The Korean Society for School Science

An aerobic Gram-stain-negative prosthecate bacterium, designated RMAR8-3T, was isolated from a marine red alga Rhodosorus marinus in the Republic of Korea. Cells were dimorphic rods with a single polar prostheca (non-motile) or flagellum (motile) showing catalase- and oxidase-positive reactions. Growth of strain RMAR8-3T was observed at 15-45 °C (optimum, 40 °C), at pH 6.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and in the presence of 0-10 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 2 %). Ubiquinone-10 was detected as the sole isoprenoid quinone and C18 : 0, summed feature 8 (comprising C18 : 1 ω7c and/or C18 : 1ω6c), C17 : 0, C12 : 0 3-OH and C16 : 0 were identified as the major cellular fatty acids. The major polar lipids were sulfo-quinovosyldiacylglycerol, glucuronopyranosyldiglyceride and monoglycosyldiglyceride. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 66.3 mol%. Strain RMAR8-3T was most closely related to Marinicauda pacifica P-1 km-3T with a 97.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain RMAR8-3T formed a tight phylogenic lineage with M. pacifica P-1 km-3T within the family Hyphomonadaceae. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular features, strain RMAR8-3T clearly represents a novel species of the genus Marinicauda, for which the name Marinicauda algicola sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is RMAR8-3T (=KACC 18990T=JCM 31718T).

The integral subsets of octonions are an analog of integers in real numbers and related to many interesting topics in geometry and physics via [Formula: see text]-lattices. In this paper, we study the properties of the multiplication of the integral subsets of octonions by studying configuration of Fano plane via blocks and operations on them. And we show that the integral subsets are integral indeed by introducing new and elementary methods.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesized by a green method using a plant secondary metabolite, gallotannin. Gallotannin was used as a reducing and capping agent to convert gold ions into AuNPs for the generation of gallotannin-capped AuNPs (GT-AuNPs). This synthetic route is ecofriendly and eliminates the use of toxic chemical reducing agents. The characteristic surface plasmon resonance of the GT-AuNPs was observed at 536 nm in the UV-visible spectra. The face-centered cubic structure of GT-AuNPs was verified by X-ray diffraction analysis. The majority of the GT-AuNPs had a spherical shape with an average diameter of 15.93 ± 8.60 nm. Fourier transform infrared spectra suggested that the hydroxyl functional groups of gallotannin were involved in the synthesis of GT-AuNPs. The size and shape of nanoparticles can have a crucial impact on their biological, mechanical, and structural properties. Herein, we developed a modified anisotropic diffusion equation to selectively remove nanoscale experimental noise while preserving nanoscale intrinsic geometry information. To demonstrate the performance of the developed method, the ridge and valley lines were plotted by utilizing the principle curvatures. Compared to the original anisotropic diffusion and raw atomic force microscopy (AFM) experimental data, the developed modified anisotropic diffusion shows excellent performance in nanoscale noise removal while preserving the intrinsic aeometry of the nanoparticles.

We study the integral quaternions and the integral octonions along the combinatorics of the 24-cell, a uniform polytope with the symmetry D 4, and the Gosset polytope 421 with the symmetry E 8. We identify the set of the unit integral octonions or quaternions as a Gosset polytope 421 or a 24-cell and describe the subsets of integral numbers having small length as certain combinations of unit integral numbers according to the E 8 or D 4 actions on the 421 or the 24-cell, respectively. Moreover, we show that each level set in the unit integral numbers forms a uniform polytope, and we explain the dualities between them. In particular, the set of the pure unit integral octonions is identified as a uniform polytope 231 with the symmetry E 7, and it is a dual polytope to a Gosset polytope 321 with the symmetry E 7 which is the set of the unit integral octonions with Re = 1/2.

Many kinds of liquid spray products are used in livelihood activities these days. Spray products can be distinguished by the target to be sprayed (like into the air or on human skin (body)). Because human can be exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted from spray products, some considerations on safety or hazard of spray products should be needed. In this study, emission characteristics of VOCs were investigated against 10 types of liquid spray products (6 skin spray and 4 air spray products). The concentrations of benzene and toluene were determined by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) equipped with a thermal desorber (TD). Their average concentrations from 6 skin spray products exhibited () and ppb(w), respectively. In contrast, those of 4 air spray samples had and ppb(w), respectively. If liquid contents in spray samples are completely vaporized in one cubic meter (1 m3) after spraying for 10 seconds, their mean concentrations of skin spray products are (benzene) and (toluene). In contrast, those of air spray products are (benzene) and (toluene). The estimated concentration levels of benzene from two types of products (31.7 and ) exceeded the Korean atmospheric environmental guideline (). The results of this study thus suggest that some measures should be made to reduce or suppress the contents of VOC in spray products.

Regulatory T (Treg) cells are important in the regulation of immune response, but the exact regulation of Treg-cell function in vivo is still not well known. In the present study, we investigated the functional activity of CD4(+) CD25(+) Treg cells as well as the frequency and number of CD4(+) CD25(+) FoxP3(+) Treg cells in the spleens of experimentally infected mice with a tissue-migrating parasite, sparganum (plerocercoid of Spirometra mansoni) for 3 weeks. The results demonstrated fluctuations in the Treg-cell function during the parasite infection, being up-regulated at day 3, down-regulated until day 14, and thereafter up-regulated again at day 21. We also investigated the cytokine-producing capability of the splenocytes to study the pattern of immune response of the mice to the parasite. The results showed decreased capabilities of interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and IL-17α production, whereas IL-4-producing and IL-10-producing capabilities were increased along with the parasitic infection. Meanwhile, IL-6-producing capability was increased to reach a peak at week 2, and thereafter was decreased to the baseline level. As a regulatory mechanism, we found that Treg-cell function was attenuated in the presence of the crude extracts of sparganum, but was enhanced in the presence of the excretory-secretory products, suggesting that sparganum products were involved in the triggering and regulation of immune response in the acute and chronic phases, respectively. Results show that Treg cells are central in the immune homeostasis in vivo that is maintained by host-parasite interactions during the parasitic infection.

BACKGROUNDRapid and sensitive detection of KRAS mutation is needed to maximize the benefits for patients who are being treated with monoclonal antibodies to target the epidermal growth factor receptor in colorectal cancer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the peptide nucleic acid clamp real-time PCR (PCqPCR) as compared to that of direct sequencing (DS) between using fresh colorectal cancer tissue and the matched formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) colorectal cancer tissue.METHODSThe efficacy of PCqPCR was evaluated and compared with that of DS using fresh tissue and matched FFPE tissue from 30 cases of colorectal cancer.RESULTSPCqPCR is more sensitive than DS for detecting KRAS mutation. PCqPCR detected 1% of mutants in 1 ng DNA. PCqPCR detected mutation in 1% of mutant cells, while DS barely detected, by manual reading, that in 20-50% of mutant cells. In the clinical samples, PCqPCR detected KRAS mutation in 60.0% while DS detected KRAS mutation in 53.3% of the colorectal cancers. The two methods showed a 100% concordance rate for detecting KRAS mutation between the fresh tissue and FFPE tissue.CONCLUSIONSThe PCqPCR method is efficiently applicable for the detection of KRAS mutation in a clinical setting.