• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.973-982
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• 2017

Gastrodia elata Blume often has been used for the treatment of headaches, convulsions, hypertension, and neurodegenerative diseases. The main active constituents are gastrodin, 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, vanillyl alcohol, 4-hydroxybenzylaldehyde and parishin A, B, C and E. Because Gastrodia elata has also unacceptable off-odor (swine barnyard-like) for food, there is a need to reduce it as well as allow for greater utilization as a functional food materials. In this study, a major off-odor producing substance of Gastrodia elata was fractionated by steam distillation and silica gel column chromatography. The substance was identified as p-cresol(4-methyl phenol) by GC-MS analysis and comparison of the retention time with that of an authentic compound in GC. The content of p-cresol in fermented Gastrodia elata was decreased. A fermented sample of Latobacillus sakei for 2 days was reduced to 54.7%, when compared with a unfermented sample. The five parishin derivatives in Gastrodia elata were identified by HPLC-MS analyses, and a comparison of HPLC retention times with those of authentic compounds. When compared with parishin derivatives of an unfermented Gastrodia elata, those of Gastrodia elata fermented by L. sakei, increased to 18.3% for 2 days. Increases of about 14.0~38.4% of the total phenolic compounds and 57.4~77.3% total flavonoids were found in fermented extracts, by 3 lactic acid bacteria strains. They were compared with $97.1{\pm}2.9{\mu}g/g$ and $40.9{\pm}2.0{\mu}g/g$ in the unfermented control, respectively. The extracts of Gastrodia elata Blume that were fermented by lactic acid bacteria had higher DPPH free radical scavenging activity and FRAP reducing power than the unfermented control.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.516-522
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• 1998

An Actinomycetes strain, MSA-1, containing antimicrobial component was isolated from the black sponge, Halichondzia okadai, and was identified to a genus level by morphological and chemotaxonornic methods. The gray colored spores were oval type with smooth surface and formed flexibilis spore chains. The cell wall of this strain was type I containing D-aminopimellic acid (D-DAP) and no specific sugar was detected. Phospholipid of the cell membrane was PII type including phophoethanolamine and the major fatty acids of total lipid were branched anteiso-15 : 0, iso-16 : 0, 16 : 0 and iso-17 ; 0. From these results and other characteristics described in the Bergey's Manual, this strain was identificated as a Streptomyces sp. Meanwhile, 10mg of pale yellow colored antimicreobial component was isolated by HPLC method from the cultured Streptomyces sp. (70g of cryophillized mycellis). By crystallographyc analysis, HIRESMS and NMR assignment, the antimicrobial component produced from the strain MSA-1 was elucidated as the staurosporine (indolo[2,3-a]carbazole alkaloid).

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.511-517
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• 2019

Purpose: On the basis of evidence, we aimed to reevaluate the necessity of the empirical proton pump inhibitor (PPI) trial for children with suspected gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Methods: We analyzed the frequency of GERD in 85 school-age children with gastroesophageal reflux (GER) symptoms, who received 24-hour esophageal pH monitoring and/or upper endoscopy. According to the reflux index (RI), the children were classified into normal (RI <5%), intermediate (5%${\leq}$ RI <10%), or abnormal (RI ${\geq}$10%) groups. Results: Fifty six were female and 29 were male. Their mean age was $12.6{\pm}0.5$ (${\pm}$standard deviation) years (range: 6.8-18.6). The RI analysis showed that the normal group included 76 patients (89.4%), the intermediate group included 6 patients (7.1%), and the abnormal group included 3 patients (3.5%). The DeMeester score was $5.93{\pm}4.65$, $14.68{\pm}7.86$ and $40.37{\pm}12.96$ for the normal, intermediate and abnormal group, respectively (p=0.001). The longest reflux time was $5.56{\pm}6.00$ minutes, $9.53{\pm}7.84$ minutes, and $19.46{\pm}8.35$ minutes in the normal, intermediate, and abnormal group, respectively (p=0.031). Endoscopic findings showed reflux esophagitis in 7 patients. On the basis of the Los Angeles Classification of Esophagitis, 5 of these patients were included in group A, 1 patient, in group B and 1 patient, in group C. Conclusion: The incidence of GERD was very low in school-age children with GER symptoms. Therefore, injudicious diagnostic PPI trials would be postponed until the actual prevalence of GERD is verified in future prospective studies.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.46-53
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• 2015

Background: Glucocorticoids (GCs) are commonly used in many chemotherapeutic protocols and play an important role in the normal regulation of bone remodeling. However, the prolonged use of GCs results in osteoporosis, which is partially due to apoptosis of osteoblasts and osteocytes. In this study, effects of Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) on GC-treated murine osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells and a GC-induced osteoporosis mouse model were investigated. Methods: MC3T3-E1 cells were exposed to dexamethasone (Dex) with or without KRG and cell viability was measured by the 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Realtime polymerase chain reaction was performed to evaluate the apoptotic gene expression; osteogenic gene expression and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity were also measured. Western blotting was performed to evaluate the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) proteins. A GC-induced osteoporosis animal model was used for in vivo study. Results and conclusion: The MTT assay revealed that Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) prevents loss of cell viability caused by Dex-induced apoptosis in MC3T3E1 cells. Real-time polymerase chain reaction data showed that groups treated with both Dex and KRG exhibited lower mRNA levels of caspase-3 and -9, whereas the mRNA levels of Bcl2, IAPs, and XIAP increased. Moreover, groups treated with both Dex and KRG demonstrated increased mRNA levels of ALP, RUNX2, and bone morphogenic proteins as well as increased ALP activity in MC3T3-E1 cells, compared to cells treated with Dex only. In addition, KRG increased protein kinase B (AKT) phosphorylation and decreased c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation. Moreover, microcomputed tomography analysis of the femurs showed that GC implantation caused trabecular bone loss. However, a significant reduction of bone loss was observed in the KRG-treated group. These results suggest that the molecular mechanism of KRG in the GC-induced apoptosis may lead to the development of therapeutic strategies to prevent and/or delay osteoporosis.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.361-370
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• 2016

An area comprising Juwangsan National Park and its adjacent mountains (southeastern Korean Peninsula) is a good model system for testing the effects of physical barriers to gene flows in plant populations. We predicted that plant species consisting of isolated populations are genetically more differentiated than those that are rather continuously distributed. Most populations of Sedum polytrichoides occur in four isolated valleys, and we assessed the genetic variability and structures using twelve allozyme loci in ten populations. We also compared the present results to earlier findings pertaining to the two co-occurring herbs Hylotelephium ussuriense (${\equiv}$ Sedum ussuriense) (growing only in the four isolated valleys) and S. kamtschaticum (rather continuously distributed). We found moderate levels of within-population genetic variation in S. polytrichoides ($H_{e}=0.112$). Estimates of among-population divergence in S. polytrichoides were also moderate ($F_{ST}=0.250$) and, as expected, very similar to that of H. ussuriense (0.261) but considerably higher than the variation in S. kamtschaticum (0.165). An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that S. polytrichoides and H. ussuriense had higher percentages of among-valley variation (19% each) than S. kamtschaticum (4%). Most of this variation, as also indicated by the STRUCTURE program, was due to differences in genetic profiles between the two central valleys. We concluded that the genetic differences observed between species (S. kamtschaticum vs. S. polytrichoides and H. ussuriense) are mainly due to differences in their distribution within the study area.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.540-549
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• 2021

The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is involved in breast cancer and Myxococcus fulvus KYC4048 is a myxobacterial strain that can produce a variety of bioactive secondary metabolites. Although a previous study revealed that KYC4048 metabolites exhibit anti-proliferative effects on breast cancer, the biochemical mechanism involved in their effects remains unclear. In the present study, KYC4048 metabolites were separated into polar and non-polar (ethyl acetate and n-hexane) fractions via liquid-liquid extraction. The effects of these polar and non-polar KYC4048 metabolites on the viability of breast cancer cells were then determined by MTT assay. Expression levels of Wnt/β-catenin pathway proteins were determined by Western blot analysis. Cell cycle and apoptosis were measured via fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). The results revealed that non-polar KYC4048 metabolites induced cell death of breast cancer cells and decreased expression levels of WNT2B, β-catenin, and Wnt target genes (c-Myc and cyclin D1). Moreover, the n-hexane fraction of non-polar KYC4048 metabolites was found most effective in inducing apoptosis, necrosis, and cell cycle arrest, leading us to conclude that it can induce apoptosis of breast cancer cells through the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. These findings provide evidence that the n-hexane fraction of non-polar KYC4048 metabolites can be developed as a potential therapeutic agent for breast cancer via inhibition of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.30-37
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• 2018

The social media data and the broadcasting data related to onion as well as agri-food consumer panel data were collected and investigated if the amount of money spent to purchase onion in year 2014 when onion price plunged latest were correlated with the frequencies of onion-related keywords in the social media data and the broadcasting programs because onion price in year 2018 is expected to plunge due to overproduction and there has been needs to analyze impacts of social media and broadcasting program on onion purchase in the previous similar events, and identify potential factors that can promote onion consumption in advance. What we identified from our study include a) broadcasting news programs mentioning words "onion," were correlated with onion purchase with 3 - 6 weeks in advance; b) broadcasting entertainment programs mentioning words "onion and health," were correlated with onion purchase with 11 weeks in advance; c) blog mentioning words "onion and efficacy," were correlated with onion purchase with 5 weeks in advance. Our study provided a case on how social media and broadcasting programs could be analyzed for their effects on consumer purchase behavior using big data collection and analysis in the field of agriculture. We propose to use the findings from the study may be applied to promote onion consumption.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.105-114
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• 2019

Recently, the paradigm of road policy has been focused on user safety. Recently, the number of road facility improvement project has been continuously increased but the economic feasibility (B/C ratio) is insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to select a reasonable road improvement project through accurate and objective analysis of the road safety evaluation. In this study, to develop a new road safety evaluation method, data were collected based on the current road safety evaluation method for 75 routes including national roads and provincial ones. Based on the collected data, problems were analyzed and utilized as the basic factors of the new road safety evaluation method. Therefore, in this study, traffic accidents were reflected as a general evaluation item by weighing to solve these problems, and the evaluation items were added from experiences and ideas of the local public officials. For each evaluation item, a reasonable weight was determined through AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) questionnaire evaluation with highway experts. In addition, the safety index was determined based on the evaluation criteria for each evaluation item. The criteria for evaluating the danger zone are determined by the overall safety index. Finally, the criteria for selection of road improvement projects based on the overall risk level were derived.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.377-383
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• 2019

Objectives: Exposure to fine particles in urban air has been associated with a number of negative health effects. High levels of fine particles have been detected at underground stations in big cities. We investigated the exposure conditions in four occupational groups in the Stockholm underground train system to identify high-exposed groups and study variations in exposure. Methods: $PM_1$ and $PM_{2.5}$ were measured during three full work shifts on 44 underground workers. Fluctuations in exposure were monitored by a real-time particle monitoring instrument, pDR, DataRAM. Qualitative analysis of particle content was performed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Nitrogen dioxide was measured using passive monitors. Results: For all underground workers, the geometric mean (GM) of $PM_1$ was $18{\mu}g/m^3$ and of $PM_{2.5}$ was $37{\mu}g/m^3$. The particle exposure was highest for cleaners/platform workers, and the GM of $PM_1$ was $31.6{\mu}g/m^3$ [geometric standard deviation (GSD), 1.6] and of $PM_{2.5}$ was $76.5{\mu}g/m^3$ (GSD, 1.3); the particle exposure was lowest for ticket sellers, and the GM of $PM_1$ was $4.9{\mu}g/m^3$ (GSD, 2.1) and of $PM_{2.5}$ was $9.3{\mu}g/m^3$ (GSD, 1.5). The $PM_1$ and $PM_{2.5}$ levels were five times higher in the underground system than at the street level, and the particles in the underground had high iron content. The train driver's nitrogen dioxide exposure level was $64.1{\mu}g/m^3$ (GSD, 1.5). Conclusions: Cleaners and other platform workers were statistically significantly more exposed to particles than train drivers or ticket sellers. Particle concentrations ($PM_{2.5}$) in the Stockholm underground system were within the same range as in the New York underground system but were much lower than in several older underground systems around the world.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.34-48
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was two-fold; first, to develop safety performance functions (SPF) using transportation-related big data for all types of roads in Korea were developed, Second, to provide basic information to develop measures for relatively dangerous roads by evaluating the safety grade for various roads based on it. The coordinates of traffic accident data are used to match roads across the country based on the national standard node and link system. As independent variables, this study effort uses link length, the number of traffic volume data from ViewT established by the Korea Transport Research Institute, and the number of dangerous driving behaviors based on the digital tachograph system installed on commercial vehicles. Based on the methodology and result of analysis used in this study, it is expected that the transportation safety improvement projects can be properly selected, and the effects can be clearly monitored and quantified.