• BMB Reports
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.373-378
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• 2003

Effects of L-arginine and NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) on the renal dysfunction that is induced by cisplatin (CDDP) were investigated. A single dose of CDDP (7.5 mg/kg i.p.) induced renotoxicity, which was manifested by increasing the sensitivity of isolated urinary bladder rings to acetylcholine (ACh), together with a significant elevation of serum urea and creatinine, and a severe decrease in serum albumin. Moreover, renal dysfunction was further confirmed by a significant decrease of enzyme activities, such as glutathione peroxidase, GSH-Px (E.C 1.11.1.9), catalase (E.C 1.11.1.6), as well as a significant increase in lipid peroxides that were measured as malondialdhyde (MDA) in kidney tissue homogenates. The administration of L-arginine (70 mg/kg/d p.o in drinking water 5 d before and 5 d after the CDDP injection) significantly ameliorated the renotoxic effects of CDDP, as judged by restoring the normal responses of isolated bladder rings to Ach, and also by an improvement in a range of renal function indices, which included serum urea and creatinine concentrations and kidney weight. In addition, L-arginine prevents the rise of MDA, as well as a reduction of GSH-Px and catalase activities in kidney tissues homogenates. On the other hand, the administration of L-NAME (4 mg/kg/d p.o) resulted in no protection against renal dysfunction that was induced by CDDP treatment. The findings of this study suggest that L-arginine can attenuate kidney injury that is produced by CDDP treatment. In addition, L-arginine may be a beneficial remedy for CDDP-induced renal toxicity, and could be used to improve the therapeutic index of CDDP.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.190-193
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• 2015

Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is a hypersensitivity lung disease due to bronchial colonization of Aspergillus fumigatus that occurs in susceptible patients with asthma or cystic fibrosis. A 10-year-old girl was referred to the Department of Pediatric Pulmonology for persistent consolidations on chest radiography. Pulmonary consolidations were observed in the right upper and left lower lobes and were not resolved with a 4-week prescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics. The patient had a history of atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis but no history of asthma. She had no fever but produced thick and greenish sputum. Her breathing sounds were clear. On laboratory testing, her total blood eosinophil count was $1,412/mm^3$ and total serum IgE level was 2,200 kU/L. Aspergillus was isolated in the sputum culture. The A. fumigatus-specific IgE level was 15.4 kU/L, and the Aspergillus antibody test was also positive. A chest computed tomography scan demonstrated bronchial wall thickening and consolidation without bronchiectasis. An antifungal agent was added but resulted in no improvement of pulmonary consolidations after 3 weeks. Pulmonary function test was normal. Methacholine provocation test was performed, revealing bronchial hyperreactivity ($PC_{20}=5.31mg/mL$). Although the patient had no history of asthma or bronchiectasis, ABPA-seropositivity was suspected. Oral prednisolone (1 mg/kg/day) combined with antifungal therapy was started. Pulmonary consolidations began decreasing after 1 week of treatment and completely resolved after 1 month. This is the first observed and treated case of seropositive ABPA in Korean children without previously documented asthma.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1516-1519
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• 2001

The data consisted of 369 lactation records for calvings over a sixteen-year period (1972-1987) and included only cows that had normal milk records. The data were analysed using a linear model containing the fixed effects of parity, year of calving and season of calving. The least squares means${\pm}$S.E. were $1,273{\pm}58.4kg$ for milk yield, and for post-partum body weight (kg) at 2, 3 and 4 months after calving were $343.40{\pm}3.96$, $346.10{\pm}4.10$ and $352.54{\pm}4.26$, respectively. With the exception of season of calving, the effects of parity and year of calving were significant (p<0.01) on the performance of the animals. Thus, the mean-milk yields 1162, 1351 and 1350, were similar for pre-, peak- and post rainy seasons, respectively. On the other hand, as parity increased from 1 to 3, milk yield also increased, but thereafter, there was a gradual decline in milk yield. Similarly, post-partum body weight also increased with parity. However, no consistent pattern for year effect was observed which probably was a reflection of the variation in climatic conditions, or forage quality and/or availability. The phenotypic correlations between milk yield and post-partum body weights were negative and small (ranging from -0.01 to -0.08). However, high milk production in cows was associated with longer calving interval. The implications from the phenotypic correlations are suggestive of one or two possibilities. Firstly, selection for increased body weight may actually result in decreased milk yield. Also, a substantial genetic antagonism may exist between milk yield and fertility in the crossbred cows. Therefore, it is important that selection to improve milk production should take into consideration the reproductive performance of the cows.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.2367-2372
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• 2015

One of various low-density parity-check(LDPC) codes that has been adopted in many communication standards due to its error correction ability is a quasi-cyclic LDPC(QC-LDPC) code, which leads to comparable decoder complexity. One of the main blocks in the QC-LCDC code decoder is a multi-size circular shifter(MSCS) that can perform various size rotation. The MSCS can be implemented with many structures, one of which is based on Banes network. The Benes network structure can perform the normal MSCS operation efficiently, but it cannot use the properties coming from specifications like rotation sizes. This paper proposesd a scheme where the Benes network structure can use the rotation size property with the modification of the control signal generation. The proposed scheme is applied to the MSCS of IEEE 802.16e WiMAX QC-LDPC decoder to reduce the number of MUXes and the critical path delay.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.362-368
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• 2012

Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) is an intestinal commensal bacterium implicated as a risk factor for colon cancer. The key virulence factor is a secreted toxin called B. fragilis toxin (BFT). In this study we used an in vitro bioassay to examine the prevalence of ETBF in colonic washings from patients with colorectal polyps and normal control patients. We found that 9.3% of polyp patients and 10.9% of non-polyp patients harbored ETBF, respectively. A total of nine ETBF clinical isolates were isolated and confirmed to be positive for the BFT gene by PCR analysis and the ability to induce IL-8 secretion in the colonic epithelial cell line HT29/c1. Two of the ETBF clinical strains were characterized further in vitro and in vivo. We found that the two ETBF clinical isolates induced E-cadherin cleavage in HT29/c1 cells and promoted colonic inflammation in C57BL/6 mice. Our results indicate that the prevalence of ETBF in polyp patients were similar in non-polyp patients suggesting that ETBF carriage does not positively correlate to polyp incidence.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.108-115
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• 2014

The friction behaviors of bulk amorphous thermal spray coating (BAC) and second phase-reinforced composite coatings using a high velocity oxy-fuel spraying process were investigated using a ball-on-disk test rig that slides against a ceramic ball in an atmospheric environment. The surface temperatures were measured using an infrared thermometer installed 50 mm from the contact surface. The crystallinities of the coating layers were determined using X-ray diffraction. The morphologies of the coating layers and worn surfaces were observed using a scanning electron microscope and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The results show that the friction behavior of the monolithic amorphous coating was sensitive to the testing conditions. Under lower than normal loads, a low and stable friction coefficient of about 0.1 was observed, whereas under a higher relative load, a high and unstable friction coefficient of greater than 0.3 was obtained with an instant temperature increase. For the composite coatings, a sudden increase in friction coefficient did not occur, i.e., the transition region did not exist and during the friction test, a gradual increase occurred only after a significant delay. The BAC morphology observations indicate that viscous plastic flow was generated with low loads, but severe surface damage (i.e., tearing) occurred at high loads. For composite coatings, a relatively smooth surface was observed on the worn surface for all applied loads.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.561-566
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• 1994

Serum $\alpha$-tocopherol was measured in cattle to evaluate normal range and to investigate the difference of $\alpha$-tocopherol levels between healthy cattle and diseased cattle. Seventy two heads of 1 year old beef Cattle have 429.9$\pm$77.2 $\mu\textrm{g}$/100ml of Serum $\alpha$-tocopherol. The Serum $\alpha$-tocopherol values of calves with diarrhea(8 heads), pneumonia(6 heads) and piroplasmosis(4 heads) were 87.1$\pm$19.2, 126.3$\pm$45.7 and 106.3$\pm$30.9$\mu\textrm{g}$/100ml, respectively. But that of calves in good health (S heads) was 357.t$\pm$68.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$/100m1. And the values of diseased calves are significantly lower an that of calves in good health(p<0.05). Seasonaly, serum $\alpha$-tocopherol levels of dairy Holstein cows were 529.9$\pm$ 120.3(March), 540.2$\pm$127.2(June), 566.9$\pm$149.5(September) and 550,0$\pm$ 125.4(December)$\mu\textrm{g}$/100m1, respectively. The values on autumn was the highest than that of othor seasons. Serum H-tocopherol level of cows with retained placenta was 262.2$\pm$40.6$\mu\textrm{g}$/100m1. And the level of retained placenta was significantly lower than that of healthy cattle regardless seasonal variation(p<0.05).

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.39-46
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• 1998

$CO_2$ gas shielded arc welding has been characterized with its harsh arc compared to Ar-based shielding gases and with its high level of spattere specially in welding current range of 250~300 amperes. In this range of welding current, the metal transfer mode showed to be changed from short circuit to globular with the increase of welding voltage resulting in so-called the transitional mode in which both modes of transfer appeared together. To characterize the transitional mode, the short circuit events were divided into two groups, i.e. normal short circuit (N.S.C) which has short circuit time $(t_s)$ over 2msec and instantaneous short circuit (I.S.C) of $t_s$$\leq$2msec. The experimental results showed that the number of N.S.C decreased almost linearly with the increase of welding voltage and appeared to be not related with spatter generation rate. However I.S.C became to be pronounced in the transitional condition and its number reached the maximum value at around 29.0 volts. Considering the relation with the spatter generation rate, it was found that the number of I.S.C had a very strong correlation with the spatter generation rate of the transitional condition. It was further demonstrated that spatter generation rate decreased quite linearly with the decrease of I.S.C frequency. It implies that I.S.C is the most important waveform factor controlling the spatter generation of the transitional mode, i.e. in the middle range of welding current. Based on these results, It was discussed that in the transitional mode the basic concept of waveform control for suppressing spatter generation would be different from the one applied for typical short circuit transfer mode of low welding current.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.691-696
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• 2011

In order to the neuroprotective effect of electroacupuncture (EA), the present study examined the effects of electroacupuncture inacupoint ST36 (Stomach 36) on trimethyltin chloride (TMT)-induced cognitive impairments rat using the Morris water maze (MWM) task and immunohistochemistry staining. The rats were randomly divided into the following groups: naive rat (Normal), TMT injection rat (Control), TMT injection + EA treated rat inacupoint ST36 (ST36) and TMT injection + EA treated rat in non-acupoint, base of tail (Non-AC). Electroacupuncture (2Hz, 2mA, and 10 minutes)was applied either to the acupuncture point ST36 or the nonacupuncture point in the tail for the last 14 days. In the water maze test, the animals were trained to find a platform in a fixed position during 4d and then received 60s probe trial on the $5^{th}$ day following removal of platform from the pool. Rats with TMT injection showed impaired learning and memory of the tasks and treatment with EA in acupoint ST36 (P<0.05) produced a significant improvement in escape latency to find the platform after $2^{nd}$ day and retention trial in the Morris water maze. Consistent with behavioral data, treatment with EA in acupoint ST36 also significantly increased expression of Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) immunoreactive neurons in the hippocampus compared to the Control group. These results demonstrated that EA in acupoint ST36 has a protective effect against TMT-induced neuronal and cognitive impairments. The present study suggests that EA in acupoint ST36 might be useful in the treatment of TMT-induced learning and memory deficit.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.213-219
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• 2017

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common skin disease characterized by chronic and relapsing inflammatory dermatitis with immunological disturbances. Spleen deficiency (脾虛) is one of the major causes of AD, so development of animal model is required for AD research that reflects the pattern identification. The groups that we have used in this study included Senna folium extracts (SFE), 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB), and normal mice. Therefore, the present study was developed to atopic dermatitis mouse model with spleen deficiency in 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) and senna leaves extracts induced AD in NC/Nga mice. The results demonstrated that senna leaves extract treatment significantly increased the dermatitis clinical score and epidermal thickness in AD-like skin lesions. We also proved beyond doubt that there was occurrence of erythema and skin moisture indices in the senna leaves extract groups. Further, we also found that the level of serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) in the senna leaves extract-treated group was increased. The amount of IL-4, IL-13, $TNF-{\alpha}$ and $TGF-{\beta}$ mRNA determined by real-time PCR was increased remarkably when senna leaves extract groups were treated on dorsal skin. Senna leaves extract groups significantly promoted the number of CD11B+/Gr-1 cell in skin, as well as the number of CD4+/CD8+ cell in dorsal skin compared with control. The review summarizes recent process in our understanding of the immunopathophysiology of spleen deficiency AD and the implications for spleen deficiency mouse models of AD on drug discovery from medical plants.