Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) envelope glycoprotein (gp51/gp30T-), consisting of BLV gp51 and BLV gp30 that lacked its C-terminal transmembrane domain, was expressed in insect cells under the control of the baculovirus polyhedron promoter. Recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- secreted from insect cells was determined by immunofluorescence, enzyme-linked immunosorbent and western blot assays using a BLV-specific monoclonal antibody and BLV-positive bovine antibodies. An agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test using gp51/gp30T- as the antigen for the detection of BLV antibodies in serum was developed and compared to traditional AGID, which uses wild type BLV antigen derived from fetal lamb kidney cells. AGID with the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- was relatively more sensitive than traditional AGID. When the two methods were tested with bovine sera from the field, the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- and traditional antigen had a relative sensitivity of 69.8% and 67.4%, respectively, and a relative specificity of 93.3% and 92.3%. These results indicated that the recombinant BLV gp51/gp30T- is an effective alternative antigen for the diagnosis of BLV infection in cattle.
Agar ; Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Antigens, Viral/immunology ; Baculoviridae/*metabolism ; Cattle ; Cell Line ; Enzootic Bovine Leukosis/blood/immunology ; Gene Expression Regulation, Viral/*physiology ; Immunodiffusion/methods/*veterinary ; Kidney/cytology ; Leukemia Virus, Bovine/genetics/*metabolism ; Molecular Biology ; Sheep ; Viral Envelope Proteins/genetics/*metabolism

Akabane, Aino and Chuzan virus are arthropod-borne (arbo)viruses mainly associated with reproductive failures in cattle. We investigated apoptosis in Vero cells (C-1586) infected with Akabane, Aino and Chuzan virus. The fragmentation of chromosomal DNA was simultaneously detected with the progress of cytopathic effect from 48 hr to 72 hr post infection, depending on viruses. Although the treatment of cycloheximide blocked apoptosis in Vero cells infected with three viruses, actinomycin D did not prevent DNA oligomerization, thus indicating that de novo viral protein synthesis is critical for viral apoptosis. In addition, the activation of caspase-3 was also detected in Vero cells by indirect fluorescent assay. From the present results, it is of future interest whether apoptotic characteristics of these viruses are related to pathogenecity in vivo.
Animals ; Apoptosis/*physiology ; Bunyaviridae/*physiology ; Caspase 3 ; Caspases/metabolism ; Cercopithecus aethiops ; Cytopathogenic Effect, Viral/*physiology ; DNA Fragmentation/physiology ; Dactinomycin ; Enzyme Activation ; Orbivirus/*physiology ; Vero Cells

Vector-borne arboviruses produce mild to severe symptoms in domestic animals. Bovine ephemeral fever (BEF), Akabane, Aino, and Chuzan virus have been primarily attributed to reproductive disorders or febrile diseases in cattle, and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is mainly associated with reproductive failures in swine. We investigated antibody titers from domestic swine against four bovine arboviruses (BEF, Akabane, Aino, and Chuzan virus) and from cattle against JEV in Korea. While the positive rates for Akabane and BEF were 37.4% and 15.7%, the positive incidence of Chuzan and Aino were relatively low, with positive rates of 3.04% and 0.4%, respectively, based on a virus neutralization assay. Antibody titers against more than one virus were also frequently detected in domestic swine. The incidence of JEV was 51.3% among domestic cattle. In addition, one positive case was detected in the thoracic fluids from 35 aborted calves, based on the hemagglutination inhibition test. Our results indicate that swine are susceptible hosts of bovine arboviruses without showing clinical symptoms in a natural environment. Moreover, we confirmed that JEV could be associated with reproductive failure in pregnant cattle, as were other vector-borne bovine arboviruses assessed in this study.
Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Cattle ; Cattle Diseases/*epidemiology/*virology ; Encephalitis Virus, Japanese/*immunology ; Encephalitis, Japanese/blood/epidemiology/*veterinary/virology ; Ephemeral Fever/blood/*epidemiology/virology ; Ephemeral Fever Virus, Bovine/*immunology ; Hemagglutination Tests ; Incidence ; Korea/epidemiology ; Neutralization Tests ; Swine ; Swine Diseases/*epidemiology/*virology

OBJECTIVES: This study was to assess the status and awareness of excessive heat exposure among agricultural workers. METHODS: We selected a total of 90 farmers from a villages of Gyeongju-si, during August, 2015. We carried out the temperature measurement for nine times and derived Health Index (HI) and Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) index. We compared the HI, WBGT and excessive heat warnings. Status of high temperature exposure, lifestyle, medical history, and awareness about excessive health related exposure illness assessed using survey questionnaires. RESULTS: The matching rates between the WBGT and the HI during excessive heat warning were high, but when it was a non-excessive heat warning, there were days of excessive HI or WBGT. Out of 90 farmers surveyed, 78 cases (86.7%) were in their 60s and older age group. Slightly more than two third (71.1%) farmers were farming in the dawn-morning (71.1%), and the daily working hours were less than 4 hours (54.4 %), but only 23.3% among farmers took regular breaks. Of total, 14.4% farmers experienced excessive heat exposure related illness in order of tiredness, lethargy, dizziness, headaches, and sweating. Overall, the awareness of the danger for excessive heat and the heat wave warnings were high at 70.0% and 74.4%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Politically, the excessive heat warnings should not be taken into account the simple temperature measurement but, have to consider WBGT and HI standards at the same time. Farmers need to be promoted and educated to prevent the excessive heat related illness by periodically increasing their rest time during farming.
Agriculture ; Dizziness ; Farmers* ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Headache ; Hot Temperature* ; Humans ; Infrared Rays ; Lethargy ; Life Style ; Sweat ; Sweating

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: It is very important to distinguish between the primary and secondary genetic effects at different sites within a small genetic region. Therefore, we evaluated the relative effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within a gene on the serum lipid profiles by using individual data. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: To evaluate the contributions of SNPs in a region to the serum lipid profiles (total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein, high density lipoprotein), we used data that consisted of 808 individuals (327 males and 481 females) who did not have cardiovascular disease. In this study, we used a stepwise regression procedure to analyze the relative effects of four single nucleotide polymorphisms (ACE6, ACE7, ACE8, ACE10) in a gene region on the development of the serum lipid profiles in each gender group. RESULTS: In the males, there were epistatic interaction effects between two loci (ACE6xACE7, ACE6xACE8, ACE6xACE10, ACE8xACE10 and ACE7xACE8) and among three loci (ACE6xACE7xACE8, ACE6xACE7xACE10 and ACE6xACE8xACE10). Also, there are interaction effects between two loci (ACE6xACE7, ACE6xACE8, ACE6xACE10, ACE7xACE10 and ACE8xACE10) and among three loci (ACE6xACE7xACE8, ACE6xACE7xACE10, ACE6xACE8xACE10 and ACE7xACE8xACE10) in the females. CONCLUSION: The results suggested that each of these loci is important in causing a relative change of the serum lipid profiles, even with simultaneously accounting for the effects at the other loci. In the results of the analysis, there existed the effects of individual loci and significant interaction between the loci on the serum lipid profiles in each gender group. It was confirmed that this stepwise regression method can be suitable for evaluating the relative effects of SNPs and it is easily performed.
Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cholesterol ; Female ; Genes, vif* ; Humans ; Linear Models* ; Lipoproteins ; Male ; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide* ; Triglycerides

Purpose: To proceed effectively with clinical research requires an understanding of the fundamental principles of study design and biostatistical methods. In this article, we identified and summarized basic clinical research designs and some of the key biostatistical methods that have been commonly used in clinical research. Materials and Methods: In an observational study, cross-sectional, case- control and Cohort designs were illustrated and compared. In a clinical trial study, parallel group design and cross-over designs were described according to their characteristics. Also, the biostatistical methods for their usages classified and summarized. Results: Understanding and evaluating research design are part of the process researchers must use to determine both the quality and usefulness of their research. Adequate applications to biostatistical methods are need; i.e., descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, ANOVA, nonparametrics, categorical data analysis, correlation and regression, and survival analysis. Conclusions: Research findings are used by clinical researcher to guide their practice and reduce their uncertainty in clinical decision making. However, to understand how to interpret research results, it is important to be able to understand basic statistical concepts and types of study design. Clinicians should also appropriately choose the biostatistical methods to suit their purposes.
Biostatistics ; Cohort Studies ; Cross-Over Studies ; Decision Making ; Observational Study ; Research Design* ; Statistics as Topic ; Uncertainty

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Analyzing the association between multiple SNPs and the disease outcomes will provide new insight into the disease's etiology. However, this presents an analytic difficulty due to the large number of SNPs and the complex relationships among them. We proposed using the mixed model approach to identify the significant multi-locus genotypes and the high-order gene-to-gene interactions. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We described the mixed effects model and applied this approach to real world data. For the purpose of these analyses, we examine the association of four types of SNPs (AGT5, APOB, CETP3 and ACE6) with the lipid profiles and the measures related with cardiovascular disease. We used data from 672 healthy individuals (283 males and 389 females) who were without cardiovascular diseases. RESULTS: The results of our analysis suggested that there were significant random genotype patterns and genotype groups according to the gender effect on the lipid profiles. In other words, there was significant variability across the genotype groups because of the effect of gender on the lipid profiles. CONCLUSION: The mixed model approach provided a flexible statistical framework for controlling potential confounding variables and for identifying a significant genetic contributions that may come about through the effects of multi-locus genotypes or through an interaction between the genotype and environmental variables (e.g. gender) with the variations in quantitative traits (e.g. lipid profiles). There were significant genetic contributions to the variability in the lipid profiles, and these were explained by the 4 SNPs described in our real data.
Apolipoproteins B ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology) ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

In 614 of 793 cases with subarachnoid hemorrhage(SAH), four vessel cerebral angiography was performed to investigate the source of the hemorrhage. The first four vessel study revealed 501 cases of ruptured cerebral aneurysms; during initial pan-angiography studies, 113 SAH patients did not show vascular lesions. Thirty two of 71 patients(45.1%) showed aneurysms on repeat angiography: fifteen of them had aneurysms in the anterior communicating artery. Among patients whose Hunt Hess grade on admission was poor(III-IV), the possibility of revealing aneurysm during repeated angiography was higher than in those whose grade was good(I-II)(p<0.05, Fisher exact test). On repeat angiography, the age, sex and CT grade of patients with aneurysm were indistinguishable from those of patients without: even in those who on initial angiography showed angiographic vasospasm, the chance of revealing an aneurysm was the same as in those without spasm. We concluded that repeated angiography, especially after 3 weeks of ictus, was valuable for the detection of an initially undefined aneurysm.
Aneurysm ; Angiography* ; Arteries ; Cerebral Angiography ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Intracranial Aneurysm ; Spasm ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage*

Spinal angiolipomas are distinct but rare benign lesions composed of mature lipocytes admixed with abnormal blood vessels that vary from capillary to sinusoid or from venular to arterial in size. They account of 0.14% to 1.2% of all spinal axial tumors, 2% to 3% of extradural spinal tumors, and 16% to 35% of spinal lipomas. The tumors are mostly extradural and have a predilection site in the midthoracic region. The symptoms are usually due to cord compression. Magnetic resornance imaging is the diagnostic choice and surgery is universally successful in relieving the symptoms. The authors report a case of spinal angiolipoma in a 35-year-old female which was successfully treated by operation. A review of the literature on this lesion is also presented.
Adipocytes ; Adult ; Angiolipoma* ; Blood Vessels ; Capillaries ; Female ; Humans ; Lipoma ; Spinal Cord

Paragangliomas are neoplasms that arise from autonomic nervous system-associated paraganglia ; most often, they are benign, but have infrequently been reported to metastasize. Involvement of the spine is rare and is usually intradural at the level of the cauda equina. The authors report one case of metastatic malignant paraganglioma to the spine, which resulted in radiculopathy caused by extradural spinal root compression ; a review of the literature is also provided. Management of the reported patient involved spinal root decompression and spinal stabilization ; long-term symptom-free ambulatory status was maintained. After surgical removal of these tumors, radiation therapy may be an important adjunctive procedure.
Cauda Equina ; Decompression ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paraganglioma* ; Radiculopathy ; Spinal Nerve Roots* ; Spine