• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.249-256
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• 2017

The Monascus azaphilone (MAz) pigment is a well-known food colorant that has yellow, orange and red components. The structures of the yellow and orange MAz differ by two hydride reductions, with yellow MAz being the reduced form. Orange MAz can be non-enzymatically converted to red MAz in the presence of amine derivatives. It was previously demonstrated that mppE and mppG are involved in the biosynthesis of yellow and orange MAz, respectively. However, ${\Delta}mppE$ and ${\Delta}mppG$ knockout mutants maintained residual production of yellow and orange MAz, respectively. In this study, we deleted the region encompassing mppD, mppE and mppG in M. purpureus and compared the phenotype of the resulting mutant (${\Delta}mppDEG$) with that of an mppD knockout mutant (${\Delta}mppD$). It was previously reported that the ${\Delta}mppD$ strain retained the ability to produce MAz but at approximately 10% of the level observed in the wildtype strain. A chemical analysis demonstrated that the ${\Delta}mppDEG$ strain was still capable of producing both yellow and orange MAz, suggesting the presence of minor MAz route(s) not involving mppE or mppG. Unexpectedly, the ${\Delta}mppDEG$ strain was observed to accumulate fast-eluting pigments in a reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. A LC-MS analysis identified these pigments as ethanolamine derivatives of red MAz, which had been previously identified in an mppE knockout mutant that produces high amounts of orange MAz. Although the underlying mechanism is largely unknown, this study has yielded an M. purpureus strain that selectively accumulates red MAz.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.83-90
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• 2009

Since traffic is aggregated to a MPP that acts as an Internet gateway, if traffic load is not balanced among the MPPs in a WMN, the overall performance of a WMN becomes poor even though the total traffic load is far below the capacity of the WMN. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a stochastic load balancing scheme where each MP (Mesh Point) probabilistically selects its serving MPP according to the congestion levels of MPPs. Through extensive simulations using ns-2, we have verified that our scheme can stabilize a WMN fast when congestion occurs and reduce packet loss rate by distributing traffic load of a congested MPP to multiple MPPs in the inverse proportional to their congestion levels. Compared to queue-based load balancing scheme, our method can decrease network stabilization time by 34 seconds, and reduce packet loss rate by 7.6%. Since the proposed scheme can reduce network stabilization time by efficiently using network resource, it is expected to contribute to the reliable operation of a WMN.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.173-178
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• 2001

The effects of heat-treatment with magnetic or non-magnetic field on magnetic properties of gas-atomized MPP dust cores subjected to various cooling processes after annealing were investigated. Upon magnetic-field annealing, ac permeability and core loss decreased with the increase of cooling rate, which were attributed to the generation of inhomogeneous internal stress and anomalous eddy current loss, respectively. It was not observed the formation of ordered phase and the related change in magnetic properties at the cooling stage for MPP dust cores. In MPP alloys, magnetic anisotropy was easily induced through the directional order, and permeability and core loss were changed under the conditions of low cooling rate and magnetic annealing.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.269.1-269.1
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• 2002

MPP$\^$＋/ is known to be a neurotoxic substance that induces the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons and Parkinson-like syndrome. Incubation with MPP$\^$＋/ induced the expression of heme oxygenase-l (HO-1) in PC-12 cells and HO-1 revealed a protective effect against MPP$\^$＋/ -induced cytotoxicity. In this study. we tested the effect of pre-conditioning on the MPP$\^$＋/-induced cytotoxicity. The PC-12 cells were incubated with MPP$\^$＋/ for 3 hrs. and then after 12 hrs the cells were exposed to several concentration of MPP$\^$＋/. (omitted)

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.247-253
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• 2005

The present study assessed the effect of calmodulin antagonists trifluoperazine and W-7 against the cytotoxicity of $MPP^+$ and 6-bydroxydoparnine (6-OHDA) in relation to the mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death in PC12 cells. Trifluoperazine (an inhibitor of the mitochondrial permeability transition and calmodulin antagonist) and W-7 (a specific calmodulin antagonist) significantly attenuated the $MPP^+-induced$ cell viability loss in PC12 cells with a maximum inhibition at $0.5{\sim}1{\mu}M$; beyond these concentrations the inhibitory effect declined. Both compounds at this concentration range did not cause cell death significantly. In contrast to $MPP^+$, the trifluoperazine and W-7 did not depress the cytotoxic effect of 6-OHDA. Addition of trifluoperazine and W-7 inhibited the cytosolic accumulation of cytochrome c and caspase-3 activation in PC12 cells treated with $MPP^+$ and attenuated the formation of reactive oxygen species and the depletion of GSH, whereas both compounds did not reduce the effect of 6-OHDA. The results show that trifluoperazine and W-7 may attenuate the cytotoxicity of $MPP^+$ by inhibition of the mitochondrial permeability transition and calmodulin. Meanwhile, the cytotoxic effect of 6-OHDA seems to be mediated by the actions, which are different from $MPP^+$.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.119-131
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• 1999

The effect of herbal medicine on 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ion $(MPP^+)$ and 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) mediated neurotoxicity was studied in the rat phaeochromocytoma cell line PC12. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that herbal medicine can protect cells from neurotoxiciy caused by $MPP^+$ and 6-OHDA. Exposure of PC12 cells to 0.2 mM $MPP^+$ and $50\;{\mu}M$ 6-OHDA for 24h resulted in a 50% cell death with respect to the control cells. $MPP^+$ induced cell death was reduced by Yollyounggobondan (延齡固本丹), Sagunjatang (四君子湯), Palmihwan (八味丸), and Palmultang (八物湯)(P<0.05). However, herbal medicines did not protect cells from degeneration caused by the 6-OHDA. Yollyounggobondan, Yungmijihwangwon (六味地黃元), Palmihwan, and Samultang (四物湯) were effective in protecting against $MPP^+$-induced ATP loss in PC12 cells (P<0.05). Yollyounggobondan and Palmultang were effect in neurite protection against 6-OHDA treatment in differentiated PC12 cells with NGF.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.254-263
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• 2010

Objectives : The neuroprotective effects of bee venom (BV) have been demonstrated in many studies, but bee venom has many side effects. So we used sweet bee venom (SBV), which has high molecular elements removed to reduce the side effects. I examined the neuroprotective effect of sweet bee venom in 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridine ($MPP^+$)-induced human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Methods : To observe the possible toxicity of SBV itself, SH-SY5Y cells were treated with SBV in various concentrations for 3 h and $MPP^+$ in concentrations (1 and 5mM) for 24h. To investigate the protective effect of SBV against $MPP^+$ toxicity, SH-SY5Y cells were pretreated with vehicle or nontoxic concentrations of SBV for 3h and the cells were not washed, followed by incubation with respective concentrations of SBV and 1 mM $MPP^+$ for 24h. To investigate the protective effect of SBV against $MPP^+$ toxicity, SH-SY5Y cells were pretreated with vehicle or nontoxic concentrations of SBV for 3h and the cells were not washed, followed by incubation with respective of SBV(0.5%), 1 mM $MPP^+$, 5uM AKT inhibitor(LY984002) and 10uM ERK inhibitor(PD98059) for 24 h. The protective effect was measured by cell viability assay. To investigate the degree of apoptosis, caspase-3 enzyme activity was measured in control, $MPP^+$, SBV+$MPP^+$. Results : SBV (0.5%) pretreatment protected the SH-SY5Y cells against $MPP^+$-induced apoptotic cell death. The cell viability was higher in the SH-SY5Y cells that were pretreated with vehicle or nontoxic concentrations of SBV than those not pretreated. The caspase-3 activity was lower in the pretreated groups than these not pretreated. ERK and AKT enzymes have a role in the neuroprotective effects of the sweet bee venom. Conclusions : The results demonstrate that SBV has a protective effect on dopaminergic neurons against $MPP^+$ toxicity. This data suggest that SBV could be a potential therapeutic tool for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease(PD).

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.503-508
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• 2012

Tracking the Maximum Power Point (MPP) of a photovoltaic (PV) array is usually an essential part of a PV system. The problem addressed by Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) techniques is to find the voltage $V_{MPP}$ or current $I_{MPP}$ at which a PV array should operate to generate the maximum power output $P_{MPP}$ under a given temperature and irradiance. MPPT control methods such as the perturb and observe method and the incremental conductance method require a microprocessor or DSP to determine if the duty cycle should be increased or not. This paper proposes a simple and fast analog MPPT method. The proposed control scheme tracks the MPP very quickly and its hardware implementation is simple when compared with the conventional techniques. The new algorithm can successfully track the MPP even in the case of rapidly changing atmospheric conditions. In addition, it has higher efficiency than ordinary algorithms.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.281-286
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• 2002

To understand the cytotoxic mechanism of $MPP^+,$ we examined the involvement of ceramide in $MPP^+-induced$ cytotoxicity to human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. When SH-SY5Y cells were exposed to $MPP^+,\;MPP^+$ induced dose-dependent cytotoxicity accompanied by 2-fold elevation of intracellular ceramide levels in SH-SY5Y cells. Three methods were used to test the hypothesis that the elevated intracellular ceramide is related to $MPP^+-induced$ cytotoxicity: $C_2-ceramide$ was directly applied to cells, sphingomyelinase (SMase) was exogenously added, and oleoylethanolamine (OE) was used to inhibit degradation of ceramide. Furthermore, inhibition of ceramide-activated protein phosphatase (CAPP), the effector of ceramide, using okadaic acid (OA) attenuated cell death but treatment of fumonisin $B_1,$ the ceramide synthase inhibitor, did not alter the cytotoxic effect of $MPP^+.$ Based on these, we suggest that the elevation of intracellular ceramide is one of the important mediators in $MPP^+-induced$ cell death.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2009

Tracking the Maximum Power Point(MPP) of a photovoltaic(PV) array is usually an essential part of a PV system. The problem considered by MPPT techniques is to find the voltage $V_{MPP}$ or current $I_{MPP}$ at which a PV array should operate to generate the maximum power output PMPP under a given temperature and irradiance. The MPPT control methods, such as the perturb and observe method and the incremental conductance method require microprocessor or DSP to determine if the duty cycle should be increased or not. This paper proposes a simple and fast analog MPPT method. The proposed control scheme will track the MPP very fast and its hardware implementation is so simple, compared with the conventional techniques. The new algorithm has successfully tracked the MPP, even in case of rapidly changing atmospheric conditions, and Has higher efficiency than ordinary algorithms.