• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 2003

This study was designed to investigate the effects of main constituents of Nigella sativa (NS) seed on the survival and CNS responses in experimental animals. The toxicological investigations were conducted for the determination of median lethal doses $(LD_{50})$ of NS seed constituents [i.e. aqueous extract (AE), fixed oil (FO), volatile oil (VO)] and main components of its VO [i.e. thymoquinone (TQ), ${\alpha}-pinene$ (AP) and p-cymene (PC)]. A part of this study includes evaluation NS constituents in the induction of minimal neurological deficit (MND) as a parameter for neurotoxicity using chimney test. In this study, the i.p. $LD_{50}$ values of AE, FO, VO, TQ (suspended In 0.5%CMC), TQ (dissolved in corn oil), AP and PC, were 3020, 3371, 1853, 616.6, 90.3, 1726 and 1523 mg/kg, respectively. All the NS constituents can be considered moderately toxic ($LD_{50}$ ranged from 616.6 to 3371 mg/kg), except the oily solution of TQ, which was very toxic ($LD_{50}$ was 90.3 mg/kg). It appeared that the toxicity of the whole VO is mainly due to its content of TQ and to some extent PC. All the NS constituents induced different degrees of MND at certain dose levels. The median neurotoxic (or sedating) doses $(TD_{50})$ of AE, FO, VO, TQ (suspended in CMC) and AP and PC, were 950, 1403, 306, 88.1, >173 and 368 mg/kg, respectively. TQ was the most potent component in inducing MND, whereas the FO and AE were the least. Neurotoxicity induced by the VO in the chimney test may refer basically to its contents of TQ and to some extent PC and AP.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.236-244
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• 2010

In this paper, a planar structure negative group delay circuit(NGDC) is proposed to overcome the limited availability of the component values required for the prototype lumped element(LE) NGDC design. From the prototype LE circuit analysis, general design equations and the conditions to obtain the NGD are derived and illustrated. Then the LE circuit is converted into the planar structure by applying the transmission line resonator(TLR) theory. As a design example, the LE NGDC and the proposed planar structure NGDC are designed and compared. To estimate the commercial applicability, 2-stage reflection type planar NGDC with -5.6 ns of total group delay, -0.2 dB of insertion loss, and 30 MHz of bandwidth together with 0.1 dB and 0.5 ns of the magnitude and group delay flatness, respectively, for Wideband Code Division Multiple Access(WCDMA) downlink band is fabricated and demonstrated. Also, to show the applicability of the proposed NGDC, we have configured a simple signal cancellation loop and obtained good loop suppression performance.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.7-13
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• 2014

In this work, the application of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for the composition analysis of thin $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$ (CIGS) solar cell films ($1-2{\mu}m$ thickness) is reported. For the ablation of CIGS films, femtosecond (fs) laser (wavelength = 343nm, pulse width = 500fs) and nanosecond (ns) laser (wavelength = 266nm, pulse width = 5ns) were used under atmospheric environment. The emission spectra were detected with an intensified charge coupled device (ICCD) spectrometer and multichannel CCD spectrometer for fs-LIBS and ns-LIBS, respectively. The calibration curves for fs-LIBS and ns-LIBS intensity ratios of Ga/Cu, In/Cu, and Ga/In were generated with respect to the concentration ratios measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES).

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

Noonan syndrome (NS) and NS-related disorders (cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome, Costello syndrome, NS with multiple lentigines, or LEOPARD [lentigines, ECG conduction abnormalities, ocular hypertelorism, pulmonic stenosis, abnormal genitalia, retardation of growth and sensory neural deafness] syndrome) are collectively named as RASopathies. Clinical presentations are similar, featured with typical facial features, short stature, intellectual disability, ectodermal abnormalities, congenital heart diseases, chest & skeletal deformity and delayed puberty. During past decades, molecular etiologies of RASopathies have been growingly discovered. The functional perturbations of the RAS-mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway are resulted from the mutation of more than 20 genes (PTPN11, SOS1, RAF1, SHOC2, BRAF, KRAS, NRAS, HRAS, MEK1, MEK2, CBL, SOS2, RIT, RRAS, RASA2, SPRY1, LZTR1, MAP3K8, MYST4, A2ML1, RRAS2). The PTPN11 (40-50%), SOS1 (10-20%), RAF1 (3-17%), and RIT1 (5-9%) mutations are common in NS patients. In this review, the constellation of overlapping clinical features of RASopathies will be described based on genotype as well as their differential diagnostic points and management.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.38-49
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• 2001

This paper presents a new voltage down converter(VDC) using charge and discharge current adjustment circuitry that provides high frequency application. This VDC consist of a common driving circuit and compensation circuits: 2 sensors and each driving transistors for controlling gate current of driving transistor. These sensors are operated as adaptive biasing method with high speed and low power consumption. This circuit is designed with a $0.62{\mu}m$ N well CMOS technology. In H-spice simulation results, internal voltage is bounded ( IV, +0.6V) in proposed circuitry when load current rapidly increases and decreases during Gns between 0 and $200m{\Lambda}$. And the recovery time of internal voltage is about 7ns and 10ns when load current increases and decreases respectively. That is fast better than common driving circuit. Total power consumption is about 1.2mW.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.926-930
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• 2017

High-quality meat is of great economic importance to the pig industry. The 1-acylglycerol-3-phosphate-O-acyltransferase 5 (AGPAT5) enzyme converts lysophosphatidic acid to phosphatidic acid in the mitochondrial membrane. In this study, we found that the porcine AGPAT5 gene was highly expressed in muscle tissue, influencing meat characteristics, and we also identified a non-synonymous single-nucleotide polymorphism (nsSNP) (rs196952262, c.673 A>G) in the gene, associated with a change of isoleucine 225 to valine. The presence of this nsSNP was significantly associated with meat color (lightness), lower cooking loss, and lower carcass temperatures 1, 4, and 12 h after slaughter (items T1, T4, and T12 on the recognized quality scale, respectively), and tended to increase backfat thickness and the water-holding capacity. These results suggest that nsSNP (c.673A>G) of the AGPAT5 gene is a potential genetic marker of high meat quality in pigs.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.148-157
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• 2022

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease and is highly dependent on cellular proteins for viral propagation. Using protein microarray analysis, we identified 90 cellular proteins as HCV nonstructural 5A (NS5A) interacting partners, and selected telomere length regulation protein (TEN1) for further study. TEN1 forms a heterotrimeric complex with CTC and STN1, which is essential for telomere protection and maintenance. Telomere length decreases in patients with active HCV, chronic liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the molecular mechanism of telomere length shortening in HCV-associated disease is largely unknown. In the present study, protein interactions between NS5A and TEN1 were confirmed by immunoprecipitation assays. Silencing of TEN1 reduced both viral RNA and protein expression levels of HCV, while ectopic expression of the siRNA-resistant TEN1 recovered the viral protein level, suggesting that TEN1 was specifically required for HCV propagation. Importantly, we found that TEN1 is re-localized from the nucleus to the cytoplasm in HCV-infected cells. These data suggest that HCV exploits TEN1 to promote viral propagation and that telomere protection is compromised in HCV-infected cells. Overall, our findings provide mechanistic insight into the telomere shortening in HCV-infected cells.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.48.1-48.10
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• 2021

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) encodes small envelope protein (E) that plays a major role in viral assembly, release, pathogenesis, and host inflammation. Previous studies demonstrated that pyrazine ring containing amiloride analogs inhibit this protein in different types of coronavirus including SARS-CoV-1 small envelope protein E (SARS-CoV-1 E). SARS-CoV-1 E has 93.42% sequence identity with SARS-CoV-2 E and shared a conserved domain NS3/small envelope protein (NS3_envE). Amiloride analog hexamethylene amiloride (HMA) can inhibit SARS-CoV-1 E. Therefore, we performed molecular docking and dynamics simulations to explore whether amiloride analogs are effective in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 E. To do so, SARS-CoV-1 E and SARS-CoV-2 E proteins were taken as receptors while HMA and 3-amino-5-(azepan-1-yl)-N-(diaminomethylidene)-6-pyrimidin-5-ylpyrazine-2-carboxamide (3A5NP2C) were selected as ligands. Molecular docking simulation showed higher binding affinity scores of HMA and 3A5NP2C for SARS-CoV-2 E than SARS-CoV-1 E. Moreover, HMA and 3A5NP2C engaged more amino acids in SARS-CoV-2 E. Molecular dynamics simulation for 1 ㎲ (1,000 ns) revealed that these ligands could alter the native structure of the proteins and their flexibility. Our study suggests that suitable amiloride analogs might yield a prospective drug against coronavirus disease 2019.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.162-167
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• 2016

This study was carried out to investigate proper stem cutting position and air temperature to regenerate roots from cuttings of bitter gourd. 'NS454' (NS) and 'Dragon' (DR) cultivars were tested and the cutting position was cut at the 3rd node in the stem (treatment I) and cut at the central part (stem segment) between 3rd leaf and 4th leaf in the stem (treatment II). The air temperature was maintained at 18, 23, 28 and $35^{\circ}C$ in the growth chambers, respectively. The photosynthetic photon flux at the ground of a chamber was maintained in approximately $150-200{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}s^{-1}$ during the 16-hour photoperiod. The relative humidity in the chambers was maintained over 85%. After 10 days of cuttings, regardless of cutting position, DR and NS cultivars showed 100% the survival rate in the $18^{\circ}C$ or $23^{\circ}C$ treatments, however, most of plants $18^{\circ}C$ treatment had not rooting. In the $28^{\circ}C$ treatment, regardless of cutting position, DR and NS cultivars showed 100% of the rooting rate. In the $23^{\circ}C$ treatment, for DR cultivar, the node cutting showed 90% of rooting rate and the stem segment cutting showed 40% rooting rate. For NS cultivar, the node cutting showed 50% of rooting rate and the stem segment cutting showed 40% rooting rate. DR and NS cultivars have high rooting rate, while the rooting rate remarkably decreased in the $35^{\circ}C$ treatment. For DR cultivar, the stem segment cutting showed 5.3 of the highest rooting number and the node cutting showed 2.7 rooting number in the $28^{\circ}C$ treatment. NS cultivar was not significantly different the rooting regardless of cutting position. The results suggested that cutting at the stem segment cutting of bitter gourd is an effective cutting method for increasing survival rate and the air temperature should be maintained at $28^{\circ}C$.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.173-180
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• 2008

The human genome has evolved as a consequence of evolutionary forces, such as natural selection. In this study, we investigated natural selection on the human genes by comparing the numbers of nonsynonymous (NS) and synonymous (S) mutations in individual genes. We initially collected all coding SNP data of all human genes from the public dbSNP. Among the human genes, we selected 3 different selection groups of genes: positively selected genes (NS/S${\geq}$3), negatively selected genes (NS/S${\leq}$1/3) and neutral selection genes (0.9