• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.25-38
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• 2019

The Muju-Seolcheon area, which is known to be located in the boundary of Ogcheon Belt and Ryeongnam Massif (OB-RM), consists of age unknown or Precambrian metamorphic rocks (MRs) [banded biotite gneiss, metasedimentary rocks (black phyllite, mica schist, crystalline limestone, quartzite), granitic gneiss, hornblendite], Mesozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks. In this paper are researched the structural characteristics of each deformation phase from the geometric and kinematic features and the developing sequence of multi-deformed rock structures of the MRs, and is considered the boundary location of OB-RM with the previous geochemical, radiometric, structure geological data. The geological structure of this area is at least formed through four phases (Dn-1, Dn, Dn+1, Dn+2) of deformation. The Dn-1 is the deformation which took place before the formation of Sn regional foliation and formed Sn-1 foliation folded by Fn fold. The Dn is that which formed the Sn regional foliation. The predominant Sn foliation shows a NE direction which matches the zonal distribution of MRs. A-type or sheath folds, in which the Fn fold axis is parallel to the direction of stretching lineation, are often observed in the crystalline limestone. The Dn+1 deformation, which folded the Sn foliation, took place under compression of NNW~NS direction and formed Fn+1 fold of ENE~EW trend. The Sn foliation is mainly rearranged by Fn+1 folding, and the ${\pi}$-axis of Sn foliation, which is dispersed, shows the nearly same direction as the predominant Fn+1 fold axis. The Dn+2 deformation, which folded the Sn and Sn+1 foliations, took place under compression of E-W direction, and formed open folds of N-S trend. And the four phases of deformation are recognized in all domains of the OB-RM, and the structural characteristics and differences to divide these tectonic provinces can not be observed in this area. According to the previous geochemical and radiometric data, the formation or metamorphic ages of the MRs in and around this area were Middle~Late Paleproterozoic. It suggests that the crystalline limestone was at least deposited before Middle Paleproterozoic. This deposition age is different in the geologic age of Ogcheon Supergroup which was recently reported as Neoproterozoic~Late Paleozoic. Therefore, the division of OB-RM tectonic provinces in this area, which regards the metasedimentary rocks containing crystalline limestone as age unknown Ogcheon Group, is in need of reconsideration.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2019

With regard to current Neck CT, Bismuth shielding boards are often being used to reduce exposure to superficial organs such as the thyroid. However, beam hardening often occurs near superficial organs with Bismuth shielding boards and variations in CT Number, Noise, and Uniformity values occur severely. This study looked into the usefulness of shielding boards made from aluminum and silicone that can be easily obtained and have good machinability by comparing them to the existing Bismuth shielding board. An Aluminum 7.3mm and a Silicone 21.5mm were made with shielding ratios similar to that of the Bismuth(0.06 mmPb). TLD (TLD-100) was placed on the thyroid area of the Phantom (RS-108T) and 5 doses were measured for each. To compare image quality, CT Number and Noise variations in axial images of the thyroid area in Neck CT images were compared. Also, variations in CT Number, Noise, and Uniformity were measured in the AAPM phantom images and compared. In the results, when thyroid doses for each shielding board were compared, the Bismuth shielding board showed a 14% reduction, the Silicone 21.5mm showed a 15% reduction, and the Aluminum 7.3mm showed a 13% reduction compared to the Non-Shield. Statistically, there were no significant differences in comparison with the Bismuth shielding board. In CT Number variations of thyroid area images, variations were largest for the Bismuth shielding board. With Uniformity evaluations of the AAPM phantom, the Bismuth shielding board was found unsuitable and the Aluminum 7.3mm and Silicone 21.5mm satisfied the acceptance criteria. Research results show that the Aluminum 7.3mm and Silicone 21.5mm have a similar shielding ratio to the high-priced Bismuth shielding board that is currently being used clinically and in comparison tests of CT Number attenuation coefficient variations, Noise, and Uniformity which are phantom image evaluation items, they proved to be better than Bismuth shielding boards. If various shielding boards are made using aluminum and silicone, sized appropriately for superficial organs, it would be useful in decreasing patient doses.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.545-554
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• 2019

The phytochemical compounds of Pueraria, a medicinally important leguminous plant, include various isoflavones that have weak estrogenic activity and a potential role in preventing chronic disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and postmenopausal syndrome. However, the major isoflavones are derivatives of puerarin and occur mainly as unabsorbable and biologically inactive glycosides. The bioavailability of the glucosides can be increased by hydrolysis of the sugar moiety using ${\beta}$-glucosidase. In this study, we investigated the antioxidant effects of a Pueraria extract after fermentation by Lactobacillus rhamnosus BHN-LAB 76. The L. rhamnosus BHN-LAB 76 strain was inoculated into Pueraria powder and fermented at $37^{\circ}C$ for 72 hr. The total polyphenol content of the Pueraria extract increased by about 134% and the total flavonoid content increased around 110% after fermentation with L. rhamnosus BHN-LAB 76 when compared to a non-fermented Pueraria extract. Superoxide dismutase-like activities, DPPH radical scavenging, and ABTS radical scavenging increased by approximately 213%, 190%, and 107%, respectively, in the fermented Pueraria extract compared to the non-fermented Pueraria extract. Fermentation of Pueraria extracts with L. rhamnosus BHN-LAB 76 is therefore possible and can effectively increase the antioxidant effects. These results can be applied to the development of improved foods and cosmetic materials.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.570-579
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• 2019

Diabetes is one of the serious chronic metabolic diseases caused by Westernized eating habits, and the goal of diabetes treatment is to keep blood glucose at a normal level and prevent diabetic complications. This study was designed to investigate the anti-diabetic effects of a mealworm (Tenebrio molitor larva) extract (MWE) on hyperglycemia in an animal model with type 2 diabetes. Diabetic C57BL/Ksj-db/db mice were divided into three groups: diabetic control, rosiglitazone, and MWE. The mice supplemented with MWE showed significantly lower blood levels of glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin when compared with the diabetic control mice. The homeostatic index of insulin resistance was significantly lower in mice supplemented with MWE than in diabetic control mice. MWE supplementation significantly stimulated the phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 and Akt, and activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase in insulin signaling pathway of skeletal muscles. Eventually, MWE increased the expression of the plasma membrane glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) via PI3K/Akt activation. These findings demonstrate that the increase in plasma membrane GLUT4 expression by MWE promoted the uptake of blood glucose into cells and relieved hyperglycemia in skeletal muscles of diabetic C57BL/Ksj-db/db mice. Therefore, mealworms are expected to prove useful for the prevention and treatment of diabetes, and further studies are needed to improve type 2 diabetes in the future.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.596-606
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• 2019

The study investigated the physiochemical properties and the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of the sea tangle (Saccharina japonica) in a water extract before (STWE) and after (STFL) fermentation with Lactobacillus brevis. The pH values of STWE and STFL were 6.18 and 4.16, and the sugar contents were $8.50^{\circ}Brix$ and $7.40^{\circ}Brix$, respectively. The main free amino acids of STWE and STFL were glutamic acid, aspartic acid, and alanine, and the ${\gamma}$-amino butyric acid (GABA) content was increased by fermentation. The total polyphenol contents of STWE and STFL were 498.29 and 615.77 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/ml, respectively. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activities of STWE and STFL were markedly increased in a dose-dependent manner, and revealed about 89.89% and 96.94% activities, respectively, at 10% concentration (p<0.05). The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities of STWE and STFL were also markedly increased in a dose-dependent manner, and the activity of STFL was significantly increased when compared with STWE (p<0.05). The anti-inflammatory activity was examined in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. STWE and STFL decreased the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which had levels of about 189.90% and 174.69% at 1% concentration, respectively (p<0.05). The contents of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha ($TNF-{\alpha}$) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), were decreased more by addition of STFL than by addition of STWE. The STWE and STFL showed high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, and these activities were increased by fermentation. Therefore, sea tangle extracts can be used as functional food materials.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.111-119
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• 2018

This study was carried out to investigate the growth characteristics and propagation methods of the Korean native Amelanchier asiatica, A. arborea, and A. alnifolia as fruit trees for gardens. Due to the lack of recent research on Amelanchier spp., their superficial classification is still unclear and the names are being used interchangeably. The results are obtained as follows : A. arborea and A. alnifolia were globular type multi-stemmed shrubs. A 20-year-old tree of A. asiatica was 7.8m in height, with a 5.2m crown width, with one trunk. As for the morphological characteristics, leaves of A. asiatica were oblong, with an acuminate of, 6.1cm and 3.6cm width, but A. arborea and A. alnifolia had acute obovate leaves. The leaf size of A. alnifolia was the largest among the three species. The flower size of A. asiatica was bigger than that of A. arborea and A. alnifolia. In addition, its petals and flower clusters were also the largest among the three species. The flowering of A. asiatica initiated on April 21 and then bloomed for a duration of 24 days in Osan, while that of A. arborea and A. alnifolia initiated flowering on April 12 and then bloomed for a duration of 22 days in the same location. The fruit of A. arborea and A. alnifolia were green on May 10~12, it changed into purplish red on May 24~26, and its matured on June 1~3. The duration of fruit persistence of A. arborea and A. alnifolia were 48~50 days. On the other hand, A. asiatica showed greenish fruit on May 20, it became red on September 4, and had fallen by October 3. The fruit size was the largest at 1.03cm of height and 1.12cm of diameter in the A. arborea, followed by the big berry of A. alnifolia and the smallest fruit in the native, A. asiatica. It was difficult to root due to the hardwood cutting of A. arborea at a 40% rate of rooting. In the softwood cutting, the rooting rate of A. arborea was increased by the treatment with concentrated IBA, especially at 5,000 and 7,000ppm. The optimum date for cutting was on June 27, when the rooting rate was more than 80%. The most effective method for rooting of A. arborea was rootone or 7,000 ppm IBA treatment on June 27 softwood cuttings, which showed a rooting rate of over 80%.

• Food Engineering Progress
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.360-366
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• 2017

Fish skin peptide-loaded liposomes were prepared in 100 mL and 1 L solution as lab scales, and 10 L solution as a prototype scale. The particle size and zeta potential were measured to determine the optimal conditions for the production of fish skin peptide-loaded liposome. The liposome was manufactured by the following conditions: (1) primary homogenization at 4,000 rpm, 8,000 rpm, and 12,000 rpm for 3 minutes; (2) secondary homogenization at 40 watt (W), 60 W, and 80 W for 3 minutes. From this experimental design, the optimal conditions of homogenization were selected as 4,000 rpm and 60 W. For the next step, fish peptides were prepared as the concentrations of 3, 6, and 12% at the optimum manufacturing conditions of liposome and stored at $4^{\circ}C$. Particle size, polydispersion index (pdI), and zeta potential of peptide-loaded liposome were measured for its stability. Particle size increased significantly as manufacture scale and peptide concentration increased, and decreased over storage time. The zeta potential results increased as storage time increased at 10 L scale. In addition, 12% peptide showed the formation of a sediment layer after 3 weeks, and 6% peptide was considered to be the most suitable for industrial application.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.374-384
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• 2021

In this study, we propose a new approach for automatic fracture detection in CT scan images of rock specimens. This approach is built on top of two-stage object detection deep learning algorithm called Faster R-CNN with a major modification of using rotated bounding box. The use of rotated bounding box plays a key role in the future work to overcome several inherent difficulties of fracture segmentation relating to the heterogeneity of uninterested background (i.e., minerals) and the variation in size and shape of fracture. Comparing to the commonly used bounding box (i.e., axis-align bounding box), rotated bounding box shows a greater adaptability to fit with the elongated shape of fracture, such that minimizing the ratio of background within the bounding box. Besides, an additional benefit of rotated bounding box is that it can provide relative information on the orientation and length of fracture without the further segmentation and measurement step. To validate the applicability of the proposed approach, we train and test our approach with a number of CT image sets of fractured granite specimens with highly heterogeneous background and other rocks such as sandstone and shale. The result demonstrates that our approach can lead to the encouraging results on fracture detection with the mean average precision (mAP) up to 0.89 and also outperform the conventional approach in terms of background-to-object ratio within the bounding box.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.2
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• pp.254-265
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• 2021

As a result of measuring the polyphenol content of Humulus japonicus (HJ) extract according to the collection time and extraction solvent, bothhot water extract and 70% ethanol extract were collected and extracted in June, and the polyphenol content was high. When the harvesting time was the same, the polyphenol content of the ethanol extract was higher than that of the hot water extract. As a result of measuring the antioxidant activity of HJ extract by measuring electron-donating ability, SOD-like activity, and ABTS radical scavenging ability, HJ6E, which has the highest polyphenol content, showed the highest activity. In addition, in the case of the extract collected in August, the polyphenol content was similar. However, the antioxidant activity of the ethanol extract was high, sothe antioxidant activity remained high when extracted with 70% ethanol. As a result of measuring tyrosinase inhibitory activity for evaluating skin whitening activity, HJ6W did not show any activity. The activity at the highest concentration was 16.18% for HJ8W, 8.07% for HJ6E, and 14.7% for HJ8E. Therefore, the content of ingredients showing skin whitening activity was higher in August than in June. In the elastase inhibitory activity for evaluating the anti-wrinkle activityof the skin, the ethanol extract showed very little activity, and the hot water extract did not. In addition, since all extracts do not show astringent activity, it is judged that it is not appropriate to use HJ as a functional ingredient for preventing wrinkle formation. As a result of measuring the cell viability of HJ6E, which showed the highest polyphenol content and antioxidant activity, it showed a cell proliferation effect at low concentrationsbut strong cytotoxicity at concentrations above 50 ㎍/mL. In the case of the NO production inhibitory ability, as the concentration increased, the NO production of Raw 264.7 was suppressed. Theamount of NO production at 1,000 ㎍/mL decreased to 40.7%. However, whether these results are due to cytotoxicity or the extract's efficacy is a part that requires further research.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.199-208
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• 2021

Euonymus porphyreus, a species of plant in the Celastraceae family, is widely distributed in East Asia, especially in Southern China. The botanical characteristics of E. porphyreus have been reported, but its antioxidative and anticancer activities remain unclear. In this study, we evaluated the antioxidative and anticancer effects of ethanol extracts of E. porphyreus (EEEP) and the molecular mechanism of its anticancer activity in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells. The total polyphenol and flavonoid compound contents from EEEP were 115.42 mg/g and 23.07 mg/g, respectively. EEEP showed significant antioxidative effects with a concentration at 50% of the inhibition (IC50) value of 11.09 ㎍/ml, as measured by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay. EEEP showed cytotoxic activity by increasing the SubG1 cell population of A549 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Apoptosis in A549 cells treated with EEEP was evident due to increased apoptotic cells and apoptotic bodies, as detected by Annexin V and 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining, respectively. EEEP-induced apoptosis resulted in increased expression of the First apoptosis signal (Fas), p53, and Bax, with decreased expression of Bcl-2 and subsequent activation of caspase-8, -9, and caspase-3, leading to cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Collectively, these results suggest that EEEP may exert an anticancer effect by inducing apoptosis in A549 cells through both intrinsic and extrinsic pathways.