• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.359-364
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• 2008

We have investigated optical and structural properties of $Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}N$/GaN and $Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}N/GaN/Al_{0.15}Ga_{0.85}N/GaN$ heterostructures (HSs) grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, by means of Hall measurement, high-resolution X-ray diffraction, and temperature- and excitation power-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. A strong GaN band edge emission and its longitudinal optical phonon replicas were observed for all the samples. At 10 K, a 2DEG-related PL peak located at ${\sim}\;3.445\;eV$ was observed for $Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}N$/GaN HS, while two 2DEG peaks at ${\sim}\;3.42$ and ${\sim}\;3.445\;eV$ were observed for $Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}N/GaN/Al_{0.15}Ga_{0.85}N/GaN$ HS due to the additional $Al_{0.15}Ga_{0.85}N$ layers. Moreover, the emission intensity of the 2DEG peak was higher in $Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}N/GaN/Al_{0.15}Ga_{0.85}N/GaN$ HS than in $Al_{0.3}Ga_{0.7}N$/GaN HS probably due to an effective confinement of the photo-excited holes by the additional $Al_{0.15}Ga_{0.85}N$ layers. The 2DEG-related emission intensity decreased with increasing temperature and disappeared at temperatures above 150 K. To investigate the origin of the new 2DEG peaks, the energy-band structure for multiple AlGaN/GaN HSs were simulated and compared with the experimental data. As a result, the observed high- and low-energy peaks of 2DEG can be attributed to the spatially-separated 2DEG emissions formed at different AlGaN/GaN heterointerfaces.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.653-661
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• 2019

The first small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics have recently been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S., and the demand for a new RNA therapeutics bioanalysis method-which is essential for pharmacokinetics, including the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of siRNA therapeutics-is rapidly increasing. The stem-loop real-time qPCR (RT-qPCR) assay is a useful molecular technique for the identification and quantification of small RNA (e.g., micro RNA and siRNA) and can be applied for the bioanalysis of siRNA therapeutics. When the anti-HPV E6/E7 siRNA therapeutic was used in preclinical trials, the established stem-loop RT-qPCR assay was validated. The limit of detection was sensitive up to 10 fM and the lower limit of quantification up to 100 fM. In fact, the reliability of the established test method was further validated in three intra assays. Here, the correlation coefficient of $R^2$>0.99, the slope of -3.10 ~ -3.40, and the recovery rate within ${\pm}20%$ of the siRNA standard curve confirm its excellent robustness. Finally, the circulation profiles of siRNAs were demonstrated in rat serum, and the pharmacokinetic properties of the anti-HPV E6/E7 siRNA therapeutic were characterized using a stem-loop RT-qPCR assay. Therefore, the stemloop RT-qPCR assay enables accurate, precise, and sensitive siRNA duplex quantification and is suitable for the quantification of small RNA therapeutics using small volumes of biological samples.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.702-711
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• 2015

This study was conducted to determine the feasibility of using Gastrodia elata Blume as a cosmetic raw material by investigating the physiological activities of its extracts, varying the concentration, solvent, and fermentation method (non-fermentation and fermentation using lactic acid bacteria and effective microorganisms). Of the extracts in three different solvents-water, EtOH, and 70% EtOH-at four different concentrations (0.725, 1.25, 2.5, and 5 mg/mL), the EtOH extracts demonstrated the highest contents of antioxidants (flavonoids, polyphenols, and DPPH free radical scavengers). The DPPH free radical scavenging activity in the EtOH extracts of EM-fermented Gastrodia elata Blume increased from $27.08{\pm}0.5%$ at 1.25 mg/mL to $35.89{\pm}0.8%$ at 2.5 mg/mL. The tyrosinase inhibitory activity test was performed to measure skin-whitening capacity and revealed the LB-fermented EtOH extracts to be the most efficacious ($39.1{\pm}0.4%$ at 0.725 mg/mL, $62.8{\pm}1.5%$ at 2.5 mg/mL). Viability was found to exceed 85% in RAW 264.7 cells treated with all extracts (water, EtOH, 70% EtOH at 10, 25, $50{\mu}L$, fermented and non-fermented), thus proving that Gastrodia elata Blume extracts do not cause inflammation. When RAW 264.7 cells were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide as positive controls under the same conditions to determine the antioxidant activity in the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS), EM-fermentation was found to impart excellent antioxidant capacity. This study verified the physiological activities of fermented Gastrodia elata Blume extracts that are best suited for cosmetic ingredients, such as antioxidants, tyrosinase inhibitors and anti-inflammatory agents.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.423-433
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• 2009

Folate and vitamin $B_{12}$ are essential cofactors for homocysteine (Hcy) metabolism. Homocysteinemia has been related with cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease. We examined the effect of folate and/or vitamin $B_{12}$ deficiency on biomarkers of one carbon metabolism in blood, liver and brain, and analyzed the correlation between vitamin biomarkers in mild and moderate homocysteinemia. In this study, Sprague-Dawley male rats (5 groups, n = 10) were fed folatesufficient diet (FS), folate-deficient diet (FD) with 0 or 3 g homocystine (FSH and FDH), and folate-/vitamin $B_{12}$-deficient diet with 3 g homocystine (FDHCD) for 8 weeks. The FDH diet induced mild homocysteinemia (plasma Hcy 17.41 ${\pm}$ 1.94 nmol/mL) and the FDHCD diet induced moderate homocysteinemia (plasma Hcy 44.13 ${\pm}$ 2.65 nmol/mL), respectively. Although liver and brain folate levels were significantly lower compared with those values of rats fed FS or FSH (p < 0.001, p < 0.01 respectively), there were no significant differences in folate levels in liver and brain among the rats fed FD, FDH and FDHCD diet. However, rats fed FDHCD showed higher plasma folate levels (126.5 ${\pm}$ 9.6 nmol/L) compared with rats fed FD and FDH (21.1 ${\pm}$ 1.4 nmol/L, 22.0 ${\pm}$ 2.2 nmol/L)(p < 0.001), which is the feature of "ethyl-folate trap"by vitamin $B_{12}$ deficiency. Plasma Hcy was correlated with hepatic folate (r = -0.641, p < 0.01) but not with plasma folate or brain folate in this experimental condition. However, as we eliminated FDHCD group during correlation test, plasma Hcy was correlated with plasma folate (r = -0.581, p < 0.01), hepatic folate (r = -0.684, p < 0.01) and brain folate (r = -0.321, p < 0.05). Hepatic S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) level was lower in rats fed FD, FDH and FDHCD than in rats fed FS and FSH (p < 0.001, p < 0.001 respectively) and hepatic S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) level was significantly higher in those groups. The SAH level in brain was also significantly increased in rats fed FDHCD (p < 0.05). However, brain SAM level was not affected by folate and/or vitamin $B_{12}$ deficiency. This result suggests that dietary folate- and vitamin B12-deficiency may inhibit methylation in brain by increasing SAH rather than decreasing SAM level, which may be closely associated with impaired cognitive function in nutritional homocysteinemia.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.268-268
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• 2016

Chemical sensors have attracted much attention due to their various applications such as agriculture product, cosmetic and pharmaceutical components and clinical control. A conventional chemical and biological sensor is consists of fluorescent dye, optical light sources, and photodetector to quantify the extent of concentration. Such complicated system leads to rising cost and slow response time. Until now, the most contemporary thin film transistors (TFTs) are used in the field of flat panel display technology for switching device. Some papers have reported that an interesting alternative to flat panel display technology is chemical sensor technology. Recent advances in chemical detection study for using TFTs, benefits from overwhelming progress made in organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) electronic, have been studied alternative to current optical detection system. However numerous problems still remain especially the long-term stability and lack of reliability. On the other hand, the utilization of metal oxide transistor technology in chemical sensors is substantially promising owing to many advantages such as outstanding electrical performance, flexible device, and transparency. The top-gate structure transistor indicated long-term atmosphere stability and reliability because insulator layer is deposited on the top of semiconductor layer, as an effective mechanical and chemical protection. We report on the fabrication of InGaZnO TFTs with silver nanowire as the top gate electrode for the aim of chemical materials detection by monitoring change of electrical properties. We demonstrated that the improved sensitivity characteristics are related to the employment of a unique combination of nano materials. The silver nanowire top-gate InGaZnO TFTs used in this study features the following advantages: i) high sensitivity, ii) long-term stability in atmosphere and buffer solution iii) no necessary additional electrode and iv) simple fabrication process by spray.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.611-616
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• 2011

In the study, annealing temperature was optimized by comparing with avrami crystallization rate and constant (k) using non-oriented PLA film as a base film. Crystallization rate constant of PLA film was 1.64, 1.68, and 1.26 at $120^{\circ}C$, $130^{\circ}C$, and $140^{\circ}C$, respectively. Annealing temperature was mainly affected on the surface properties such as rougnness (Ra) and kinetic friction coefficient (${\mu}_k$). Roughness of PLA film was 0.006 ${\mu}m$ at $80^{\circ}C$ and increased to 0.009 ${\mu}m$ 0.015 ${\mu}m$, 0.027 ${\mu}m$, and 0.029 ${\mu}m$ at $110^{\circ}C$, $120^{\circ}C$, $130^{\circ}C$ and $140^{\circ}C$, respectively. Kinetic friction coefficient decreased 0.45 to 0.43, 0.33, 0.31, 0.27 as annealing temperature was at $80^{\circ}C$, $110^{\circ}C$, $120^{\circ}C$, $130^{\circ}C$, and $140^{\circ}C$, respectivly. In addition, rate constant (k) was 0.58, 0.46, and 0.39 with adding 1 wt%, 3 wt%, and 5 wt% talc, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.107-115
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• 2009

Particular interest in the role of convection in vapor crystal growth has arisen since some single crystals under high gravity acceleration of $10g_0$ appear considerably larger than those under normal gravity acceleration ($1g_0$). For both ${\Delta}T=60\;K$ and 90 K, the mass flux increases by a factor of 3 with increasing the gravity acceleration from $1g_0$ up to $10g_0$. On the other hand, for ${\Delta}T=30\;K$, the flux is increased by a factor of 1.36 for the range of $1g_0{\leq}g{\leq}10g_0$. The maximum growth rates for $1g_0$, $4g_0$, $10g_0$ appear approximately in the neighborhood of y = 0.5, and the growth rates shows asymmetrical patterns, which indicate the occurrence of either one single or more than one convective cell. The maximum growth rate for $10g_0$ is nearly greater than that for $1g_0$ by a factor of 2.0 at $P_B=20\;Torr$. For three different gravity levels of $1g_0$, $4g_0$ and $10g_0$, the maximum growth rates are greater than the minimum rates by a factor of nearly 3.0, based on $P_B=20\;Torr$. The mass flux increases with increasing the gravity acceleration, for $1g_0{\leq}g_y{\leq}10g_0$, and decreases with increasing the partial pressure of component B, xenon (Xe), $P_B$. The $|U|_{max}$ is directly proportional to the gravity acceleration for $20\;Torr{\leq}P_B{\leq}300\;Torr$. As the partial pressure of $P_B$ (Torr) decreases from 300 Torr to 20 Torr, the slopes of the $|U|_{max}s$ versus the gravity accelerations increase from 0.1 sec to 0.17 sec. The mass flux of $Hg_2Cl_2$ is exponentially decayed with increasing the partial pressure of component B, $P_B$ (Torr) from 20 Torr up to 300 Torr.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.657-661
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• 2009

Liquid microparticulated seaweed calcium was manufactured via a wet grinding process. Thereafter, different forming agents such as cyclodextrin, gum arabic, and Na-caseinate were added to the liquid calcium, which was then spray-dried to investigate the quality of the powdered calcium treatments. The moisture contents of samples were approximately 2%. It was also determined that the different kinds of forming agents did not affect the spray drying efficiency. In addition, calcium solubility was the highest in a solution of pH 2. In buffer solution and vinegar, the powdered calcium made with gum arabic showed the highest solubility among the treatments. The calcium contents of all the powdered microparticulate seaweed calcium samples were about 28%, and calcium content was not affected by the forming agents. The spray-dried calcium powder made by spray drying with gum arabic had the highest water vapor uptake, whereas the seaweed calcium was stable in terms of water adsorption. The results of SEM observations indicated that a portion of the spray-dried calcium powders were in nano-scale after wet-grinding. Among the treatments, the use of saccharides as a forming agent resulted in the most uniform particle distribution after spray-drying.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.157-162
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• 2013

Methoxychlor (MXC) was developed to be a replacement for the banned pesticide DDT. HPTE [2,2-bis (p-hydroxyphenyl)-1,1,1-trichloroethane], which is an in vivo metabolite of MXC, has strong oestrogenic and anti-androgenic effects. MXC and HPTE are thought to produce potentially adverse effects by acting through oestrogen and androgen receptors. Of the two, HPTE binds to sex-steroid receptors with greater affinity, and it inhibits testosterone biosynthesis in Leydig cells by inhibiting cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme activity and cholesterol utilisation. In a previous study, MXC was shown to induce Leydig cell apoptosis by decreasing testosterone concentrations. I focused on the effects of MXC on male mice that resulted from interactions with sex-steroid hormone receptors. Sex-steroid hormones affect other organs including the kidney and liver. Accordingly, I hypothesised that MXC can act through sex-steroid receptors to produce adverse effects on the testis, kidney and liver, and I designed our experiments to confirm the different effects of MXC exposure on the male reproductive system, kidney and liver. In these experiments, I used pre-pubescent ICR mice; the puberty period in ICR mice is from postnatal day (PND) 45 to PND60. I treated the experimental group with 0, 100, 200, 400 mg MXC/kg b.w. delivered by an intra-peritoneal injection with sesame oil used as vehicle for 4 weeks. At the end of the experiment, the mice were sacrificed under anaesthesia. The testes and accessory reproductive organs were collected, weighed and prepared for histological investigation. I performed a chemiluminescence immune assay to observe the serum levels of testosterone, LH and FSH. Blood biochemical determination was also performed to check for other effects. There were no significant differences in our histological observations or relative organ weights. Serum testosterone levels were decreased in a dose-dependent manner; a greater dose resulted in the production of less testosterone. Compared to the control group, testosterone concentrations differed in the 200 and 400 mg/kg dosage groups. In conclusion, I observed markedly negative effects of MXC exposure on testosterone concentrations in pre-pubescent male mice. From our biochemical determinations, I observed some changes that indicate renal and hepatic failure. Together, these data suggest that MXC produces adverse effects on the reproductive system, kidney and liver.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.105-113
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• 2016

The present study investigated the immobilization of lipases on silica nanoparticles and silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles as supports with a functional group to enhance the stability of lipase. The influence of functional groups, such as the epoxy group and the amine group, on the activity and stability of immobilized lipase was also studied. The epoxy group and the amino group were introduced onto the surface of nanoparticles by glycidyl methacrylate and aminopropyl triethoxysilane, respectively. Immobilized Candida rugosa lipase on silica nanoparticles and silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles with a functional group showed slightly lower initial enzyme activities than free enzyme; however, the immobilized Candida rugosa lipase retained over 92 % of the initial activity, even after 3 times reuse. Lipase was also immobilized on the silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles by cross-linked enzyme aggregate (CLEA) using glutaraldehyde and covalent binding, respectively, were also studied. Immobilized Candida rugosa lipase on silica nanoparticles and silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles by CLEA and covalent binding showed higher enzyme activities than free enzyme, while immobilized Candida rugosa lipase retained over 73 % of the initial activity after 5 times reuse.