• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.247-252
• /
• 2000

The advantages of transdermal administration are avoiding hepatic first pass effect, minimizing inter- and intra-patient variation, maintaining steady-state plasma level to provide long-term therapy from a single dose, and allowing a rapid termination of drug input. Clenbuterol, a selective ${\beta}_2-adrenergic$ receptor stimulant, has been introduced as a potent bronchodilator for patients with bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive bronchial disease. For the development of transdermal systems containing clenbuterol, two limiting factors - long lag time and low flux - must be overcome. In this study, we attempted to select optimal formulation for preparation of clenbuterol patch using hairless mouse skin and flow-through diffusion cell. The flux of clenbuterol increased as the percent of clenbuterol dose dependently in the concentration range of 5-15%. Based on this result, we fixed the concentration of clenbuterol as 15%. The effect of various penetration enhancers on percutaneous absorption of clenbuterol through hairless mouse skin was investigated. Labrafil was the most effective enhancer, which increased the permeability of clenbuterol approximately 4-fold compared with the control without penetration enhancer. Optimal enhancer concentration was 3%. The effect of various adhesives on penetration of clenbuterol was also investigated. Among the adhesives studied, MA-31 was the most effective adhesive. Furthermore, the clenbuterol patch composed of 15% clenbuterol, 3% Labrafil and 82% MA-31, which gave most excellent penetration of drug in in vitro penetration study, maintained therapeutic plasma levels in in vivo study using S.D. rats. These studies demonstrated a good feasibility of clenbuterol administration through the intact skin using a transdermal patch, and show a possibility of the development of clenbuterol patches.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.261-272
• /
• 2016

The whole world has been damaged by dramatic increase of natural disasters such as localized torrential downpour, earthquake and drought, while suffering from climate changes caused by global warming. In Korea where the continental climate and oceanic one are crossed, the frequency and the size of damages are increased by stronger typhoons and localized torrential downpours and landslides, storms and floods. Therefore, this study analyzed damage cases and their causes and examined foreign plans to prevent natural disasters, by limiting to rural villages where serious damages occur due to typhoons and localized torrential downpours and measures and infra-structures against such disasters are poorly prepared. From the findings, it attempts to suggest some plans to establish disaster safety villages by abstracting plan factors applicable to rural areas in Korea, on the basis of facilities and spatial projects.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.395-401
• /
• 2011

BACKGROUND: Potassium (K) is one of the macronutrients which are essential for plant growth and development. Its deficiency in paddy soils is becoming one of the limiting factors for increasing rice yield in Asia. METHODS AND RESULTS: To investigate physiological symptoms under K-starvation (NP) compared with complete media (NPK) condition, we measured shoot/root length, weight, nutrients, and patterns of protein expression. The shoot growth was significantly reduced, but root growth was not affected by K-starvation. However, biomasses were decreased in both shoot and root. Uptake of K was reduced up to 85%, while total concentrations of P, Ca, Mg, Na were increased in root and shoot. To better understand the starved K mechanism of rice, comparative proteome analysis for proteins isolated from rice leaves was conducted using 2-DGE. Five spots of differentially expressed proteins were analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS. Analysis of these K-starvation response proteins suggested that they were involved in metabolism and defense. CONCLUSION(s): Physiological and 2-DGE based proteomics approach used in our study results in observation of morphology or nutrients change and identification of K-starvation responsive proteins in rice root. These results have important roles in maintaining nutrient homeostasis and would also be useful for further characterization of protein function in plant K nutrition.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.425-441
• /
• 2010

Forages are the backbone of sustainable agriculture. They includes a wide variety of plant species ranging from grasses, such as tall fescue and bermudagrass, to herbaceous legumes, such as alfalfa and white clover. Abiotic stresses, especially salinity, drought, temperature extremes, high photon irradiance, and levels of inorganic solutes, are the limiting factors in the growth and productivity of major cultivated forage crops. Given the great complexity of forage species and the associated difficulties encountered in traditional breeding methods, the potential from molecular breeding in improving forage crops has been recognized. Plant engineering strategies for abiotic stress tolerance largely rely on the gene expression for enzymes involved in pathways leading to the synthesis of functional and structural metabolites, proteins that confer stress tolerance, or proteins in signaling and regulatory pathways. Genetic engineering allows researchers to control timing, tissue-specificity, and expression level for optimal function of the introduced genes. Thus, the use of either a constitutive or stress-inducible promoter may be useful in certain cases. In this review, we summarize the recent progress made towards the development of transgenic forage plants with improved tolerance to abiotic stresses.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.231-236
• /
• 2017

Salt stress is one of the most limiting factors that reduce plant growth, development and yield. However, identification of salt-inducible genes is an initial step for understanding the adaptive response of plants to salt stress. In this study, we used an annealing control primer (ACP) based GeneFishing technique to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in Italian ryegrass seedlings under salt stress. Ten-day-old seedlings were exposed to 100 mM NaCl for 6 h. Using 60 ACPs, a total 8 up-regulated genes were identified and sequenced. We identified several promising genes encoding alpha-glactosidase b, light harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein, metallothionein-like protein 3B-like, translation factor SUI, translation initiation factor eIF1, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 2 and elongation factor 1-alpha. These genes were mostly involved in plant development, signaling, ROS detoxification and salt acclimation. However, this study provides new molecular information of several genes to understand the salt stress response. These genes would be useful for the enhancement of salt stress tolerance in plants.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.533-544
• /
• 2017

In this study, the fauna of freshwater fish were investigated from March until October of 2016 in 24 independent streams in the Jeonnam and Jeonbuk provinces, which were flowing into the Yellow Sea. The health of the aquatic ecosystem in those streams was assessed through the biological and abiological character index (BAc index). During the surveyed period, a total of 4,127 individuals were collected; they belonged to 59 species of 44 genera in 18 families. The most dominant species identified was Zacco platypus, and 12 species were endemic species of Korea, including Rhodeus uyekii. The BAc index indicated a statistically significant correlation (p<0.01 or 0.05). The stage distribution of the aquatic ecosystem health assessment showed the highest rating of 41.7% at the "Fair" stage. The "Good" and "Poor" stages accounted for 20.8% while the "Excellent" stage took up 16.7%. It has been confirmed that the aquatic ecosystem health of independent streams is influenced more by the abiological character index as a consequence of geographical characteristics and artificial/natural limiting factors, than by the biological character index.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.217-220
• /
• 2009

Conductive adhesives have been investigated for use in microelectronics packaging as a lead-free solder substitute due to their advantages, such as low bonding temperature. However, high resistivity and poor mechanical behavior may be the limiting factors for the development of conductive adhesives. The metal fillers and the polymer resins provide electrical and mechanical interconnections between surface mount device components and a substrate. As metal fillers used in conductive adhesives, silver is the most commonly used due to its high conductivity and the stability. However the cost of conductive adhesives with silver fillers is much higher than usual lead-free solders and silver has poor electro-migration performance. So, copper can be a promising candidate for conductive filler metal due to its low resistivity and low cost, but oxidation causes this metal to lose its conductivity. In this study, electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) using surface modified copper fillers were developed. Especially, in order to overcome the problem associated with the oxidation of copper, copper particles were coated with silver, and the silver-coated copper was tested as a filler metal. Especially the effect of silver coating on the electrical resistance just after curing and after aging was investigated. As a result, it was found that the electrical resistance of ECA with silver-coated copper filler was clearly lower and more stable than that of ECA with pure copper filler after curing process. And, during high temperature storage test, the degradation rate of electrical resistance for ECA with silver coated copper filler was quite slower than that for ECA with pure copper filler.

• Journal of Korean language education
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.63-86
• /
• 2017

This research aims to evaluate the effects and the shortcomings of strategies for teaching paraphrasing to foreign university students. For this study, the effects of teaching paraphrasing skills on student's academic writing was investigated through the assessment of pre- and post-test writing tasks and through a focus group interview. The teaching of paraphrasing was divided into 3 instructional sessions and the focus group interview was conducted at the end of the last session. After each instructional session three trained assessors evaluated the outcomes of pre and post task writings; the in-depth focus group interviews were conducted on seven of the students in order to define better positive effects as well as shortcomings. By comparing the scores of pre- and post-task assignments it is possible to affirm that there is a meaningful difference for overall scores; moreover, in an analysis conducted on each single sub-element of the paraphrasing skill, it emerged that except for "task completion", all other four elements of "structure", "understanding core content", "change of expression" and "academic expressions" showed a statistically significant improvement in performance. On the other hand, as a result of the focus group interview, it was possible to individuate as main shortcomings insufficient vocabulary knowledge, poor overall comprehension of the reference material, lack of practice and difficulty in connect sentences organically. It is possible to consider these elements as limiting factors in understanding the reference material and making correct citations by the students. Therefore, we suggest as supplementary instructional strategies a deeper attention to the difficulty level of the text, the introduction of devices to understand better the content of the reference material and an integrated practice of the paraphrasing skill.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.661-666
• /
• 1998

Active reaction sites and electrochemical O2 reduction kinetics on La_{1-x}Sr_xMnO_{3+{\delta}} (x=0.1-0.4)/YSZ (yttria-stabilized zirconia) electrodes are investigated in the temperature range of 700-900 ℃ at $Po_2=10^{-3}$-0.21 atm. Results of the steady-state polarization measurements, which are formulated into the Butler-Volmer formalism to extract transfer coefficient values, lead us to conclude that the two-electron charge transfer step to atomically adsorbed oxygen is rate-limiting. The same conclusion is drawn from the $Po_2$-dependent ac impedance measurements, where the exponent m in the relationship of $I_o$ (exchange current density) ∝ $P_{o_{2}}^m$ is analyzed. Chemical analysis is performed on the quenched Mn perovskites to estimate their oxygen stoichiometry factors (δ) at the operating temperature (700-900 ℃). Here, the observed δ turns out to become smaller as both the Sr-doping contents (x) and the measured temperature increase. A comparison between the 8 values and cathodic activity of Mn perovskites reveals that the cathodic transfer coefficients $({\alpha}_c)$ for oxygen reduction reaction are inversely proportional to δ whereas the anodic ones $({\alpha}_a)$ show the opposite trend, reflecting that the surface oxygen vacancies on Mn perovskites actively participate in the $O_2$ reduction reaction. Among the samples of x= 0.1-0.4, the manganite with x=0.4 exhibits the smallest 8 value (even negative), and consistently this electrode shows the highest ${\alpha}_c$ and the best cathodic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.135-149
• /
• 2002

To date, research on the regulation of melanogenesis has focused on factors which affect tyrosinase, the rate-limiting enzyme in the melanogenic pathway, by searching for chemicals which competitively inhibit tyrosinase function. Many types of tyrosinase inhibitors have been developed, but no satisfactory results have been made clinically until now, To find a new whitening agent, which effectively inhibits melanogenesis, we synthesized several compounds and selected compounds by cell-based assay system. Finally, 3, 4, 5-trimethoxy cinnamaie thymol ester(TCTE, Melasolv) was selected and the effects of TCTE on melanogenesis were investigated. Treatment of mouse-derived melanocyte melan-a cells with TCTE results in a marked down-regulation of tyrosinase activity. 80% decrease of tyrosinase activity occurs with 30uM TCTE treatment for 72 hours without affecting cell growth. The inhibition of tyrosinase activity is dose-dependent and melanin content was also decreased to 40%. From the in vitro tyrosinase assay using cell extract, TCTE does not act as a direct inhibitor of the enzyme. Treatment of melan-a cultures with TCTE blocks the increase in tyrosinase activity by either forskolin, 3-isobutyl-1-methtyl-xanthine. TCTE decreased the expression of tyrosinase, TRP-1 without effects on TRP-2 protein expression through the down regulation of tyrosinase and TRP-1 mRNA. From the results of cAMP immunoassays, intracellular levels of the cyclin nucleotide are unaffected in cells treated with TCTE. The inhibitory effects of melanin synthesis were also shown in reconstitute human epidermis model by topical application. These findings suggest that TCTE can be used for studying the regulation of melanogenesis and depigmenting agent.