• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.291-297
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• 2022

Dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a type of progressive blindness that is primarily due to dysfunction and the loss of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The accumulation of N-retinylidene-N-retinylethanolamine (A2E), a by-product of the visual cycle, causes RPE and photoreceptor degeneration that impairs vision. Genes associated with dry AMD have been identified using a blue light model of A2E accumulation in the retinal pigment epithelium and transcriptomic studies of retinal tissue from patients with AMD. However, dry macular degeneration progresses slowly, and current approaches cannot reveal changes in gene transcription according to stages of AMD progression. Thus, they are limited in terms of identifying genes responsible for pathogenesis. Here, we created a model of long-term exposure to identify temporally-dependent changes in gene expression induced in human retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE-19) exposed to blue light and a non-cytotoxic dose of A2E for 120 days. We identified stage-specific genes at 40, 100, and 120 days, respectively. The expression of genes corresponding to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during the early stage, glycolysis and angiogenesis during the middle stage, and apoptosis and inflammation pathways during the late stage was significantly altered by A2E and blue light. Changes in the expression of genes at the late stages of the EMT were similar to those found in human eyes with late-stage AMD. Our results provide further insight into the pathogenesis of dry AMD induced by blue light and a novel model in vitro with which relevant genes can be identified in the future.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1321-1331
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• 2018

The aim of this study was to separate the photosensitizer that induces apoptosis of U937 and SK-HEP-1 cells from Nostoc commune. Dried N. commune was extracted with $CH_2Cl_2/MeOH$ (1:1) to separate the photosensitizer using various chromatographic techniques. The isolated compound was identified as pheophytin a ($C_{55}H_{74}N_4O_5$) with a molecular weight of 870. Its photodynamic activities were assessed under different irradiation conditions (light and non-light) at the same concentration range of $1.15-23.0{\mu}M$. The apoptosis inducing activity in U937 or SK-HEP-1 cells appeared only in the light. The mechanisms underlying the pheophytin a-mediated photodynamic inhibition of cancer cells were further investigated by examining cell morphology changes, cytotoxicity, caspase-3/7 activity, fluorescence staining, flow cytometry analysis, and DNA fragmentation in these two cell lines. The positive control and the light irradiation group showed typical apoptotic responses, including morphological changes, cytotoxicity, caspase activity, nucleus shrinkage owing to chromatin condensation, DNA laddering, and the presence of apoptotic bodies. Cytotoxicity markedly increased in a dose-dependent manner after a 12 hr exposure. Caspase-3/7 activity was higher in U937 cells than in SK-HEP-1 cells. Apoptosis induction therefore appeared to be both concentration- and light-dependent. In conclusion, pheophytin a, isolated from the blue green alga N. commune, had a photodynamic apoptosis-inducing effect on U937 and SK-HEP-1 cells. The findings reported here can be used as basic data for the development of next-generation photosensitizers from N. commune.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.341-351
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• 2020

To shed light on the genetic differences among food-originated coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS), we performed pan-genome analysis of five species: Staphylococcus carnosus (two strains), Staphylococcus equorum (two strains), Staphylococcus succinus (three strains), Staphylococcus xylosus (two strains), and Staphylococcus saprophyticus (one strain). The pan-genome size increases with each new strain and currently holds about 4,500 genes from 10 genomes. Specific genes were shown to be strain dependent but not species dependent. Most specific genes were of unknown function or encoded restriction-modification enzymes, transposases, or prophages. Our results indicate that unique genes have been acquired or lost by convergent evolution within individual strains.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2015

This paper proposes an image-dependent color image enhancement method that uses adaptive luminance enhancement and color emphasis. It effectively enhances details of low-light regions while maintaining well-balanced luminance and color information. To compare the structure similarity and naturalness, we used the tone mapped image quality index (TMQI). The proposed method maintained better structure similarity in the enhanced image than did the space-variant luminance map (SVLM) method or the adaptive and integrated neighborhood dependent approach for nonlinear enhancement (AINDANE). The proposed method required the smallest computation time among the three algorithms. The proposed method can be easily implemented using the field-programmable gate array (FPGA), with low hardware resources and with better performance in terms of similarity.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.211-214
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• 2016

House dust mite is an essential allergen in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases. Abnormal regulation of neutrophil apoptosis is an important pathogenic process in allergic diseases. In the present study, we investigated the effects of house dust mites on spontaneous apoptosis of neutrophils and its associated mechanisms. Extract of Dermatophagoides pteronissinus (DP) inhibited neutrophil apoptosis in a time-dependent manner. Cycloheximide (CHX), an inhibitor of translation, increased apoptosis of DP-treated neutrophils as well as control cells. The pro-apoptotic effect of CHX was blocked by DP in neutrophils. In addition, DP increased the phosphorylation of Bad in a time-dependent manner, indicating that it exerted an inhibitory effect on the function of Bad. These results suggest that DP has anti-apoptotic effects of neutrophils and may regulate protein synthesis and activation of Bad. Moreover, these findings may shed light on elucidation of allergy pathogenesis due to house dust mites.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.17 no.31
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• pp.115-123
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• 1994

Group scheduling, which is a kind of operations scheduling based on the GT concept is analyzed in a multi-stage manufacturing system. The purpose of this research is to develop and evaluate a heuristic algorithm for determining gro up sequence and job sequence within each group to minimize a complex cost function, i.e. the sum of the total pe-nalty cost for tardiness and the total holding cost for flow time, in a multi-stage manufacturing system with group setup time dependent upon group sequence. A heuristic algorithm for group sc heduling is developed, and a numerical example is illustrated. For the evaluation of the pro-posed heuristic algorithm, the heuristic solution of each of 63 problems is compared with that of random scheduling. The result shows that the proposed heuristic algorithm provides better solution in light of the proposed cost function.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.275-278
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• 2013

The effect of the wavelength-dependent scattering on the change of the color chromaticity in the lightguide panel of a liquid crystal display is examined. The white light emitted from the white LEDs located at the edge of the lightguide propagates in the lightguide and is scattered by the patterned dots that are placed on the bottom of the lightguide. The scattered lights that are far from the LEDs showed reddish color compared to the bluish color that is scattered from the near area from the LEDs. The color difference was between 0.01 to 0.06 depending on the resin and the thickness of the lightguide.

• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.9-11
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• 2015

The debromination of phenethyl bromide by the $B_{12}-TiO_2$ hybrid catalyst under UV light irradiation was investigated. The catalytic efficiency was dependent on the type of $TiO_2$. The anatase form of $TiO_2$ was superior to the rutile form of $TiO_2$. The selectivity of the product was also dependent on the crystal structure of $TiO_2$, and the rutile form of $TiO_2$ showed a high selectivity for the formation of the coupling product, 2,3-diphenylbutane, when compared to that of the anatase form of $TiO_2$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1995.04a
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• pp.110-110
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• 1995

This study was carried out to investigate the dose dependent antifibrotic effects of G009, the water-soluble fraction of polysaccharide extracted from Ganoderma lucidum. The experimental hepatic cirrhosis was induced by bile duct ligation/scission (BDL/S) in rats. BDL/S rats in each group were dosed 0.5, 2, 5 or 10mg/rat/day orally for 4 weeks after the operation. Antifibrotic effects were evaluated by serum biochemical values, hydroxyproline contents, and light microscopical histology.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.109-118
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to identify the behavioral, attitudinal, and demographic correlates of light, medium, and heavy users of eating out at family restaurants. Among 358 reponses from the subjects, 224 responses were utilized for the analysis, and 134 responses were reserved for validating the discriminant function. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, stepwise discriminant analysis, canonical discriminant analysis, and anova analysis were used for this study. The findings from this study were as follows: First, He behavioral characteristics were found to discriminate among the three usage groups. Second, it was found that heavy users expressed greater difference between perception and expectation on the quantity of food that are appropriately served and the consistent quality of food at every visit. Third, the usage rate of eating out was not dependent on the sex, but dependent on the companion, average expenditure, and the time of eating out in chi-square test. Finally, the results of the study provide some insight into the pattern of marketing strategies that can be successfully used by the managers of family restaurants.