Patterns of rpoC Mutations in Drug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolated from Patients in South Korea

Yun, Yeo Jun,Lee, Jong Seok,Yoo, Je Chul,Cho, Eunjin,Park, Dahee,Kook, Yoon-Hoh,Lee, Keun Hwa The Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory 2018 Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases Vol.81 No.3

Background: Rifampicin (RFP) is one of the principal first-line drugs used in combination chemotherapies against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and its use has greatly shortened the duration of chemotherapy for the successful treatment of drug-susceptible tuberculosis. Compensatory mutations have been identified in rpoC that restore the fitness of RFP-resistant M. tuberculosis strains with mutations in rpoB. To investigate rpoC mutation patterns, we analyzed 93 clinical M. tuberculosis isolates from patients in South Korea. Methods: Drug-resistant mycobacterial isolates were cultured to determine their susceptibility to anti-tubercular agents. Mutations in rpoC were identified by sequencing and compared with the relevant wild-type DNA sequence. Results: In total, 93 M. tuberculosis clinical isolates were successfully cultured and tested for drug susceptibilities. They included 75 drug-resistant tuberculosis species, of which 66 were RFP-resistant strains. rpoC mutations were found in 24 of the 66 RFP-resistant isolates (36.4%). Fifteen different types of mutations, including single mutations (22/24, 91.7%) and multiple mutations (2/24, 8.3%), were identified, and 12 of these mutations are reported for the first time in this study. The most frequent mutation involved a substitution at codon 452 (nt 1356) resulting in amino acid change F452L. Conclusion: Fifteen different types of mutations were identified and were predominantly single-nucleotide substitutions (91.7%). Mutations were found only in dual isoniazid- and RFP-resistant isolates of M. tuberculosis. No mutations were identified in any of the drug-susceptible strains.

Development of Novel Wastewater Treatment System by Sulfate Reducing Bacteria

Eunjin Lee,Yeo-Myeong Yun,Si-Kyung Cho,Jong-In Han,Kwiyong Kim,Hang-Sik Shin 한국폐기물자원순환학회 2013 한국폐기물자원순환학회 학술대회 Vol.2013 No.2

As an alternative for energy intensive aerobic wastewater treatment system, development of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB)-based domestic wastewater treatment system was researched. No requirement of aeration, fast substrate utilization and less sensitiveness of SRB are main factors for energy conservative wastewater treatment system. Sulfate for SRB’s synthesis could be supplied from SOx in industrial gas, thus the system also can contribute to the economical treatment of hazardous sulfur compound in the gas. With the dissolved sulfate as an electron acceptor, SRB degrade organic matters in wastewater and produce sulfide. This produced sulfide was used for electricity generation in sulfide fuel cell system connected to continuously operating UASB reactor. This study also focused on obtaining SRB dominant granule from methanogen dominant anaerobic granule in a competition between SRB and methanogens. As a strategy to increase SRB activity and to suppress methanogens, starvation was applied by not providing organic source but continuous supplying sulfate. Based on the well adopted hypothesis on the granule structure, methanogens located relatively inner core of a granule died out due to the lack of organic source, while SRB located at outer part of granule survived utilizing extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) or organic matters from died out microbes as an organic source. By eliminating the competition, the portion of organic matter degradation by SRB was increased from 19% before starvation to 93% after starvation, achieving 80% COD removal in total. In case of sulfate removal, 15% improvement was achieved compared to the control reactor. This effect of starvation on the granule characteristics were confirmed with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Not only wastewater treatment by SRB but also electricity generation with sulfide fuel cell system was studied. Several sets of batch tests were conducted and continuous operation was also carried out with effluent containing 80mg/L -100mg/L sulfide. Through the batch tests, hydraulic retention time (HRT) was optimized to 8 h, removing almost all of the sulfide from the effluent, having the highest power density of 0.033 mW/cm². With the optimized HRT, sulfide fuel cell connected to the UASBr was continuously operated for over 50 days. This newly developed wastewater treatment system with SRB integrated with electricity generating sulfide fuel cell system is believed to be a promising technology for more sustainable wastewater treatment system.

Effect of Fermented Lettuce Extract on Starch Retrogradation in Korean Rice Cake, Garaetteok

Eunjin Kim,Soon Yeon Jeong,Soon-Il Yun,Young-Soo Kim,Byeongjun Ji,Hyun Soo Chun,Sooah Kim 한국생물공학회 2021 KSBB Journal Vol.36 No.3

Starch retrogradation, i.e., reassociation or recrystallization of gelatinized starch, affects the flavor and texture of food. To prevent starch retrogradation, various methods such as replacement of chemically modified starch and use of hydrolytic and branching enzymes or additives have been studied. However, the relationship between fermented products and starch retrogradation has been not studied. Here, we investigated the effect of fermented lettuce extract on the retrogradation of Korean rice cake, garaetteok using Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), texture analysis, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Fermented lettuce extract reduced peak viscosity, trough viscosity, breakdown, and setback of rice flour, as determined using the RVA. DSC revealed reduced onset temperature, peak temperature, and enthalpy change of cakes prepared from flour treated with fermented lettuce extract during storage compared with those of an untreated control. The change in the hardness of the treated rice cakes during storage, as determined via texture analysis, was smaller than that in the control. The surface of the fermented lettuce extract treated–rice cakes was found to be less cracked and porous than that of the control, as determined via SEM. Collectively, these findings showed that starch retrogradation during storage was retarded in fermented lettuce extract treated-rice cakes compared with untreated rice cakes. Therefore, these results suggested that fermented lettuce extract prevents starch retrogradation, improves food quality, and could be used as a food additive to retard starch retrogradation in the food industry.

Sulfate reducing bacteria-based wastewater treatment system integrated with sulfide fuel cell for simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity generation

Yun, Yeo-Myeong,Lee, Eunjin,Kim, Kwiyong,Han, Jong-In Elsevier 2019 CHEMOSPHERE - Vol.233 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>This study aimed to design a sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB)-based wastewater treatment system (SWTS) integrated with a sulfide fuel cell (SFC) as an alternative to the energy-intensive aerobic wastewater treatment process. The result showed that the COD/sulfate ratio and hydraulic retention time (HRT) were two important parameters in a SWTS. The highest COD and sulfate removal efficiency rates were at a HRT of 4 h at a COD/sulfate ratio of 0.67, reaching 83 ± 0.2% and 84 ± 0.4% with sulfate removal rates of 4.087 ± 32 mg SO<SUB>4</SUB> <SUP>2−</SUP>/d, respectively. A microbial analysis revealed that the dominance of nine OTUs belonging to SRB closely affected the high sulfate removal efficiency in the SWTS. At the HRT of 8 h, voltage of 0.02 V and a power density level of 130 mW/m<SUP>2</SUP> were obtained with sulfide removal efficiency of 99 ± 0.5%. These results overall demonstrate that SRB can serve as a green and effective route for wastewater treatment.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> SWTS integrated with SFC for simultaneous WW treatment and electricity production. </LI> <LI> Achievement of COD and sulfate removal efficiency of 83% and 84% in the SWTS. </LI> <LI> Highest COD and sulfate removal efficiency at 4 h HRT at 0.67 COD/sulfate ratio. </LI> <LI> The SFC generating 0.02 V and 130 mW/m<SUP>2</SUP> with 99% of sulfide removal efficiency. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

한중 여대생의 기초화장품 구매인식과 용기디자인 선호도 비교

임은진 ( Eunjin Im ),임윤경 ( Yun Kyoung Lim ),하준호 ( Junho Ha ) 대한미용학회(구 대한미용과학회) 2018 대한미용학회지 Vol.14 No.2

If customers in the past wanted a balance between price and brand of cosmetics, the contemporary customers take into account the functions and even exterior designs of a cosmetic item. The current study targeted Korean and Chinese female college students residing in Korea and did a comparative analysis of the students' cognizance on basic skin care product container design factors. To this end, a survey was carried out among the Korean and Chinese female college students of a college located in Chungcheong province for 3 weeks, starting from the 25th of October, 2017. The collected data were statistically treated through data coding and data cleaning before analysisusing SPSS v. 21.0 statistial package program. First, analysis of the preference for basic skin care products container shape, revealed that the rectangular shape(58.7%) showed the highest score for both type of the college students. Second, for mouth type of analysis, the 'tincture-mouthed'(32.4%) showed the highest score. For the Chinese college students, the preference was for tincture-mouthed type, while the Korean students preferred the tube-mouthed type. Third, analysis on 'the material of container' showed the highest score(M=3.58). The Chinese college students gave more importance on color, packaging design and the material than the Korean students. Results showed that the Korean students gave more importance on quality, price/quantity and brand when buying basic skin care products, and quality, price/quantity highly affected their re-purchasing. On the other hand, the Chinese students emphasized on quality, packaging design and brand when buying the basic skin products, and packing design had a large influence on their re-purchasing behavior. Furthermore, both the Korean and Chinese students laid stress on color, packing design and material and container designs but the ratio of Chinese was higher than that of the Koreans.

Mo 패턴을 이용한 3-D 구조의 Cu₂ZnSn (S<SUB>x</SUB>Se<SUB>1-x</SUB>)₄ (CZTSSe) 박막형 태양전지 제작

조은진(Eunjin Jo),강명길(Myeng Gil Gang),신형호(Shin hyeong ho),윤재호(Jae Ho Yun),문종하(Jong-ha Moon),김진혁(Jin Hyeok Kim) 한국태양광발전학회 2017 Current Photovoltaic Research Vol.5 No.1

Recently, three-dimensional (3D) light harvesting structures are highly attracted because of their high light harvesting capacity and charge collection efficiencies. In this study, we have fabricated Cu₂ZnSn(SxSe1-x)₄ based 3D thin film solar cells on PR patterned Molybdenum (Mo) substrates using photolithography technique. Specifically, Mo patterns were deposited on PR patterned Mo substrates by sputtering and the thin Cu-Zn-Sn stacked layer was deposited over this Mo patterns by sputtering technique. The stacked Zn-Sn-Cu precursor thin films were sulfo-selenized to form CZTSSe pattern. Finally, CZTSSe absorbers were coated with thin CdS layer using chemical bath deposition and ZnO window layer was deposited over CZTSSe/CdS using DC sputtering technique. Fabricated 3-D solar cells were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) to study their structural, compositional and morphological properties, respectively. The 3% efficiency is achieved for this kind of solar cell. Further efforts will be carried out to improve the performance of solar cell through various optimizations.

The Extract of <i>Litsea japonica</i> Reduced the Development of Diabetic Nephropathy via the Inhibition of Advanced Glycation End Products Accumulation in db/db Mice

Sohn, Eunjin,Kim, Junghyun,Kim, Chan-Sik,Lee, Yun Mi,Jo, Kyuhyung,Shin, So Dam,Kim, Joo Hwan,Kim, Jin Sook Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2013 Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medic Vol.2013 No.-

<P>Increasing evidence indicates that advanced glycation end products (AGEs) contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of <I>L. japonica</I> extract (LJE) against renal damage in the db/db mouse. LJE (100 or 250 mg/kg per day) was given to diabetic mice for 12 weeks. Body weight, blood glucose levels, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels, and proteinuria were examined. In <I>in vitro</I> assay of the inhibition of AGE formation, immunohistochemical analysis of podocyte loss and AGE accumulations were performed. In 20-week-old db/db mice, severe hyperglycemia developed, and proteinuria was significantly increased. Diabetes induced markedly morphological alterations to the renal glomerular cells. AGE accumulations and podocyte loss were detected in renal glomeruli. LJE treatment significantly reduced proteinuria and AGE accumulations in diabetic mice. Moreover, the loss of nephrin, an important slit diaphragm component in the kidneys, was restored by LJE treatment. Our studies suggest that LJE might be beneficial for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy. The ability of LJE to attenuate proteinuria and podocyte dysfunction may be mediated by the inhibition of AGE accumulation in the context of diabetic nephropathy in db/db mice.</P>

아두이노와 어플리케이션을 이용한 블루투스 기반 약 상자 알람 시스템 구현

권은진(Eunjin Kwon),윤지완(Jiwan Yun),임영진(Youngjin Yim),최민영(Minyoung Choi),김명희(Myunghee Kim) 한국통신학회 2015 한국통신학회 학술대회논문집 Vol.2015 No.11

Domestic wastewater treatment in a tubular microbial electrolysis cell with a membrane electrode assembly

Jwa, Eunjin,Yun, Yeo-Myeong,Kim, Hanki,Jeong, Namjo,Park, Soon-Chul,Nam, Joo-Youn Elsevier 2019 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY - Vol.44 No.2

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>High hydrogen production rate and energy recovery were accomplished in a tubular microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) equipped with a robust membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The current and the hydrogen production of non-flexible MEAs, simply fabricated by directly brushing a catalyst on a self-supporting tubular membrane, were compared with those of a typical MEA, where a cathode is physically combined with a membrane. Current of 34 ± 2 mA (1.79 ± 0.05 A/m<SUP>2</SUP>) and coulombic efficiency of 98.5 ± 1.0% were achieved in non-flexible MEAs, outperforming the typical MEA under fed-batch mode. The MEA, having a durable coating layer, also showed an enhanced hydrogen production rate and electric energy recovery with values of 0.18 ± 0.03 m<SUP>3</SUP>/m<SUP>3</SUP>-d and 151.9 ± 1.0%, respectively, even for low strength domestic wastewater (dWW) treatment in the continuous-flow mode. These outcomes were similarly maintained in the case of using seawater, which is a good candidate for an economical and environmentally suitable catholyte.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> An MEC equipped with a robust MEA was used for domestic wastewater treatment. </LI> <LI> Current of 34 mA and coulombic efficiency of 98.5% were achieved in a robust MEA. </LI> <LI> The system showed a high hydrogen production rate (0.18 m<SUP>3</SUP>/m<SUP>3</SUP>-d) and an electric energy recovery (151.9%). </LI> <LI> When seawater was supplied as the catholyte, the current and hydrogen production of MEC were maintained. </LI> </UL> </P>

The risk for future cerebrovascular disease in pregnant women with Moyamoya disease : a nationwide population-based study in South Korea

( Yeonseong Jeong ),( Yun Ji Jung ),( Eunjin Noh ),( Geum Joon Cho ),( Min-jeong Oh ),( Young-han Kim ) 대한산부인과학회 2020 대한산부인과학회 학술대회 Vol.106 No.-

Objective: Physiologic changes during pregnancy affect the development of postpartum cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in women with Moyamoya disease (MMD). Due to the rare prevalence of MMD and large regional variations, large-scale studies on the risk of CVD after delivery have not been conducted. The aim of this study was to determine whether women with MMD have an increased risk of CVD after delivery. Methods: Study data were collected from the Korean National Health Insurance Claims Database of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service for 2007-2016. Patient who had delivery in Korea between 2007 and 2014 were enrolled. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression to estimate adjusted hazard ratio for CVD in women with MMD. Results: Among 3,611,216 Korean women who had delivery, 382 had Moyamoya disease. When compared to women without MMD, women with MMD had a higher prevalence of pregestational diabetes and chronic hypertension. Also, women with MMD had a significantly higher incidence of cesarean section, pregnancy induced hypertension, and gestational diabetes mellitus (p<0.0001, <0.0001, 0.02, respectively). Among women with MMD, a total of 246(64.4%) women developed CVD within the follow-up postpartum period, and 87.8% occurred within 2 year of postpartum. Women with MMD were associated with an increased risk of CVD in later (adjusted HR 108.24; 95% CI, 95.37-122.86) after adjusting for maternal age, parity, pregnancy induced hypertension, gestational diabetes mellitus, pregestational diabetes, chronic hypertension. Conclusion: Our study showed that the incidence of CVD after delivery was higher in women with MMD. Therefore, we have to have more cautions of women with MMD and provide long-term postpartum surveillance.