• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.629-639
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• 2016

The present study was designed to investigate the characteristics of gintonin, one of components isolated from Korean Ginseng on secretion of catecholamines (CA) from the isolated perfused model of rat adrenal gland and to clarify its mechanism of action. Gintonin (1 to $30{\mu}g/ml$), perfused into an adrenal vein, markedly increased the CA secretion from the perfused rat adrenal medulla in a dose-dependent fashion. The gintonin-evoked CA secretion was greatly inhibited in the presence of chlorisondamine ($1{\mu}M$, an autonomic ganglionic bloker), pirenzepine ($2{\mu}M$, a muscarinic $M_1$ receptor antagonist), Ki14625 ($10{\mu}M$, an $LPA_{1/3}$ receptor antagonist), amiloride (1 mM, an inhibitor of $Na^+/Ca^{2+}$ exchanger), a nicardipine ($1{\mu}M$, a voltage-dependent $Ca^{2+}$ channel blocker), TMB-8 ($1{\mu}M$, an intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ antagonist), and perfusion of $Ca^{2+}$-free Krebs solution with 5mM EGTA (a $Ca^{2+}$chelater), while was not affected by sodium nitroprusside ($100{\mu}M$, a nitrosovasodialtor). Interestingly, LPA ($0.3{\sim}3{\mu}M$, an LPA receptor agonist) also dose-dependently enhanced the CA secretion from the adrenal medulla, but this facilitatory effect of LPA was greatly inhibited in the presence of Ki 14625 ($10{\mu}M$). Moreover, acetylcholine (AC)-evoked CA secretion was greatly potentiated during the perfusion of gintonin ($3{\mu}g/ml$). Taken together, these results demonstrate the first evidence that gintonin increases the CA secretion from the perfused rat adrenal medulla in a dose-dependent fashion. This facilitatory effect of gintonin seems to be associated with activation of LPA- and cholinergic-receptors, which are relevant to the cytoplasmic $Ca^{2+}$ increase by stimulation of the $Ca^{2+}$ influx as well as by the inhibition of $Ca^{2+}$ uptake into the cytoplasmic $Ca^{2+}$ stores, without the increased nitric oxide (NO). Based on these results, it is thought that gintonin, one of ginseng components, can elevate the CA secretion from adrenal medulla by regulating the $Ca^{2+}$ mobilization for exocytosis, suggesting facilitation of cardiovascular system. Also, these findings show that gintonin might be at least one of ginseng-induced hypertensive components.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.394-399
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• 2017

In Korean AC power railway substations, SCOTT winding transformers are under operation to have a single phase power supply together with a phase angle of $90^{\circ}$ on the secondary side of the main transformer. In the case of an internal fault of the transformer, the transformer protection relay should be cut off on the primary side, the transformer should be inoperative to the external fault of the transformer or to the normal train operation. Reducing the malfunction of the relay through an exact fault determination is very important for securing a stable power system and improving its reliability. The main transformers are protected using Buchholtz's relay and a differential relay as the internal fault detection devices, but there are some cases of the main transformer operation under the deactivation of this protection function due to a malfunction of the differential relay. In this paper, the characteristics of the SCOTT transformer and differential relay as well as the malfunctioning of the protection relays are presented. The modeling of the SCOTT transformer protection relay was accomplished by the power system analysis program and the Comtrade file from 'A substation', which was used as the input data for the fault wave, and the harmonics were analyzed to determine if the relay operates or not. In addition, an improvement plan for malfunctioning cases through wave form analysis is suggested.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.2722-2728
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• 2011

3Phase PWM rectifier has become increasingly popular due to its capability of nearly sinusoidal waveform of the input current, and nearly unity power factor operation as a AC/DC rectifier of high capacity telecommunication power supply system. Generally, PI controller is used as a voltage controller of PWM rectifier and voltage controller must be designed to have low overshoot in transient state to get a reliability and stable operation. However, in the application of telecommunication in which load condition is varied very fast, the voltage controller must have a large bandwidth to reduce output voltage variation. The PI controller with large bandwidth arouse the excessive overshoot of the output voltage, and this large output voltage variation degrades the reliability of communication power of the three-phase PWM Rectifier. In this paper, new IP voltage controller for 3 phase PWM rectifier is proposed which has relatively low transient output voltage variation. The improved output characteristics of the transient state voltage responses of the starting and at load changes of the proposed voltage controller are proved by simulations and experiments.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2495-2500
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• 2014

Background: Lung cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers and the most frequent cause of cancer-related death worldwide. In Iran, it ranks second and third as the cancer-causing death in men and women, respectively. We carried out this study to find out the demographic, clinical, and histological characteristics and risk factors of lung cancer in a referral tertiary center in Iran. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on cases of primary lung cancer based on the results of registered cancer reports of cytological and pathological specimens between March 2001 and March 2012. Demographic variables, clinical manifestations, histology and location of tumors were determined based on the data found in the medical records of each patient. Definite or probable etiologic factors were identified. Data analysis was performed with SPSS version 16 and a p-value ${\leq}0.05$ was considered as significant. Results: A total of 203 patients, with a mean age of 65.7 years (SD=11.2), with primary lung cancer were identified, 81.3% being men. Of the total, 110 cases (54.2%) were living in urban areas. In 53.2% of cases, the site of tumor was on the right side and in 72.9% of cases the lesion was centrally located. The histological types of lung cancer were squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in 107 cases (52.7%), adenocarcinoma (AC) in 30 cases (14.8%), and small cell carcinoma (SC) in 27 cases (13.3%). Significant correlations between the gender and residence, smoking, and the histological type and location (central or peripheral) of tumor were found. The percentage of smokers was 75.2% in men and 15.8% in women. Conclusions: Smoking was the most important risk factor and squamous cell carcinoma the most common histological type of lung cancer in our study. Male sex and being a smoker was associated with histological types of SCC while being nonsmoker had relationship with adenocarcinoma.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.296-302
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• 2011

Insect-resistant transgenic rice was developed by inserting the mCry1Ac1 a modified gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). For biosafety assessment, we studied the effects on survival of cantor Daphnia magna, a commonly used as a model organism in ecotoxicological studies. D. magna fed on Bt rice and its near non-genetically modified (GM) counterparts (Nakdong) grown in the same environment (100% ground rice suspension). The Bt rice was comfirmed to have the insertion of T-DNA and protein expression by the polymerase chain reaction and ELISA analysis. Feeding study showed similar cumulative immobility and abnormal response of D. magna between Bt rice and non-GM counterparts. 48 h-$EC_{50}$ values of Bt rice and non-GM rice showed 4,429 and 2,889 mg/L respectively. The rice no observed effect concentration (NOEC) values for D. magna was suggested 1,000 mg/L. We conclude that the tested Bt-rice and Nakdong similar cumulative immobility for D. magna the widely used model organism. We found out that there is strong possibility that the growth of Bt rice didn't affect to non-target insects.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.178-182
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• 2006

The purpose of this research is to remove the bromate that is a disinfection by-poduct of water purification by ozone. I achieved a high rate of removal with iron, copper, or silver impregnated activated carbon by using both the adsorbing power of granular activated carbon and the oxidizing power of metal ions as deoxidizing agents. In the removal test of bromate with the quantity of activated carbon input I injected each activated carbon by 0.1, 0.3, 0.1, and 1.0 g and let them react for 240 minutes. I found the quantity of removed bromate was in proportion to the amount of input. The removal rate of bromate increased about 20% when I used acid treated activated carbon. The metal impregnated activated carbon had a higher removal rate of bromate than that of general activated carbon by about $30{\sim}50%$. Iron impregnated activated carbon showed a 92% removal rate of bromate. Iron, copper, or silver impregnated activated carbon removed about $0.9{\sim}1.5mg\;{BrO_3}^-/g$ while general activated carbon removed about $0.02{\sim}0.45mg\;{BrO_3}^-/g$. In the continuous column reaction, there were breakthrough phenomena at 96, 180, and 252 hours when I tested EBCT by 1, 2 and 3 minutes while I was changing the flux rate of bromate from 15.6 to 46.8 mL/min.

• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.145-153
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• 1991

Human neutrophil cathepsin-G, which has been known as one of the active enzymes causing inflammatory diseases, was purified by two steps procedure involving one size exclusion (Ultorogel AcA54) and one ion exchange (CM-Sephadex) chromatography. Purified HNCGs were cross-reacted with Anti-HNCathepsin-G antibodies which were radised in rabbits and purified by cathepsin-G labeled Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography. HNCGs were effectively inhibited by NSAIDs including phenylbutazone, sulindac, oxyphenbutazone, salicylic acid and salicyluric acid. $IC_{50}_s$ of these drugs for inhibition of Cathepsin G were 0.3-0.8 mM. Other NSAIDs including aspirin showed little or no inhibition effect on the activity of Cathepsin G. These results strongly indicated that NSAIDs which showed inhibition effect on the activity of HNCGs possibly be at least a part of mechanism of action which might be related to direct inhibition of cathepsin G at the tissue destruction sites beside of their known mechanism of action as an anticyclo-oxygenase in treatment of inflammatory diseases. Lipid soluble component of Korean Red Ginseng which was known as an anti-inflammatory agent inhibited HNCGs strongly, but no other fractions did inhibited HNCGs. Antibiotics including novobiosin and rifamycin showed some inhibition effect on HNCGs, i. e.., $IC_{50}$ of these drugs were 2.6 mM and 1.5 mM respectively, and other antibiotics including penicillin G showed no or negligible inhibition effect on the activity of HNCGs. However. tetracyclines inhibited HNCGs very effectively at the concentration of therapeutic range. The inhibition effect of the activity of HNCGs by tetracycline are not related to the N-dimethyl radical on the 4 position of the tetracycline molecule. Furthermore, N-dedimethylated tetracyclines may have beneficial effect for long term treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases without developing any drug resistance to microorganisms.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.333-339
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• 2005

B/K protein is a novel protein containing double C2-like domains. We examined the specific signaling pathway that regulates the transcription of B/K in PC12 cells. When the cells were treated with forskolin ($50{\mu}M$), B/K mRNA and protein levels were time-dependently decreased, reaching the lowest level at 3 or 4 hr, and thereafter returning to the control level. Chemicals such as dibutyryl-cAMP, cellpermeable cyclic AMP (cAMP) analogue and CGS21680, adenosine receptor $A_{2A}$ agonist, also repressed the B/K transcription. However, 1,9-dideoxyforskolin did not show inhibitory effect on B/K transcription, suggesting direct involvement of cAMP in the forskolin-induced inhibition of B/K transcription. Effect of forskolin, dibutyryl cAMP and CGS21680 was significantly reduced in PKA-deficient PC12 cell line (PC12-123.7). One cAMP-response element (CRE)-like sequence (B/K CLS) was found in the promoter region of B/K DNA, and electrophoretic mobility shift assay indicated its binding to CREM and CREB. Forskolin significantly suppressed the promoter activity in CHO-K1 cells transfected with the constructs containing B/K CLS, but not with the construct in which B/K CLS was mutated (AC：TG). Taken together, we suggest that the transcription of B/K gene in PC12 cells may be regulated by PKA-dependent mechanism.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.861-867
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• 2001

In this paper, in order to investigate the catalytic effect of the sludge exhausted from waterworks on NO$_{x}$ removal, we measure NO removal characteristics with and without sludge pellets in BaTiO$_3$-sludge packed-bed reactor of plate-plate geometry. NO initial concentration is 50 ppm balanced with air and a gas flow rate is 5ι/min. Gas temperature is changed from 25 to 10$0^{\circ}C$ to investigate the role of sludge pellet on removing active oxygen species and NO$_2$. BaTiO$_3$pellets is filled for coronal discharge at upstream of reactor and sludge pellets is filled for catalytic effect at downstream of reactor. The volume percent of sludge pellets to BaTiO$_3$pellets is changed from 0% to 100% and AC voltage is supplied to the reactor for discharging simulated gases. In the results, when sludge pellets is put at the downstream of plasma reactor, NO removal rate is slightly increased. However, NO$_2$and $O_3$ as by-products during NO removal is significantly decreased from 51ppm without sludge pellets to 5 ppm with sludge pellets and from 50 ppm without sludge pellets to 0.004ppm with sludge pellets, respectively. Therefore, NO$_{x}$(NO+NO$_2$) removal rate is increased up to 93%. It is thought that sludge pellet maybe react with active oxygen species and NO$_2$ generated by corona discharge in surface of BaTiO$_3$pellets, the then NO$_2$O$_3$as by-products are considerably decreased. When we increase gas temperature from room temperature to 10$0^{\circ}C$, NO removal rate is decreased, while NO$_2$ concentration is independent on gas temperature. These result suggest that the removal mechanism of active oxygen species and NO$_2$in sludge pellet is not absorption, but chemical reaction. Therefore we expect that sludge pellets exhausted for waterworks could be used as catalyst for NO$_{x}$ removal with high removal rate and low by-product.oduct.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.117-122
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• 2018

A large-capacity three-phase system air conditioner recently includes an inverter circuit to reduce power consumption. The inverter circuit uses a DC voltage that comes from DC-link power capacitor with the function of rectifying, which means AC voltage to DC voltage using a diode. An electrolytic capacitor is generally used to satisfy the voltage ripple and current ripple conditions of a DC-link power capacitor used for rectifying. Reducing the capacitance of the capacitor decreases the size, weight, and cost of the circuit. This paper proposes an algorithm to reduce the input ripple current by combining the minimum point estimation phase locked loop (PLL) phase control and the average voltage d axis current control technique. When this algorithm was used, the input ripple current decreased by almost 90%. The current ripple of the DC-link capacitor decreased due to the decrease in input ripple current. The capacitor capacity can be reduced but the electrolytic capacitor has a heat generation problem and life-time limitations because of its large equivalent series resistance (ESR). This paper proposes a method to select a film capacitor considering the current ripple at DC-link stage instead of an electrolytic capacitor. The capacitance was selected considering the voltage limitation, RMS (Root Mean Square) current capacity, and RMS current frequency analysis. A $1680{\mu}F$ electrolytic capacitor can be reduced to a $20{\mu}F$ film capacitor, which has the benefit of size, weight and cost. These results were verified by motor operation.