• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.373-377
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• 2014

Background: This paper aimed to verify the effects of renal replacement therapy on changing the levels of serum creatinine for different veno-arterial and veno-venous configurations in prolonged extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) patients. Methods: The subjects were chosen 71 patients who had undergone more than 1,440 minutes (24 hours) of the therapy from among 117 patients who had undergone ECMO insertion between January 2008 and December 2012. The patients were separated into the veno-arterial configuration group I (51 patients) and the veno-venous configuration group II (20 patients). The difference in the level of serum creatinine (${\Delta}Cr$) between before or just after ECMO insertion ($Cr_I$) and the level when the pump time was between 2,880 and 4,320 minutes ($Cr_F$) was checked (${\Delta}Cr=Cr_F-Cr_I$), and the average ${\Delta}Cr$ for each group was compared using a Student t-test at the confidence interval (CI) of 95%. Results: The change in the level of serum creatinine was an increase of 0.341 mg/dL (${\sigma}$=0.9202) for group I and a decrease of 0.120 mg/dL (${\sigma}$=1.5292) for group II. The change was significantly high for group I (p=0.011, CI=95%). Meanwhile, within group I, when renal replacement therapy was not done, there was a significant increase in the level of serum creatinine (p=0.009, CI=95%). Conclusion: For ECMO insertion patients whose pump time was more than 1,440 minutes, there was a significant change in the level of serum creatinine when renal replacement therapy was not done, for the veno-arterial configuration of group I.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.247-260
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• 2014

Rock masses at the site for the $2^{nd}$ step construction of the KAERI Underground Research Tunnel (KURT) are divided into six units to establish a rock mechanics model that is dependent on the geological characteristics and degree of joint development. The site primarily consists of three granitic units (G1, G2, and G3), two dykes (D1 and D3), and a fault zone of poor rock mass quality (F3). The F3 unit crosses the tunnel at the beginning of the site of $2^{nd}$ step construction. The rock masses of each unit are classified by RMR (Rock Mass Rating), Q-system, and RMi (Rock Mass Index), all based on borehole logging data. The deformation modulus, rock mass strength, cohesion, and friction angle for each unit are calculated using established empirical relationships. The representative rock mass classification and geotechnical parameters for the rock mass units are established, and a rock mechanics model for the site is proposed, which will be useful in the design and stability analysis of the $2^{nd}$ step construction of KURT.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.23-32
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• 2015

Phase change materials based on ultra high molecular weight of polyethylene (UHMWPE) blended with paraffin wax (mp $65^{\circ}C$) were studied in this paper. In addition, this paper reviews recent studies on the preparation of shape stabilized phase change materials (SSPCM), such as SSPCM from UHMWPE and paraffin wax (mp $65^{\circ}C$), their basic properties and possible applications to latent heat storage. The preparation method was an absorption method. Also, SSPCM composites were prepared by using a hot press at $200^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. The analysis for the shape ability of SSPCM to improve heat efficiency was measured by FTIR, SEM, DSC, XRD, and ARES. UHMWPE composites with 30 wt% paraffin wax (mp $65^{\circ}C$) demonstrated less deterioration of physical property and effective thermal property compared with other conditions. As a result, these SSPCMs could be used for the heat storage and release materials for various products.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.153-161
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to evaluate effect of heavy metals (i.e., $Cu^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, $Cr^{6+}$, $Cd^{2+}$, $Hg^{2+}$, and $Pb^{2+}$) to toxicity of Triclosan as binary mixture. The individual toxicity and combined toxic effects of Triclosan with heavy metals were evaluated by Vibrio fischeri assay. In individual toxicity, the $Hg^{2+}$ was found to be most toxic followed by Triclosan, $Pb^{2+}$, $Cr^{6+}$, $Cu^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, and $Cd^{2+}$, respectively. To evaluate combined toxic effect, correlation analysis of 'predicted value' calculated by Concentration addition (CA) model and Independent action (IA) model with 'experimental value' were performed based on the toxicity of individual compound. As a result, all of the combinations showed that IA model were more correlated with experimental value than CA model. On the basis of the median effect concentration of combination ($EC_{50mix}$) predicted by IA model, experimental $EC_{50mix}$ of Triclosan + Cu, Triclosan + Zn, Triclosan + Pb, Triclosan + Hg, Triclosan + Cd, and Triclosan + Cr were 191%, 226%, 138%, 137%, 209%, and 138% of $EC_{50mix}$ predicted by IA model, respectively, indicating that all of the combinations produced antagonistic effect.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.93-96
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• 2011

It has been shown that a nucleotide substitution at position 770 in Escherichia coli 16S rRNA, which is implicated in forming the evolutionary conserved B2c intersubunit bridge, has a detrimental effect on ribosome function. In order to isolate second-site revertants that complement ribosomes containing C770G, we performed a random mutagenesis of the 16S rRNA gene and selected clones that could produce more CAT protein translated by specialized ribosome. One of the clones contained two nucleotide substitutions at positions 569 and 904 (C569G and U904C) and these mutations partially complemented the loss of protein-synthesis ability caused by C770G. Further studies using the isolated revertant will provide information about which part of 16S rRNA is interacting with C770 and the consequence of the structure formed by these interactions in the process of protein synthesis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.308-309
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• 2012

One of the critical issues in the growth of multijunction solar cell is the formation of a highly doped Esaki interband tunnel diode which interconnects unit cells of different energy band gap. Small electrical and optical losses are the requirements of such tunnel diodes [1]. To satisfy these requirements, tens of nanometer thick gallium arsenide (GaAs) can be a proper candidate due to its high carrier concentration in low energy band gap. To obtain highly doped GaAs in molecular beam epitaxy, the temperatures of Si Knudsen cell (K-cell) for n-type GaAs and Be K-cell for p-type GaAs were controlled during GaAs epitaxial growth, and the growth rate is set to 1.75 A/s. As a result, the doping concentration of p-type and n-type GaAs increased up to $4.7{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ and $6.2{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$, respectively. However, the obtained n-type doping concentration is not sufficient to form a properly operating tunnel diode which requires a doping concentration close to $1.0{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ [2]. To enhance the n-type doping concentration, n-doped GaAs samples were grown with a lower growth rate ranging from 0.318 to 1.123 A/s at a Si K-cell temperature of $1,180^{\circ}C$. As shown in Fig. 1, the n-type doping concentration was increased to $7.7{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$ when the growth rate was decreased to 0.318 A/s. The p-type doping concentration also increased to $4.1{\times}10^{19}cm^{-3}$ with the decrease of growth rate to 0.318 A/s. Additionally, bulk resistance was also decreased in both the grown samples. However, a transmission line measurement performed on the n-type GaAs sample grown at the rate of 0.318 A/s showed an increased specific contact resistance of $6.62{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm^{-2}$. This high value of contact resistance is not suitable for forming contacts and interfaces. The increased resistance is attributed to the excessively incorporated dopant during low growth rate. Further studies need to be carried out to evaluate the effect of excess dopants on the operation of tunnel diode.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.295-305
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• 2012

The aim of this study was to isolate microorganisms from half milk samples of dairy goats by California mastitis test (CMT) during the lactation period and to further investigate the susceptibility of isolated organisms to antimicrobial drugs. From a total of 235 half milk samples with CMT scores of 2 or above from 366 dairy goats distributed throughout Jeonnam province, microorganisms were isolated from 198 (83.5%) samples either singly (99.0%) or in combination (1.0%). The most prevalent microorganism was the coagulase-negative Staphylococcus spp., (44.4%, n=88) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (24.2%, n=48), Escherichia coli (11.1%, n=22) and Streptococcus spp. (7.6%, n=15). Isolated bacteria also included Bacillus spp. (2.5%, n=5), Pseudomonas spp. (2.5%, n=5), Micrococcus spp. (1.5%, n=3), Corynebacterium spp. (1.5%, n=3), Enterococcus facium (1.0%, n=2), Morganella morganii (0.5%, n=1) and Streptococcus agalactiae (0.5%, n=1). During the summer season, a high prevalence of all microorganisms were observed in which Staphylococcus spp. (30.8%), Escherichia coli (8.6%), and Streptococcus spp. (5.6%) were among the most prevalent bacteria isolated. Staphylococcus spp. was also shown to be high in the winter (21.7%). In most samples, the presence of bacterial pathogens in goat milk led to the increase in the total somatic cell count (SCC). Most of the half milk samples of dairy goats with bacterial contamination showed SCC of ${\geq}1{\times}10^6cells/ml$ (90.4%). Minor pathogens (11.4%) were more detected from milk samples with SCC of < $1{\times}10^6cells/ml$ than major pathogens (4.1%), while the major pathogens tended to be higher from samples with SCC of ${\geq}3{\times}10^6cells/ml$. Susceptibility of these bacteria to 12 antimicrobial agents was tested by the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Results indicated that more than 90% of bacteria isolated from CMT 2+ dairy goat half milk samples were susceptible to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, amoxicillin/clavulanic, enrofloxacin and cephalothin while they were resistant to tetracycline (44.7%).

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.219-224
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• 2012

European Union prohibited the marketing of cosmetic products containing constituents that have been examined through animal experiments. Thus, non-animal test models are needed to replace animal experiments. The reconstructed skin models are important as a test system for cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and medical device safety testing. In the present study, we tried to develop an optimal skin equivalent model containing basement membrane and epidermis. For this purpose, we used mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and/or preadipocytes as well as fibroblasts as the dermal matrix cells. The formation of basement membrane and epidermis was verified by immunohistochemical stains. Among various models, the epidermis was thickest when MSCs were used in the dermal matrix. Furthermore, PCNA and involucrin distribution showed that dermal matrix with MSCs resembled human skin. Therefore, skin equivalents with MSCs could be developed as a non-animal test model to replace animal experiments.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1655-1661
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• 2007

Prolyl 4-hydroxylase (P4H) plays a central role in collagen synthesis by catalyzing the hydroxylation of the proline residue in the X-Pro-Gly amino acid sequence, and controls the biosynthesis of collagen that influences overall meat quality. In order to verify expression level of the catalytic ${\alpha}$ subunit of P4H, a 2.7 kb clone of the ${\alpha}$ subunit gene for P4H was selected from a cDNA library prepared from the muscular tissue of Sancheong berkshire pigs, and the whole gene sequence was determined. As expression level of the ${\alpha}$ subunit of P4H differed between tissues of pigs, we intended to assess more precisely the level of ${\alpha}$-subunit expression between tissues of Sancheong Berkshire pigs by using RT-PCR. Muscular and adipose tissues were taken from each pig grouped by growth stage (weighing 60, 80, and 110 kg) of Yorkshire and Sancheong Berkshire pigs, and the expression levels of the ${\alpha}$-subunit of P4H were examined. Since there were significant differences in the expression level with respect to variation in growth stage (p<0.01), an attempt was made to identify any influences of pig species and tissue variation. The muscular and adipose tissues of pigs weighing 110 kg showed higher expression levels than pigs weighing 60 kg and 80 kg. In general, significantly higher expression levels were found in muscular than in adipose tissue. The expression levels in Sancheong Berkshire were significantly higher than in Yorkshire pigs (p<0.01 or p<0.05). Since expression level of the ${\alpha}$-subunit of P4H affects the activity of P4H and is connected to the biosynthesis of collagen and increased collagen can improve meat texture, this finding may explain why meat quality of the Sancheong Berkshire pig is acclaimed in Korea. Given the higher expression levels of the ${\alpha}$-subunit gene in adipose than in muscular tissue, and also in the heavier pigs, more intensive studies are required to assess the correlation between expression level of the ${\alpha}$ subunit gene and overall meat quality.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.236-242
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• 2009

Background: Melanoma is the most fatal form of skin cancer due to its rapid metastasis. Recently, several studies reported that selenium can induce apoptosis in melanoma cells. However, the precise mechanism remains to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the effect of selenium on cell proliferation in murine melanoma and on tumor growth and metastasis in C57BL/6 mice. Methods: Cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay in selenium-treated melanoma cells. Cell cycle distribution was analysized by staining DNA with propidum iodide (PI). mRNA and protein expression related to cell cycle arrest was measured by reverse transcription PCR and western blot. Tumor growth and metastasis was measured by in vivo model. Results: Selenium was suppressed the proliferation of melanoma cells in a dose dependent manner. The growth inhibition of melanoma by selenium was associated with an arrest of cell cycle distribution at G0/G1 stage. The mRNA and protein level of CDK2/CDK4 was suppressed by treatment with selenium in a time-dependent manner. In vivo, tumor growth was not suppressed by selenium; however tumor metastasis was suppressed by selenium in mouse model. Conclusion: These results suggest that selenium might be a potent agent to inhibit proliferative activity of melanoma cells.