Byung-Seok Choi

Fusobacterium nucleatum GroEL induces risk factors of atherosclerosis in human microvascular endothelial cells and ApoE(-/-) mice.

Infection and inflammation are risk factors in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. Periodontitis is one of the most prevalent chronic inflammations of the oral cavity, and has been reported to be associated with systemic disease. In this study, we evaluated whether the heat-shock protein GroEL of Fusobacterium nucleatum, one of the most prevalent bacteria in periodontitis, induces factors that predispose to atherosclerosis in human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) and apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE(-/-)) mice. GroEL induced the expression of chemokines such as monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and interleukin-8 as well as cell adhesion molecules, such as intercellular adhesion molecule 1, vascular cell adhesion molecule 1, and E-selectin. GroEL induced the activity of tissue factor and reduced the activity of the tissue factor pathway inhibitor. Foam cell formation was induced by GroEL. GroEL-injected ApoE(-/-) mice showed significant atherosclerotic lesion progression compared with control mice. Serum levels of risk factors for atherosclerosis such as interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and low-density lipoprotein were increased in GroEL-injected ApoE(-/-) mice compared with control mice, whereas serum levels of high-density lipoprotein were decreased. We could detect significantly higher levels of anti-F. nucleatum GroEL antibody in serum and F. nucleatum DNA in gingival crevicular fluid from patients with periodontitis than in that from healthy subjects. Our results indicate that the host response to the GroEL of periodontal pathogens like F. nucleatum may be a mechanism involved in atherosclerosis, supporting the association of periodontitis and systemic infection.

Automated Information Retrieval for Hazard Identification in Construction Sites

The repetitive occurrence of similar accident in construction disasters is one of the prevalent features. Similar accident cases provide direct information for determining the risk of scheduled activities and planning safety countermeasure. Researchers have developed many systems in order to retrieve and use past accident cases. Although the developed systems have a clear and limited target, most of them were developed under a retrieval methods based on ad-hoc systems which can cause inconvenience for users in using the retrieval system. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes an automated information retrieval system that can search for and provide similar accident cases. The retrieval system extracts building information modeling objects and composes a query set by combining BIM objects with a project management information system. Based on the results of this study, the users can excessively reduce query generation. Furthermore, they can easily avoid risks by receiving similar past accident cases that can happen while they work.