• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.12-27
• /
• 2004

The contamination pattern of indoor air was simulated when groundwater dissolving benzene was used for household activities. Indoor exposure scenario consisted of inhalation, ingestion, and dermal absorption. Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model was used to analyze how benzene exposed to human body was distributed in internal organs. Main exposure pathways contributing total internal dose were inhalation and ingestion while the contribution of dermal absorption was very small. Man showed higher exposure rate than woman due to his higher breath rate. For a short-term exposure, benzene concentration in venous blood of SPT, RPT and liver changed rapidly while slowly did in venous blood of adipose tissue at a low concentration. For a long-term exposure, woman accumulated about 2.1 times higher than man. Most of benzene exposed to human body was removed by exhalation and metabolism at lung and liver, respectively. For inhalation and ingestion, the benzene removals by exhalation were 69.8 and 48.4%, respectively. Relative importance of removal mechanism was different according to the inflow displacement of benzene. The results obtained from this study would help understand exposure, distribution, and removal phenomena and make plans for the reduction of the health risk associated with the contaminated groundwater by various organic compounds.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.316-325
• /
• 2003

In this paper, the effect of Ganopoly(extracts of Ganoderma lucidum) and Ganopoly/C+(70% Ganopoly + 30% chitosan) on cisplastin-induced nephrotoxicity was investigated in Sprague-Dawley rats. A single dose of cisplastin(5 ㎎/㎏) kg) was administered intraperitoneally after pretreatment of saline, Ganopoly and Ganopoly/C+ for 7 days. The nephrotoxicity and renal function were manifestated by the changes of body weight, blood pressure, biochemical changes and solute in urine and plasma. After the treatment of CDDP(cis-dichlorodiamineplatinum), a significant elevation of kidney weight, serum urea, cretinine, urine volume for 24 hours, urine magnesium, and a severe or significant decrease in body weight, blood pressure, creatinine clearance, urine osmolarity, serum albumin, etc. The nephrotoxicity was further confirmed by a significant decrease in glutathione S-transferase(GSH) in urine and kidney homogenate, GSH, glutathione peroxidase(GSH-Px) and catalase in kidney tissue. And also the lipid peroxidation was significantly increased in kidney homogenate. These signs of nephrotoxicity was ameliorated by the pretreatment and consecutive administration of Ganopoly and Ganopoly/C+ for 14 days after the Lp. injection of CDDP on 7th day after pretreatment of Ganopoly and Ganopoly/C+. The amelioration of nephrotoxicity was evidenced by significant reduction in serum urea and creatinine concentration, and improvement of other index of renal function. And The activity of antioxidant enzymes were partially recovered in kidney tissue of rats treated by CDDP and the administration of Ganopoly and Ganopoly/C+. These results indicate the cispastin induced nephrotoxicity is due to an impairment of tubular reabsorption systems enhanced by necrosis of proximal tubule, and the Ganopoly and Ganopoly/C+ has a partial protective effect on nephrotoxicity induced by CDDP. The polysacchride of Ganoderma lucidum may improve the therapeutic index of nephrotoxicity induced by CDDP. However, it is needed to elucidate the mechanism for confirming the therapeutic effect.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.642-648
• /
• 2008

The aim of this study is to investigate Chegameuiin-tang water extracts (CETE) have potent anti-obesity activities in a high fat diet-induced obesity mouse model. In this study, we designed three group (normal diet group, high fat diet group, high fat diet plus CETE group for 13-week oral administration). Increases in body weight and fat storage were inhibited by 13-week oral administration of CETE at a 500 mg/kg concentration in this animal model, while the amount of food intake was not affected. Results from blood lipid analysis showed that the levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol were significantly lowered by CETE administration, also HDL-cholesterol was increased more than high fat diet-induced obese mouse. To understand the underlying mechanism at the molecular level, the effects of CETE were examined on the expression of the genes involved in lipogenesis and lipolysis by real-time PCR. In epididymal fat of CETE-treated mice, the mRNA level of lipogenic genes such as sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 and fatty acid synthase were decreased, which was well correlated with the reduction of the epididymal fat weight. Also, CETE administration inhibited decreases of the hormone-sensitve lipase and lipoprotein lipase mRNA expressions, which are genes related with lipolysis. These results suggest that Chegameuiin-tang may have great potential as a novel anti-obesity agent.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.379-385
• /
• 2020

Phlojodicarpus sibiricus and Artemisia kruhsiana Besser are medicinal plants traditionally used in Russia. Phlojodicarpus sibiricus extracts (PSE) have been shown to have anti-obesity properties, and Artemisia kruhsiana Besser extracts (AKBE) contain terpenoid compounds that exert various medicinal effects. Here, we investigated the potential pro-apoptotic effects of PSE and AKBE in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and elucidated the underlying mechanism. PSE and AKBE treatment of six DLBCL cell lines with various genetic abnormalities effectively reduced cell viability in a dose-dependent manner, while having a minimal impact on the survival of normal murine bone marrow cells and splenocytes. This suggests that the cytotoxic effects of PSE and AKBE are specific to DLBCL cells. Therefore, we expect limited side effects when these plant extracts are administered to DLBCL patients. Our JC-1 assays demonstrate that the pro-apoptotic effects of these plant extracts are produced by a reduction of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members and, thereby, disruption of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Moreover, PSE and AKBE induce cell death independently of Myc, whose abnormalities are frequently observed in patients with DLBCL and are associated with poor prognosis. Our findings reveal hitherto uncharacterized pro-apoptotic effects of PSE and AKBE in DLBCL. Isolation of single compounds with anti-lymphoma activities should be pursued further.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.42 no.12
• /
• pp.858-868
• /
• 2019

Shoot branching is an essential agronomic trait that impacts on plant architecture and yield. Shoot branching is determined by two independent steps: axillary meristem formation and axillary bud outgrowth. Although several genes and regulatory mechanism have been studied with respect to shoot branching, the roles of chromatin-remodeling factors in the developmental process have not been reported in rice. We previously identified a chromatin-remodeling factor OsVIL2 that controls the trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) at target genes. In this study, we report that loss-of-function mutants in OsVIL2 showed a phenotype of reduced tiller number in rice. The reduction was due to a defect in axillary bud (tiller) outgrowth rather than axillary meristem initiation. Analysis of the expression patterns of the tiller-related genes revealed that expression of OsTB1, which is a negative regulator of bud outgrowth, was increased in osvil2 mutants. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed that OsVIL2 binds to the promoter region of OsTB1 chromatin in wild-type rice, but the binding was not observed in osvil2 mutants. Tiller number of double mutant osvil2 ostb1 was similar to that of ostb1, suggesting that osvil2 is epistatic to ostb1. These observations indicate that OsVIL2 suppresses OsTB1 expression by chromatin modification, thereby inducing bud outgrowth.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.157-185
• /
• 2014

The Kyoto Protocol has extended its life until 2020 by the decision at COP18 in Doha, Qatar in 2012. So has the Kyoto Mechanism of CDM, JI, and ETS. Nonetheless, the sustainability of CDM projects is jeopardized by the recent rule changes in the international emissions trade market such as EU ETS and the price decrease in emission credits. In particular, the domestic CDM projects reducing non-$CO_2$ GHG emissions are being directly affected. This study examines the trend of carbon credit price change in the international market. It also examines how the rule changes in the international emissions trade market have affected domestic non-$CO_2$ CDM projects through which mechanisms. The policy implications drawn from this study is two-fold: it suggests how the government can assist the project developers in utilizing GHG emission reduction technologies and the market in promoting investment environment before the domestic ETS enters into effect in 2015; apart from possible measures within ETS, an additional measures such as bilateral carbon offset system is suggested to help the private sector reduce uncertainty in investment and increase options to choose.

• Journal of KIISE:Information Networking
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.370-381
• /
• 2005

Mobile IP provides an efficient and scalable mechanism for host mobility within the Internet. Using Mobile If, mobile nodes may change their point of attachment to the Internet without changing their If address. However, it would result in a high signaling cost. To reduce the signaling cost, we factor in the fact that mobile users will not be actively communicating much of the time. In fact, there Is no necessity to send a binding update message to the home agent when an mobile node does not communicates with others while moving. From this point of view, we propose a lazy update strategy for minimizing signaling cost using the forwarding pointer in hierarchical Mobile IPv6. In our proposal, binding updates are sent only when a mobile node is in a busy mode. If an mobile node is in a dormant mode, binding update messages are delayed until busy mode using the forwarding pointer. As a result, our proposal can reduce the total signaling cost by eliminating unnecessary binding update messages when a mobile node Is in a dormant mode. In addition to, our proposal reduces unnecessary location update cost resulting from ping-pong effect under mobile node's dormant mode. Analysis results using the discrete analytic model presented in this paper shows that our proposal can has superior performance than hierarchical Mobile nv6 when the call-to-mobility ratio is low and the length of the forwarding pointer chain K is low.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.49-59
• /
• 2014

Rainfall-induced landslides are caused by reduction of effective stress and shear strength due to rainfall infiltration. In order to analyze the susceptibility of landslides, the statistical analysis approach has been used widely but this approach has the limitation which cannot take into account of landslide triggering mechanism. Therefore, the physically based model which can consider the process of landslide occurrence was proposed and commonly used. However, the most previous physically based model analyses evaluate and consider the strength characteristics for saturated soil only in the susceptibility analysis. But the strength parameters for unsaturated soil such as matric suction should be considered with the strength parameters for saturated soil since the shear strength in unsaturated soil also plays important role in the stability of slope. Consequently this study suggested the modified physically based slope model which can evaluate strength characteristics for both of saturated and unsaturated soils. In addition, this study evaluated the thickness of saturated part in slope with rainfall intensity and hydraulic characteristics of slope on the basis of physically based model. In order to evaluate the feasibility, the proposed model was applied to practical example in Jinbu area, Gangwon-do, which was experienced large amount of landslides in July 2006. The ROC graph analysis was used to evaluate the validation of the model, and the analysis results were compared with the results of the previous analysis approach.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.246-257
• /
• 2009

Regarding climate change, the most significant challenge the world faces is achieving the goal of stabilizing the global concentration of greenhouse gases. However, this cannot be accomplished by greenhouse gas reduction efforts of developed countries alone. In this context, a "sectoral approach" has been brought up as a way to overcome the limit of the Kyoto Protocol and induce the participation of developing countries. This paper focuses on the different types of sectoral approaches that have been suggested so far, and their criteria, scope and effectiveness. It therefore explores the potential each approach has as a policy alternative under the post-2012 scheme. On top of that, with the possibility of these sectoral approaches becoming strong future policy alternatives in mind, this paper also analyzes their applicability to the Korean industry. For the steel, petrochemical and oil industries - in which energy efficiency exceeds the world average- a technology-based approach is proposed as an alternative. For the cement, paper and power generation industries - in which energy efficiency is about the same as the global average - a sectoral crediting mechanism or an index-based approach or a sector-wide transnational approach are proposed as alternatives. Lastly, this paper suggests a future research direction for their adoption and implementation.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.67-73
• /
• 2017

For the bio-fuel conversion of algae, several processes are needed including cultivating, agglomeration, extracting and conversion to the bio-fuel. The production cost for each process makes the total production cost of algae bio-fuel conversion. The production cost of algae bio-fuel has still higher than that of the other commercial bio-fuel. The reduction of production cost for each process enables the competitive price as a bio-fuel. It is difficult to separate the algae from water because of the similar magnitude of density each other. The agglomeration and extracting of algae using ultrasonic wave is rare effect of environmental hazard and also it is appropriate technology for the next generation energy resources. The present research is investigated for the elucidation of algae behavior in the water with the ultrasonics wave. For this purpose, the unsteady computational fluid dynamic analysis has been conducted in the ultrasonic pressure field. The velocity, pressure and algae concentration changes with time have been analysed to clarify the mechanism of algae separation by ultrasonic wave.