• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2007

Purpose: The patient's position and anatomy during the treatment course little bit varies to some extend due to setup uncertainties and organ motions. These factors could affected to not only the dose coverage of the gross tumor but over dosage of normal tissue. Setup uncertainties and organ motions can be minimized by precise patient positioning and rigid immobilization device but some anatomical site such as prostate, the internal organ motion due to physiological processes are challenge. In planning procedure, the clinical target volume is a little bit enlarged to create a planning target volume that accounts for setup uncertainties and organ motion as well. These uncertainties lead to differences between the calculated dose by treatment planning system and the actually delivered dose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences of interfractional displacement of organ and GTV based on the tomoimages. Materials and Methods: Over the course of 3 months, 3 patients, those who has applied rectal balloon, treated for prostatic cancer patient's tomoimage were studied. During the treatment sessions 26 tomoimages per patient, Total 76 tomoimages were collected. Tomoimage had been taken everyday after initial setup with lead marker attached on the patient's skin center to comparing with C-T simulation images. Tomoimage was taken after rectal balloon inflated with 60 cc of air for prostate gland immobilization for daily treatment just before treatment and it was used routinely in each case. The intrarectal balloon was inserted to a depth of 6 cm from the anal verge. MVCT image was taken with 5 mm slice thickness after the intrarectal balloon in place and inflated. For this study, lead balls are used to guide the registration between the MVCT and CT simulation images. There are three image fusion methods in the tomotherapy, bone technique, bone/tissue technique, and full image technique. We used all this 3 methods to analysis the setup errors. Initially, image fusions were based on the visual alignment of lead ball, CT anatomy and CT simulation contours and then the radiation therapist registered the MVCT images with the CT simulation images based on the bone based, rectal balloon based and GTV based respectively and registered image was compared with each others. The average and standard deviation of each X, Y, Z and rotation from the initial planning center was calculated for each patient. The image fusions were based on the visual alignment of lead ball, CT anatomy and CT simulation contours. Results: There was a significant difference in the mean variations of the rectal balloon among the methods. Statistical results based on the bone fusion shows that maximum x-direction shift was 8 mm and 4.2 mm to the y-direction. It was statistically significant (P=<0.0001) in balloon based fusion, maximum X and Y shift was 6 mm, 16mm respectively. One patient's result was more than 16 mm shift and that was derived from the rectal expansions due to the bowl gas and stool. GTV based fusion results ranging from 2.7 to 6.6 mm to the x-direction and 4.3$\sim$7.8 mm to the y-direction respectively. We have checked rotational error in this study but there are no significant differences among fusion methods and the result was 0.37$\pm$0.36 in bone based fusion and 0.34$\pm$0.38 in GTV based fusion.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.158-167
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• 2007

In this study, we have cloned a novel cDNA encoding for a papain-family cysteine protease from the Uni-ZAP XR cDNA library of the polychaete, Periserrula leucophryna. This gene was expressed in Escherichia coli using the T7 promoter system, and the protease was characterized after partial purification. First, the partial DNA fragment (498 bp) was amplified from the total RNA via RT-PCR using degenerated primers derived from the conserved region of cysteine protease. The full-length cDNA of cysteine protease (PLCP) was prepared via the screening of the Uni-ZAP XR cDNA library using the $^{32}P-labeled$ partial DNA fragment. As a result, the PLCP gene was determined to consist of a 2591 bp nucleotide sequence (CDS: 173-1024 bp) which encodes for a 283-amino acid polypeptide, which is itself composed of an 59-residue signal sequence, a 6-residue propeptide, a 218-residue mature protein, and a long 3'-noncoding region encompassing 1564 bp. The predicted molecular weights of the preproprotein and the mature protein were calculated as 31.8 kDa and 25 kDa, respectively. The results of sequence analysis and alignment revealed a significant degree of sequence similarity with other eukaryotic cysteine proteases, including the conserved catalytic triad of the $Cys^{90},\;His^{226},\;and\;Asn^{250}$ residues which characterize the C1 family of papain-like cysteine protease. The nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the novel gene were deposited into the GenBank database under the accession numbers, AY390282 and AAR27011, respectively. The results of Northern blot analysis revealed the 2.5 kb size of the transcript and ubiquitous expression throughout the entirety of the body, head, gut, and skin, which suggested that the PLCP may be grouped within the cathepsin F-like proteases. The region encoding for the mature form of the protease was then subcloned into the pT7-7 expression vector following PCR amplification using the designed primers, including the initiation and termination codons. The recombinant cysteine proteases were generated in a range of 6.3 % to 12.5 % of the total cell proteins in the E. coli BL21(DE3) strain for 8 transformants. The results of SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis indicated that a cysteine protease of approximately 25 kDa (mature form) was generated. The optimal pH and temperature of the enzyme were determined to be approximately 9.5 and $35^{\circ}C$, respectively, thereby indicating that the cysteine protease is a member of the alkaline protease group. The evaluation of substrate specificity indicated that the purified protease was more active towards Arg-X or Lys-X and did not efficiently cleave the substrates with non-polar amino acids at the P1 site. The PLCP evidenced fibrinolytic activity on the plasminogen-free fibrin plate test.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2014

Serpins are a group of proteins involved in the regulation of serine and other type of proteases, and have been identified in many kinds of organisms from invertebrates to vertebrates. Serpins are known to regulate the proteolytic cascades of the innate immune pathways in addition to their roles in blood coagulation, angiogenesis, fibrinolysis, inflammation and tumor suppression. In this study, we have isolated two partial serpin gene fragments from expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of Nesiohelix samarangae. Dotplot analysis indicates that they are of two different types, Ns-serpin type 1 and Ns-serpin type 2. Ns-serpin type 1 has 819 bp coding region (272 amino acids), whereas Ns-serpin type 2 has 555 bp coding region (185 amino acids). Molecular phylogenetic analysis shows that the identified serpins have high similarities to their counterparts in the California see slug, Aplysia californica. Yet, the precise biological and immunological roles of these Ns-serpins remain to be further investigated using RNA interference and other molecular techniques.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.1183-1187
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• 2004

The natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 1 (NRAMP1) gene was identified as a candidate gene controlling the resistance and susceptibility to a number of intracellular parasites in pigs. The genetic variations in a 1.6 kb region spanning exon 1 and exon 3 of the porcine NRAMP1 gene were investigated by PCR-HinfI-RFLP in samples of 1347 individuals from 21 Chinese indigenous pig populations and 3 western pig breeds. Three alleles (A, B, C) and four genotypes (AA, BB, AB, BC) were detected. Significant differences in genotype and allele frequencies were observed between Chinese indigenous pig populations and exotic pig breeds, while in general the differences in genotype and allele frequencies among Chinese indigenous pig populations were not significant. The allele C was detected only in Duroc, Leping Spotted and Dongxiang Spotted pig, and the two Chinese pig populations showed similar genotype and allele frequencies. Four Chinese Tibetan pig populations displayed genetic differentiation at the NRAMP1 gene locus. In addition, intron 5 of the NRAMP1 gene was isolated and characterized by directly sequencing the PCR products encompassing intron 5. The alignment of intron 5 of the porcine, human, equine and ovine NRAMP1 gene showed a similarity of 45.38% between pig and human, 52.55% between pig and horse, 63.47% between pig and sheep, respectively.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.68-74
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose an effective memory reduction algorithm to reduce the amount of reference frame buffer and memory bandwidth in video encoder and decoder. In general video codecs, decoded previous frames should be stored and referred to reduce temporal redundancy. Recently, reference frames are recompressed for memory efficiency and bandwidth reduction between a main processor and external memory. However, these algorithms could hurt coding efficiency. Several algorithms have been proposed to reduce the amount of reference memory with minimum quality degradation. They still suffer from quality degradation with fixed-bit allocation. In this paper, we propose an adaptive block-based min-max quantization that considers local characteristics of image. In the proposed algorithm, basic process unit is $8{\times}8$ for memory alignment and apply an adaptive quantization to each $4{\times}4$ block for minimizing quality degradation. We found that the proposed algorithm can obtain around 1.7% BD-bitrate gain and 0.03dB BD-PSNR gain, compared with the conventional fixed-bit min-max algorithm with 37.5% memory saving.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.15B no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2008

With increases in recent security requirements, biometric technology such as fingerprints, faces and iris recognitions have been widely used in many applications including door access control, personal authentication for computers, internet banking, automatic teller machines and border-crossing controls. Finger vein recognition uses the unique patterns of finger veins in order to identify individuals at a high level of accuracy. This paper proposes new device and methods for touchless finger vein recognition. This research presents the following five advantages compared to previous works. First, by using a minimal guiding structure for the finger tip, side and the back of finger, we were able to obtain touchless finger vein images without causing much inconvenience to user. Second, by using a hot mirror, which was slanted at the angle of 45 degrees in front of the camera, we were able to reduce the depth of the capturing device. Consequently, it would be possible to use the device in many applications having size limitations such as mobile phones. Third, we used the holistic texture information of the finger veins based on a LBP (Local Binary Pattern) without needing to extract accurate finger vein regions. By using this method, we were able to reduce the effect of non-uniform illumination including shaded and highly saturated areas. Fourth, we enhanced recognition performance by excluding non-finger vein regions. Fifth, when matching the extracted finger vein code with the enrolled one, by using the bit-shift in both the horizontal and vertical directions, we could reduce the authentic variations caused by the translation and rotation of finger. Experimental results showed that the EER (Equal Error Rate) was 0.07423% and the total processing time was 91.4ms.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.467-471
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• 2009

The entire D-loop region of the porcine mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was amplified from six pig breeds (Landrace, Duroc, Large White, Korean native pig, Berkshire, and Hampshire) using a primer set designed on the basis of reported porcine mtDNA sequences. From analyses through cloning, DNA sequencing and multiple sequence alignment, an 11-bp (TAAAACACTTA) duplication was observed after known tandem repetition in the D-loop region, which promoted hetroplasmy in mtDNA. Although the existence of the 11-bp duplication has been previously reported in Duroc and Japanese native pigs, there have not been any attempts to know the characteristics of this duplication in other breeds so far. A 150 bp fragment containing the 11-duplication was amplified and typed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). All Large Whites had two duplication units and Duroc showed heteromorphic patterns, 11.2% (9/80) of the animals had the 11-bp duplication in total. On the other hand, Landrace, Berkshire, Hampshire and Korean native pigs were non-duplicated. This result showed that the 11-bp duplication could be used as a breed-specific DNA marker for distinguishing pure Landrace and Large White breeds.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.77-87
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• 2010

Hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been an increasing problem worldwide since the initial reports over 40 years ago. To examine new drug leads with potential antibacterial activities, Various N'-[(-3-substituted-4-oxo-1,3-thiazolidin-2-ylidene]-4-hydroxy benzohydrazide (4a-4.i) and N'-[-(3,4-disubstituted)-1,3-thiazolidin-2ylidene)]-4-hydroxybenzohydrazide from (5.a-5.i) to (10.a-10.i) were synthesized using appropriate synthetic route. The entire test compounds (4.a-4.i) and from (5.a-5.i) to (10.a-10.i) were assayed in vitro against s. aureus strain. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined for test compounds and for reference standards. The test compounds showed significant antibacterial activity against the strains used, when tested in vitro. In general, p-hydroxybenzohydrazide ring and substituted thiazoline ring are essential for antimicrobial activity. Among the compounds tested, compounds 6.f, 7.g, 9.f and 10.f, 10 i were found to be most potent. The test compounds were found nontoxic upto the dose level of 2000 ${\mu}g$/mL. The intact compounds were then subjected for 3D-QSAR studies. 3D-QSAR study based on the principal of alignment of pharmacophoric features by Schrodinger PHASE module. The 3D-QSAR study allowed us to confirm the preferential binding mode of p-hydroxybenzohydrazide inside the active site.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.4D
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• pp.291-303
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• 2012

In order to lead safe driving, it is better to provide dynamic and detailed information on how the driver using the relevant road should behave as concerning movements of individual car rather than providing monotone and static information of reducing of speed to unspecified drivers. Assuming road and communication of highway where real-time collection and transfer of information on vehicles and road traffic status is possible, the purpose of this study was to provide real-time safe distance by considering road traffic condition such as road condition and driving condition, travel speed and distance between preceding/following vehicles. We intended to provide basic information about dangerous situation by defining different values of condition based column ($C_{condition}$) in accordance with the road surface condition, based on which Real-time Safety Distance Index(RSDI) is to be calculated comprehensively reflecting speed of preceding and following vehicles, distance between vehicles, vertical alignment and road surface condition on the scope of expression column ($C_n$). We intended to enable the driver to secure safety by providing the calculated Real-time Safety Distance Index (RSDI) so that the driver can intuitively sense and sufficiently cope with a dangerous situation where collision of vehicles may occur. The calculated RSDI value is comprised of 30 unit columns and will be provided to the driver being divided into risk evaluation grades of 3 predetermined steps, 'warning', 'dangerous' and 'normal'.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.6C
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• pp.249-257
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• 2012

The reinforced earth method is financially viable. Furthermore, it overcomes environmental limitations and is therefore employed in retaining walls, slopes, foundations, roads, embankments, and other structures. However, in some cases, reinforced retaining walls are not strong enough in the curved sections and can collapse. Such mishaps are believed to occur because of an unsatisfactory analysis of the curved sections of a reinforced retaining wall. Accordingly, with the aim of investigating the workability and structural safety of curved sections of various types, this study investigates the differences in the estimated horizontal displacements of curved sections of various types and subsequently uses this information to study and analyze preliminary data so that appropriate measures can be taken to resolve alignment issues. The results of an experiment reveal that when a load is applied to curved sections of both concave and convex types, the largest horizontal displacement occurs at the center of the section. In the concave form, the earth pressure force is directed inward, whereas in the convex form, this force is directed outward. As a result, the horizontal displacement in convex forms is larger than that in concave forms. Convex reinforced earth structures are subjected to earth pressures as well as lateral earth pressure, therefore horizontal displacements in convex curved sections is larger than that of concave curved sections.