• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.99-107
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• 2009

Naphthalene is bicyclic aromatic compound that is widely used in various domestic and commercial applications including lavatory scent disks, soil fumigants and moth balls. Exposure to naphthalene results in the development of bronchiolar damage, cataracts and hemolytic anemia in humans and laboratory animals. However, little information is available regarding the mechanism of naphthalene toxicity. We investigated gene expression profiles and potential signature genes in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells and human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells after 3 h and 48 h incubation with the IC$_{20}$ and IC$_{50}$ of naphthalene by using 44 k agilent whole human genome oligomicroarray and operon human whole 35 k oligomicroarray, respectively. We identified 616 up-regulated genes and 2,088 down-regulated genes changed by more than 2-fold by naphthalene in HepG2 cells. And in HL-60, we identified 138 up-regulated genes and 182 down-regulated genes changed by more than 2-fold. This study identified several interesting targets and functions in relation to naphthalene-induced toxicity through a gene ontology analysis method. Apoptosis and cell cycle related genes are more commonly expressed than other functional genes in both cell lines. In summary, the use of in vitro models with global expression profiling emerges as a relevant approach toward the identification of biomarkers associated with toxicity after exposure to a variety of environmental toxicants.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.268-274
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• 2010

Because both R-134a and R-600a are used as a refrigerant of a household refrigerator in the global market, the home-appliance industry needs an optimized cycle for both refrigerants. The objective of this study is to provide the design guideline on the optimization of a refrigeration system using both refrigerants. For both refrigerants, the performance characteristics of the refrigeration system were tested by varying refrigerant charge amount, capillary tube length, suction diameter and SLHX length. The tested refrigeration system was optimized at the refrigerant charge of 60 g and the capillary tube length of 3600 mm with R-134a, and the refrigerant charge of 34 g and the capillary tube length of 3900 mm with R-600a. The COP increased from 1.63 to 1.68 for R-134a and increased from 1.37 to 1.48 for R-600a, respectively, by applying the suction diameter expansion. In addition, the COP of the R-134a and R-600a system decreased by 2.3~2.4% as the SLHX length decreased by 300 mm.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2009

Due to the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and global warming, the importance of forest ecosystems, as a place of carbon accumulation and emission, has received a great amount of recognition lately. This study was performed to help understand and provide the current status of carbon cycle in the pinus densiflora stand, Korea. The samples were collected from average 35-years-old Pinus densifiora rands in Gongju, Youngdong, Chungsan, Muju, Mupung, and Jangsu regions. Total thirty aboveground sample trees were cut, and ten roots were sampled, and soil samples were collected. Average carbon concentrations in foliage, branch, stem bark, stem wood, and root were 55.7%, 56.0%, 56.0%, 57.3%, and 56.5%, respectively. Carbon content was estimated by the model $Wt=aD^b$ where Wt is oven-dry weight in kg and D is DBH in cm. Total carbon content (aboveground and root) was 42.39tonC/ha in the Pinus densiflora stand. The proportion of each tree component to total carbon content was high in order of stemwood, root, branch, stem bark, and foliage. Total net primary production (aboveground and root) was estimated at 6.51tonC/ha/yr in Pinus densiflora stand. The proportion of each tree component to total net primary carbon content was high in order of sternwood, root, branch, foliage and stembark. Soil carbon contents in the study sites was 43.51tonC/ha at 0-50cm soil depth.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.88-94
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• 2008

The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which is one of the major greenhouse gases, continues to rise with the increase in fossil fuel consumption. In order to mitigate global warming the amount of CO2 discharge to the atmosphere must be reduced. Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology is now regarded as one of the most promising options. To complete the carbon cycle in a CCS system, a huge amount of captured CO2 from major point sources such as power plantsshould be transported for storage into the marine or ground geological structures. Since 2005, we have developed technologies for marine geological storage of CO2,including possible storage site surveys and basic design of CO2 transport and storage process. In this paper, the design parameters which will be useful to construct on-shore and off-shore CO2 transport systems are deduced and analyzed. To carry out this parametric study, we suggested variations in thedesign parameters such as flow rate, diameter, temperature and pressure, based on a hypothetical scenario. We also studied the fluid flow behavior and thermal characteristics in a pipeline transport system.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3159-3163
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• 2012

Background: For cervical cancer the epidemiological profile is poorly known in Morocco and no data is available concerning the direct medical costs. The purpose of this work is to estimate the direct cost of medical management of invasive cervical cancer during the first year after diagnosis in Morocco. Methods: The estimation of direct costs of medical management of invasive cervical cancer during the first year after diagnosis in Morocco is based on the estimation of individual cost in each stage which covers diagnosis, treatment and follow-up during first year. The cost was estimated per patient and whole cycle-set using the costs for each drug and procedure as indicated by the Moroccan National Agency for Health Insurance. Extrapolation of the results to the whole country was used to calculate the total annual cost of cervical cancer treatments in Morocco. Results: Overall approximately 1,978 new cases of cervical cancer occur each year in Morocco. The majority (82.96%) of these cases were diagnosed at a late stage (stageII or more). The cost of one case of cervical cancer depends on stage of diagnosis, the lowest cost is $382 for stageCis followed by the cost of stageIA1 for young women (< 40 years) which is $2,952. The highest cost is for stageIV, which is $7,827. The total cost of cervical cancer care for one year after diagnosis is estimated at $13,589,360. The share allocated to treatment is the most important part of the global care budget with an annual sum of $13,027,609 whereas other cost components are represented as follows: $435,694 for annual follow-up activity and $126,057 for diagnosis and preclinical staging. Conclusion: This study provides health decision-makers with a first estimate of costs and the opportunity to achieve the optimal use of available data to estimate the needs of health facilities in Morocco.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.4311-4316
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• 2015

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary liver cancer with high global incidence and mortality rates. Current candidate drugs to treat HCC remain lacking and those in use possess undesirable side effects. In this investigation, the antiproliferative effects of dentatin (DTN), a natural coumarin, were evaluated on HepG2 cells and DTN's probable preliminary molecular mechanisms in apoptosis induction were further investigated. DTN significantly (p<0.05) suppressed proliferation of HepG2 cells with an $IC_{50}$ value of $12.0{\mu}g/mL$, without affecting human normal liver cells, WRL-68 ($IC_{50}$ > $50{\mu}g/mL$) causing $G_0/G_1$ cell cycle arrest via apoptosis induction. Caspase colorimetric assays showed markedly increased levels of caspase-3 and caspase-9 activities throughout the treatment period. Western blotting of treated HepG2 cells revealed inhibition of $NF-{\kappa}B$ that triggers the mitochondrial-mediated apoptotic signaling pathway by up-regulating cytoplasmic cytochrome c and Bax, and down-regulating Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL. The current findings suggest DTN has the potential to be developed further as an anticancer compound targeting human HCC.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2106-2115
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• 2016

To identify the global effects of (p)ppGpp in the gram-positive bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, which exhibits remarkable resistance to radiation and other stresses, RelA/SpoT homolog (RSHs) mutants were constructed by direct deletion mutagenesis. The results showed that RelA has both synthesis and hydrolysis domains of (p)ppGpp, whereas RelQ only synthesizes (p)ppGpp in D. radiodurans. The growth assay for mutants and complementation analysis revealed that deletion of relA and relQ sensitized the cells to $H_2O_2$, heat shock, and amino acid limitation. Comparative proteomic analysis revealed that the bifunctional RelA is involved in DNA repair, molecular chaperone functions, transcription, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and metabolism, suggesting that relA maintains the cellular (p)ppGpp levels and plays a crucial role in oxidative resistance in D. radiodurans. The D. radiodurans relA and relQ genes are responsible for (p)ppGpp synthesis/hydrolysis and (p)ppGpp hydrolysis, respectively. (p)ppGpp integrates a general stress response with a targeted re-programming of gene regulation to allow bacteria to respond appropriately towards heat shock, oxidative stress, and starvation. This is the first identification of RelA and RelQ involvement in response to oxidative, heat shock, and starvation stresses in D. radiodurans, which further elucidates the remarkable resistance of this bacterium to stresses.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.127-133
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• 2012

The 'SSaM-GG'(=Smart, Shared, and Mutual- Green Growth) as the five bottom lines for sustainable development is developed and suggested. Because the name of Green Growth alone is not sufficient for clear conceptualization, implementation. and etc. For the global harmonized usage & application, the Eastern-Western conceptual fusion has been performed, and verified for more than 12 years on the worldwide successes and failures.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.77-89
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• 2012

With the advent of the genomics era powered by DNA sequencing technologies, life science is being transformed significantly and biological research and development have been accelerated. Environmental biology concerns the relationships among living organisms and their natural environment, which constitute the global biogeochemical cycle. As sustainability of the ecosystems depends on biodiversity, examining the structure and dynamics of the biotic constituents and fully grasping their genetic and metabolic capabilities are pivotal. The high-speed high-throughput next-generation sequencing can be applied to barcoding organisms either thriving or endangered and to decoding the whole genome information. Furthermore, diversity and the full gene complement of a microbial community can be elucidated and monitored through metagenomic approaches. With regard to human welfare, microbiomes of various human habitats such as gut, skin, mouth, stomach, and vagina, have been and are being scrutinized. To keep pace with the rapid increase of the sequencing capacity, various bioinformatic algorithms and software tools that even utilize supercomputers and cloud computing are being developed for processing and storage of massive data sets. Environmental genomics will be the major force in understanding the structure and function of ecosystems in nature as well as preserving, remediating, and bioprospecting them.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.607-615
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• 2010

Urban green space is often at the centre of the debate on urban substantiality because it provides functions of space, e.g. for wildlife, recreation, growing vegetables, psychological wellbeing, social interaction, etc. Traditionally, the various functions of urban green spaces clearly show that green spaces contain important values that contribute to the overall quality of urban life. After Kyoto protocol, it has becoming important to more accurately evaluate carbon uptake by urban green space. Many studies have analyzed the benefits, costs, and carbon storage capacity associated with urban green space. These studies have been limited by a lack of research on urban tree biomass and carbon uptake by soil, such that estimates of carbon storage in urban systems. This study calculate more accurately the amount of carbon uptake by urban green space. This study also complement the existing methods to estimate the urban green space carbon uptake. It has been studied how to evaluate carbon uptake function of urban green space. The surface area of urban green space increased 5% by complemented method and carbon uptake is also increased. Based on this result, the carbon uptake per capita was analysed and compared to the area of carbon uptake. And this study discussed the reasons for the differences between the new and earlier estimates, as well as implications for our understanding of the global carbon cycle. In conclusion, these results could contribute as preliminary data to policy makers when climate change adaptation strategy is established.