• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.545-554
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• 2016

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is an important macromolecule in medical and pharmaceutical fields. HA is a natural and linear polymer composed of repeating disaccharide units of β-1, 3-N-acetyl glucosamine and β-1, 4-glucuronic acid. This work aimed to confirm the structural characteristics and anti-inflammatory activities of HA and its chemically sulfated-HA. HA was produced from a fed-batch fermentation process using Streptococcus dysgalactiae in a 5 l bioreactor. HA was isolated water-soluble form (HA-WS) and water-insoluble form (HA-WI) from culture medium, and was obtained chemically sulfated-derivative (S-HA) that resulted in a 90% yield from HA-WI. The structural features of the sulfated- HA (S-HA) were investigated by FT-IR and ¹H-NMR spectroscopy. The FT-IR and NMR patterns revealed the similarity in both the FTIR spectrum as well as NMR spectrum of both reference standard and purified HA from S. dysgalactiae. The anti-inflammatory activities of HA and S-HA were examined on LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells. S-HA was significantly inhibited production of pro-inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO) and PGE₂ and the gene levels of iNOS and COX-2, which are responsible for the production of NO and PGE₂, respectively. Furthermore, S-HA also suppressed the overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α (<80 pg/ml) and IL-6 (<100 pg/ml) compared to that of HA-WI. The present study clearly demonstrates that HA-S exhibits anti-inflammatory activities in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.386-395
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• 2006

The core questions for determining nitrogen topdress rate (Npi) at panicle initiation stage (PIS) are 'how much nitrogen accumulation during the reproductive stage (PNup) is required for the target rice yield or protein content depending on the growth and nitrogen nutrition status at PIS?' and 'how can we diagnose the growth and nitrogen nutrition status easily at real time basis?'. To address these questions, two years experiments from 2001 to 2002 were done under various rates of basal, tillering, and panicle nitrogen fertilizer by employing a rice cultivar, Hwaseongbyeo. The response of grain yield and milled-rice protein content was quantified in relation to RVIgreen (green ratio vegetation index) and SPAD reading measured around PIS as indirect estimators for growth and nitrogen nutrition status, the regression models were formulated to predict PNup based on the growth and nitrogen nutrition status and Npi at PIS. Grain yield showed quadratic response to PNup, RVIgreen around PIS, and SPAD reading around PIS. The regression models to predict grain yield had a high determination coefficient of above 0.95. PNup for the maximum grain yield was estimated to be 9 to 13.5 kgN/10a within the range of RVIgreen around PIS of this experiment. decreasing with increasing RVIgreen and also to be 10 to 11 kgN/10a regardless of SPAD readings around PIS. At these PNup's the protein content of milled rice was estimated to rise above 9% that might degrade eating quality seriously Milled-rice protein content showed curve-linear increase with the increase of PNup, RVIgreen around PIS, and SPAD reading around PIS. The regression models to predict protein content had a high determination coefficient of above 0.91. PNup to control the milled-rice protein content below 7% was estimated as 6 to 8 kgN/10a within the range of RVIgreen and SPAD reading of this experiment, showing much lower values than those for the maximum grain yield. The recovery of the Npi applied at PIS ranged from 53 to 83%, increasing with the increased growth amount while decreasing with the increasing Npi. The natural nitrogen supply from PIS to harvest ranged from 2.5 to 4 kg/10a, showing quadratic relationship with the shoot dry weight or shoot nitrogen content at PIS. The regression models to estimate PNup was formulated using Npi and anyone of RVIgreen, shoot dry weight, and shoot nitrogen content at PIS as predictor variables. These models showed good fitness with determination coefficients of 0.86 to 0.95 The prescription method based on the above models predicting grain yield, protein content and PNup and its constraints were discussed.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.638-645
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• 2003

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effect of myocardial protection with our cold blood cardioplegic solution and to observe the relationship between ultrastructural study and other evaluation methods and its effectiveness. Material and Method: We evaluated the changes of myocardial ultrastructure using semi-quantitative scoring system, CK-MB fraction, SGOT and LDH1/LDH2, and EKG in 18 patients undergoing valvular heart surgery and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Right atrial auricular biopsies were taken before the cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and shortly after the end of CPB. Myocardium-related serum enzymes ＆ EKG were checked for 3 days of postoperative period and their postoperative peak enzyme value and observed new Q wave ＆ ST segment elevation in EKG were choosen. Result: There were 8 males and 10 females, and their mean age was 55.6$\pm$13. Eight patients underwent valvular heart surgery and ten coronary artery bypass grafting, The mean CPB time was 119$\pm$29 minutes and the mean aortic cross-clamp (ACC) time was 75.4$\pm$24 minutes. Before the start of CPB, the mean mitochondrial score was 4.28$\pm$0.53 and after the end of CPB, it significantly increased to 2.35$\pm$0.79. There was no evidence of perioperative myocardial infarction in terms of myocardiumrelated serum enzyme value and Q wave and ST change in EKG. There was no significant relationship between pre-CPB and post-CPB mitochondrial score and the mean time of CPB and ACC, and the mean value of postoperative peak CK-MB, SGOT and LDH1/LDH2, but there was relatively positive correlation of CPB time with peak LDH1/LDH2. Conclusion: Despite the apparent satisfactory results in myocardium-related serum enzymes ＆ EKG, with this study using the cold blood cardioplegic solution, there were many changes in myocardial ultrastructures, and more studies are needed to obtain further information.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.154-161
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• 1998

To investigate whether the introduced genetic marker is useful to detect the survivalship and activity of the natural bacteria under the stressed conditions, one Gram-negative isolate, KP964 was transformed to the luminous phenotype by transferring luxAB gene. Under the starvation-stress this luminous bacterial culturability (determined by colony-forming-units [CFU] on agar plate) decreased rapidly below the detection limit by 37 days, while its total cell number (determined by AODC) remained almost the same as its initial inocular size. At that time period, the viable cell number was estimated to be 1400 times higher than its CFU number. The bioiuminescence (determined by relative light units [RLU]) produced under the same condition was also monitored and found to decrease more rapidly than the culturability by 5-fold. Under the other stresses, e.g., osmotic shocks, acid shock, and exposure to toxic chemicals, this bacterial strain did not show the reliable correlation between CFU and RLU. These results might not suggest the direct estimation of bioiuminescence from the stressed bacteria be an index of both the survivalship and its activity. However, when the stressed bacterial cells were incubated under the favorable condition by relieving from the existing stress, the potential bioiuminescence (the lag periods before the increase of bioiuminescence, the increase rates of bioiuminescence, and the maximal levels of bioiuminescence) was shown to be highly dependent upon the strengths of the stresses exposed to the bacterial cells. Therefore, analysis of the potential bioiuminescence from the stressed bacteria revealed good relationships with survival as well as activity.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.288-300
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• 2003

Purpose: To obtain regional blood flow and tissue-blood partition coefficient with time-activity curves from ${H_2}^{15}O$ PET, fitting of some parameters in the Kety model is conventionally accomplished by nonlinear least squares (NLS) analysis. However, NLS requires considerable compuation time then is impractical for pixel-by-pixel analysis to generate parametric images of these parameters. In this study, we investigated several fast parameter estimation methods for the parametric image generation and compared their statistical reliability and computational efficiency. Materials and Methods: These methods included linear least squres (LLS), linear weighted least squares (LWLS), linear generalized least squares (GLS), linear generalized weighted least squares (GWLS), weighted Integration (WI), and model-based clustering method (CAKS). ${H_2}^{15}O$ dynamic brain PET with Poisson noise component was simulated using numerical Zubal brain phantom. Error and bias in the estimation of rCBF and partition coefficient, and computation time in various noise environments was estimated and compared. In audition, parametric images from ${H_2}^{15}O$ dynamic brain PET data peformed on 16 healthy volunteers under various physiological conditions was compared to examine the utility of these methods for real human data. Results: These fast algorithms produced parametric images with similar image qualify and statistical reliability. When CAKS and LLS methods were used combinedly, computation time was significantly reduced and less than 30 seconds for $128{\times}128{\times}46$ images on Pentium III processor. Conclusion: Parametric images of rCBF and partition coefficient with good statistical properties can be generated with short computation time which is acceptable in clinical situation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.1873-1879
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• 2010

This study was conducted to estimate the heavy metal contents of vegetables available on the markets in Seoul area. Concentrations of mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chrome (Cr), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) were measured in 300 samples using a mercury analyzer and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) after wet digestion. The average values of heavy metals in vegetables were as follows [mean (minimum~maximum), mg/kg]; Hg: 0.0005 (N.D~0.007), Pb: 0.011 (N.D~0.259), Cd: 0.012 (N.D~0.188), As: 0.002 (N.D~0.142), Cr: 0.100 (0.019~0.954), Ni: 0.093 (0.003~1.231), Cu: 1.098 (0.072~36.29), and Zn: 3.48 (0.485~21.31). The heavy metal contents of vegetables available on the markets in Seoul were almost the same as or lower than those reported in other studies. The weekly average intakes of mercury, lead and cadmium from vegetables take 0.44~7.71% of PTWI (Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intakes) that the FAO/WHO Joint Food Additive and Contaminants Committee sets for evaluation of food safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.10
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• pp.1361-1370
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• 2011

Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of eugenol and its derivatives from clove (Eugenia caryophyllata Thunb.) were evaluated using in vitro assay systems by measuring 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and 15-lipoxygenase (15-LOX). Among eight different crude medicinal drugs tested, volatile extracts of clove extracted by steam distillation extraction (SDE) showed potent DPPH radical scavenging activity ($IC_{50}$=8.85 ${\mu}g/mL$) as well as strong inhibitory activity against COX-2 (58.15%) and 15-LOX (86.15%) at 10 ${\mu}g/mL$ and 25 ${\mu}g/mL$, respectively. Major volatile components of clove were identified as eugenol, trans-caryophyllene, and acetyleugenol by GC-MS analysis. Out of three eugenol derivatives, eugenol, methyl eugenol, and acetyl eugenol, eugenol showed the strongest DPPH radical scavenging activity and COX-2 inhibitory activity, whereas methyl eugenol exhibited the strongest 15-LOX inhibitory activity. Finally, the contents of the three eugenol derivatives in clove were quantified by analytical HPLC. Contents of eugenol and acetyl eugenol in clove were 6.95% and 1.85% per dry weight, respectively. These results suggest that eugenol and its derivatives in steam distilled extract of clove may be useful as potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.381-391
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• 1993

To evaluate the antioxidizing effect of flavonoid on fish oil and peroxidized fish oil, rats were fed with diets containing 5% corn oil (CO), 5% corn oil and 15% fresh fish oil (FO) or peroxidixed fish oil (PFO) for 4weeks. An half of FO and PFO group rats were injected with 10mg flavonoid (+)-catechin (a day per kg body weight) (FO-C and PFO-C). FO and FO-C group rats showed higher increase in body weight as compared to PFO, PFO-C group rats. Whereas, the opposite result was obtained in case of liver weight increase. In addition, catechin apparently reduced liver weight by 12~17%. Phospholipid, cholesterol, triglyceride and lipid peroxide content in serum and cholesterol, lipid peroxide content in liver and adipose tissue of PFO, PFO-C group rats were significantly higher than those of FO, FO-C one. These results suggested that catechin reduced the synthesis of lipid and protected effectively against lipid peroxidation. In fatty acids profile of neutral lipid and phospholipid, the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) versus saturated fatty acids (SFA) in PFO, PFO-C were lower than that of FO or FO-C because of ruduced PUFA. Contrary to our expectation, the enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase(SOD), catalase and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in rat liver of FO and FO-C group were lower than those of PFO and PFO-C group. These results were quite interesting and might be explained in terms of homeostasis. In case of total lipid in liver, $C_{20:5}$, $C_{22:6}$ fatty acids were decreased in rat fed peroxidized fish oil. In conclusion, catechin was considered to be an antioxidative and hepatoprotective drug and hypolipidemic agent.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.8
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• pp.1050-1061
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• 2009

The present study was performed to evaluate energy and nutrients intakes of stroke patients in Daegu Gyeongbuk region, and to analyze the relative risk of stroke related to the intake levels of energy and nutrients. The case subjects (n=100) were selected from newly diagnosed stroke patients at Kyungpook National University Hospital. The control subjects (n=150) were selected from community residents who did not have stroke history and were sex and age-matched with the case subjects. The survey was conducted by individual interviews by trained dietitians using semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires. The odds ratios were calculated by using unconditional logistic regression. In male subjects, patient group had significantly higher consumption than the control group in mean daily intakes of energy, all energy yielding nutrients, vitamin $B_1$, $B_6$, niacin, folic acid, vitamin E, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and dietary fiber, and also in the ratio of energy intake from protein and fat. In women subjects, the patient group consumed significantly lower intakes than the control group in fat, vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin E, iron, but vice versa in carbohydrate energy ratio. As for men, the increased intakes of energy, protein, carbohydrate vitamin $B_1$, E and niacin, zinc, total fatty acids, monoand poly-unsaturated, n-6 fatty acids significantly raised the relative risk of stroke. As for women, the increased intakes of fat, vitamin A, $B_2$, $B_6$, niacin, vitamin C and E, iron, sodium, potassium, selenium, mono-, poly-unsaturated, n-6 fatty acids, cholesterol, taurine and dietary fiber significantly lowered the relative risk of stroke. The results of the study demonstrated that the effect of several nutrient intake levels, such as niacin, vitamin E and fatty acids, on the relative risk of stroke was inconsistent between sex. The reason for this sex difference needs to be elucidated in a larger scale study.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.203-210
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• 2003

PET (positron emission tomography) permits the investigation of physiological and biochemical processes in vivo. The accuracy of quantifying PET data is affected by its finite spatial resolution, which causes partial volume effects. In this study, we developed a method for partial volume correction using Hoffman phantom PET and MR data, and applied various FWHM (full width at half maximum) levels. We also applied this method to PET images of normal controls and tested for the possibility of clinical application. $^{18}$ F-PET Hoffman phantom images were co-registered to MR slices. The gray matter and white matter regions were then segmented into binary images. Each binary image was convolved by 4, 8, 12, 16 mm FWHM levels. These convolved images of gray and white matter were merged corresponding to the same level of FWHM. The original PET images were then divided by the convolved binary images voxel-by-voxel. These corrected PET images were multiplied by binary images. The corrected PET images were evaluated by analyzing regions of interests, which were drawn on the gray and white matter regions of the original MR image slices. We calculated the ratio of white to gray matter. We also applied this method to the PET images of normal controls. On analyzing the corrected PET images of Hoffman phantom, the ratios of the corrected images increased more than that of the uncorrected images. With the normal controls, the ratio of the corrected images increased more than that of the uncorrected images. The ratio increase of the corrected PET images was lower than that of the corrected phantom PET images. In conclusion, the method developed for partial volume correction in PET data may be clinically applied, although further study may be required for optimal correction.