars and their required tolerance is the one such as the physiological activities at low temperature are as active as in Japonica group cultivars at least during young seedling stage and reproduction stage. With conventional Japonica cultivars, such cold tolerant characters are requested as short growth duration but stable basic vegetative growth, less sensitive to high temperature and less prolonged growth duration at low temperature. The methods screening for cold tolerance were developed rapidly after the Tongil cultivar was reliesed. The facilities of screening for cold tolerance, such as, low temperature incubator, cold water tank, growth cabinet, phytotron, cold water nursery in Chuncheon, breeding nursery located in Jinbu, Unbong and Youngduk, are well established. Foreign facilities such as, cold water tank with the rapid generation advancement facilities, cold nurseries located in Banaue, Kathmandu and Kashimir may be available for the screening of some limitted breeding materials. For the reference, screening methods applied at different growth stages in Japan are introduced. The component characters of cold tolerance are not well identified, but the varietal differences in a) germinability, b) young seedling growth, c) rooting, d) tillering, e) discolation, f) nutrition uptake, g) photosynthesis rate, h) delay in heading, i) pollen sterility, and j) grain fertility at low temperature are reported to be distinguishable. Relationships among those traits are not consistent. Reported studies on the inheritance of cold tolerance are summarized. Four or more genes are controlling low temperature germinability, one or several genes are controlling seedling tolerance, and four or more genes are responsible for the pollen fertility of the rice treated with cold air or grown in the cold water nursery. But most of those data indicate that the results may come out in different way if those were tested at different temperature. Many cold tolerant parents among Japonicas, Indicas and Javanicas were identified as the results of the improvement of cold tolerance screening techniques and IRTP efforts and they are ready to be utilized. Considering a) diversification of germ plasm, b) integration of resistances to diseases and insects, c) identification of adaptability of recommending cultivars and, d) systematic control of recommending cultivars, breeding strategies for short term and long term are suggested. For short term, efforts will be concentrated mainly to the conventional cultivar group. Domestic cultivars will be used as foundation stock and ecologically different foreign introductions such as from Hokkaido, China or from Taiwan, will be used as cross parents for the adjustment of growth durations and synthsize the prototype of tolerances. While at the other side, extreme early waxy Japonicas will be crossed with the Indica parents which are identified for their resistances to the diseases and insects. Through the back corsses to waxy Japonicas, those Indica resistances will be transfered to the Japonicas and these will be utilized to the crosses for the improvement of resistances of prototype. For the long term, efforts will be payed to synthsize all the available tolerances identified any from Japonicas, Indicas and Javanicas to diversify the germ plasm. The tolerant cultivars newly synthsized, should be stable and affected minimum. to the low temperature at all the growing stages. The resistances to the diseases and insects should be integrated also. The rapid generation advancement, pollen culture and international cooperations were emphasized to maximize the breeding efficiency.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.263-278
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• 2004

Ursolic acid (UA) and Oleanolic acid (ONA), known as urson, micromerol and malol, are pentacyclic triterpenoid compounds which naturally occur in a large number of vegetarian foods, medicinal herbs, and plants. They may occur in their free acid form or as aglycones for triterpenoid saponins, which are comprised of a triterpenoid aglycone, linked to one or more sugar moieties. Therefore UA and ONA are similar in pharmacological activity. Lately scientific research, which led to the identification of UA and ONA, revealed that several pharmacological effects, such as antitumor, hepato-protective, anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic, antimicrobial, and anti-hyperlipidemic could be attributed to UA and ONA. Here, we introduced the effect of UA and ONA on acutely barrier disrupted and normal hairless mouse skin. To evaluate the effects of UA and ONA on epidermal permeability barrier recovery, both flanks of 8-12 week-old hairless mice were topically treated with either 0.01-0.1mg/mL UA or 0.1-1mg/mL ONA after tape stripping, and TEWL (transepidermal water loss) was measured. The recovery rate increased in those UA or ONA treated groups (0.1mg/mL UA and 0.5mg/mL ONA) at 6h more than 20% compared to vehicle treated group (p < 0.05). Here, we introduced the effects of UA and ONA on acute barrier disruption and normal epidermal permeability barrier function. For verifying the effects of UA and ONA on normal epidermal barrier, hydration and TEWL were measured for 1 and 3 weeks after UA and ONA applications (2mg/mL per day). We also investigated the features of epidermis and dermis using electron microscopy (EM) and light microscopy (LM). Both samples increased hydration compared to vehicle group from 1 week without TEWL alteration (p < 0.005). EM examination using RuO4 and OsO4 fixation revealed that secretion and numbers of lamellar bodies and complete formation of lipid bilayers were most prominent (ONA=UA > vehicle). LM finding showed that thickness of stratum corneum (SC) was slightly increased and especially epidermal thickening and flattening was observed (UA > ONA > vehicle). We also observed that UA and ONA stimulate epidermal keratinocyte differentiation via PPAR Protein expression of involucrin, loricrin, and filaggrin increased at least 2 and 3 fold in HaCaT cells treated with either ONA (10${\mu}$M) or UA (10${\mu}$M) for 24 h respectively. This result suggested that the UA and ONA can improve epidermal permeability barrier function and induce the epidermal keratinocyte differentiation via PPAR Using Masson-trichrome and elastic fiber staining, we observed collagen thickening and elastic fiber elongation by UA and ONA treatments. In vitro results of collagen and elastin synthesis and elastase inhibitory activity measurements were also confirmed in vivo findings. These data suggested that the effects of UA and ONA related to not only epidermal permeability barrier functions but also dermal collagen and elastic fiber synthesis. Taken together, UA and ONA can be relevant candidates to improve epidermal and dermal functions and pertinent agents for cosmeseutical applications.