• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.154-160
• /
• 2019

Background: Compound K (CK) is an active metabolite of ginseng saponin, ginsenoside Rb1, that has been shown to have ameliorative properties in various diseases. However, its role in inflammation and the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In this report, the antiinflammatory role of CK was investigated in macrophage-like cells. Methods: The CK-mediated antiinflammatory mechanism was explored in RAW264.7 and HEK293 cells that were activated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or exhibited overexpression of known activation proteins. The mRNA levels of inflammatory genes and the activation levels of target proteins were identified by quantitative and semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis. Results: CK significantly inhibited the mRNA expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ and morphological changes in LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells under noncytotoxic concentrations. CK downregulated the phosphorylation of AKT1, but not AKT2, in LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells. Similarly, CK reduced the AKT1 overexpression-induced expression of aldehyde oxidase 1, interleukin-$1{\beta}$, interferon-${\beta}$, and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: Our results suggest that CK plays an antiinflammatory role during macrophage-mediated inflammatory actions by specifically targeting the AKT1-mediated signaling pathway.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.59 no.1
• /
• pp.103-108
• /
• 2021

To date, there is no report on the genetic diversity of ticks in these regions. A total of 370 representative ticks from the south and east regions of Kazakhstan (SERK) and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) were selected for molecular comparison. A fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1) gene, ranging from 631 bp to 889 bp, was used to analyze genetic diversity among these ticks. Phylogenetic analyses indicated 7 tick species including Hyalomma asiaticum, Hyalomma detritum, Hyalomma anatolicum, Dermacentor marginatus, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Rhipicephalus turanicus and Haemaphysalis erinacei from the SERK clustered together with conspecific ticks from the XUAR. The network diagram of haplotypes showed that i) Hy. asiaticum from Almaty and Kyzylorda Oblasts together with that from Yuli County of XUAR constituted haplogroup H-2, and the lineage from Chimkent City of South Kazakhstan was newly evolved; and ii) the R. turanicus ticks sampled in Israel, Almaty, South Kazakhstan, Usu City, Ulugqat and Baicheng Counties of XUAR were derivated from an old lineage in Alataw City of XUAR. These findings indicate that: i) Hy. asiaticum, R. turanicus and Ha. erinacei shared genetic similarities between the SERK and XUAR; and ii) Hy. marginatum and D. reticulatus show differences in their evolution.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.203-207
• /
• 1984

This report is an investigation of the revegetation and secondary succession in the burned area of Mt. Sanseung in Taegu region. The forest fire took place in December, 1977. The survey was conducted eight times, -three times from October 1, 1983 to October 3, the same year and five times from August 10, 1984 to August 15, the same year. The floristic compositions in the sampled sites constituted 25 kinds of vascular plants and 21 kinds in the burned area and the unburned area respectively. The biological type in both the burned and unburned areas was H-D1-R5-e type, which is generally common to other areas (Taegu, Kyungpook, Chung Buk and Kangweon areas). In the burned area dominant species were Carex humilisvar. nana, Arundinella hirata and Quercus serrata and on the other hand, in the unburned area Pinus densiflora, Carex humilis var. nana, Rhododendron mucrfonulatum var. ciliatum and Quercus serrata. The species diversity diversity index(H) and eveness index(e) of the burned area were higher than those unburned area. Degree of succession (DS) was 650 in the burned area at the 6th years after the fires and 962 in the unburned area. THe vegetation of the burned area was slowly recovered as of 1984 compared with each other. According to the analysis of the soil preperties, pH, available phosphorus and exchangeable potassium were increased, but organic matter, total nitrogen and total organic carbon were decreased. It is assumed that these results were due to the forest fire.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.26-32
• /
• 2008

We report on the ferromagnetic characteristics of $Zn_{1-x}Mn_xO$ films (x = 0.3) prepared by sol-gel method on the silicon and (0001) ${\alpha}-Al_2O_3$ substrates at the annealing temperature of 700$^{\circ}C$. Magnetic measurements show that Curie temperature ($T_C$) and the coercive field ($H_C$) for the film on the silicon are about 32 K and about 275 Oe, while those for that on the sapphire are about 32 K and 425 Oe, respectively. Energy dispersive spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy measurements suggest that ferromagnetic precipitates originated by manganese oxide compound formed at the interfaces of the both substrates may be responsible for the observed ferromagnetic behavior of the films. Electron paramagnetic resonance study of the powders up to the concentration of x=0.15 supports the result.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.34-37
• /
• 2019

Gadolinium contrast agents (CAs) are integral components of clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, safety concerns have arisen regarding the use of gadolinium CAs, due to their association with nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF). Furthermore, recently the long-term retention of $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs in brains patients with normal renal function raised another possible safety issue. The safety concerns of $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs have been based on the ligand structure of $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs, and findings that $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs with linear ligand structures showed much higher incidences of NSF and brain retention of CAs than $Gd^{3+}-based$ CAs with macrocyclic ligand structure. In the current study, we report the in vivo biodistribution profile of a new highly stable multifunctional $Gd^{3+}-based$ CA, with macrocyclic ligand structure (HNP-2006). MR imaging using HNP-2006 demonstrated a significant contrast enhancement in many different organs. Furthermore, the contrast enhanced tumor imaging using HNP-2006 confirmed that this new macrocyclic CA can be used for detecting tumor in the central nervous system. Therefore, this new multifunctional HNP-2006 with macrocyclic ligand structure shows great promise for whole-body clinical application.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.169-177
• /
• 2020

In South Korea, the results of R&D in science and technology are submitted to the National Science and Technology Information Service (NTIS) in reports that have Korea national science and technology standard classification codes (K-NSCC). However, considering there are more than 2000 sub-categories, it is non-trivial to choose correct classification codes without a clear understanding of the K-NSCC. In addition, there are few cases of automatic document classification research based on the K-NSCC, and there are no training data in the public domain. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to build a highly performing K-NSCC classification system based on NTIS report meta-information from the last five years (2013-2017). To this end, about 210 mid-level categories were selected, and we conducted preprocessing considering the characteristics of research report metadata. More specifically, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) technique using only task names and keywords, which are the most influential fields. The proposed model is compared with several machine learning methods (e.g., the linear support vector classifier, CNN, gated recurrent unit, etc.) that show good performance in text classification, and that have a performance advantage of 1% to 7% based on a top-three F1 score.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.257-264
• /
• 2011

On April 20, 2010, semi-submersible offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon was exploded and sank, and 4.9 million barrels(about 778 thousand tons) of crude oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. As more than one year has been passed since the incident, a lot of investigation reports and lessons learned have been made public and also a lot more will be released soon. This paper studies the final report of the National Commission on "the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling", which was organized by the executive directive of U.S. President Barack Obama, and the interim report of Joint Investigation team of U.S. Coast Guard and BOEMRE of "Report of Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Explosion, Fire, Sinking and Loss of Eleven Members Aboard the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon". The review is focused on the response to the oil spill. And the paper suggests how to improve national marine pollution response policy. In the paper, the Korean governments is suggested to reinforce the capability for instructing and supervising the responsible party's source control measures, to review how to introduce in-situ burning and vessel of opportunity program into our country, and to continue monitoring on the progress of developments of R&D projects related to oil spill response in the U.S..

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.35-43
• /
• 2015

Purpose - This study aims to seek various plans to maintain the advancement of the overseas and domestic employment scenario through a case analysis of the Japanese industry, which maintains domestic employment while promoting the overseas advancement of companies despite having a similar industrial structure as Korea. The study further intends to derive insightful implications for Japanese manufacturing companies and government policies. Research design, data, and methodology - We selected four companies from the Japanese manufacturing industry. Being companies that were successful in increasing the domestic employment scenario while advancing in overseas markets. We utilized several secondary data sources including Japanese newspapers and report literature. Results - Previous studies have shown a negative relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) or offshoring and domestic employment. However, our results showed this relationship with respect to the Japanese manufacturing industry as follows: 1. FDI for developing overseas markets does not decrease domestic production. If Japanese companies change their strategy from exports to overseas production, there will be a consequent decrease in domestic employment of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). However, the local production that plans the sales expansion of a foreign market does not substitute domestic production. 2. Several case studies illustrate that, as the production of final goods is expanded in foreign countries, there is a corresponding increase in the export of intermediary goods from Japan. In this case, if the production process of Japanese companies is promoted in foreign markets, the amount of exported material and parts from Japan will consequently increase. 3. It is difficult to consider that the establishment of subsidiary companies in foreign countries by manufacturing companies for wholesale, retail, and services decreases domestic employment. This is because the international development of these industries needs expatriates, expatriate training organizations, and research and development (R&D) activities. 4. When there is overseas demand, the growth of local management activities is expected to increase the work of the overseas business department in the head office in Japan, if competitiveness can be secured for better localization and management speed. 5. The conversion of the domestic manufacturing industry into high value-added production is necessary. The relocation of domestic production to foreign markets decreases domestic employment. To prevent this, the upgradation of domestic production bases, including high value-added production, and R&D capability need to be strengthened. Technology-based companies must develop new technology, patents, processes, and so forth, which require extensive human resources for R&D. Conclusions - Domestic medium-sized companies that are capable of consistently supplying high value-added products should be actively encouraged to deploy into and develop overseas markets. Further, this paper considers the necessity of a guidance policy that provides suggestions for overseas deployment, by the initiation of the government, to companies that cannot do so due to the lack of foreign experience or decisions by the CEO, despite having the relevant capability and technologies to supply high value-added products.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.47 no.3
• /
• pp.469-478
• /
• 2023

Background: Nitrogen (N) is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. To support agricultural production and enhance crop yield, two major N sources, nitrate and ammonium, are applied as fertilizers to the soil. Although many studies have been conducted on N uptake and signal transduction, the molecular genetic mechanisms of N-mediated physiological roles, such as the secondary growth of storage roots, remain largely unknown. Methods: One-year-old P. ginseng seedlings treated with KNO₃ were analyzed for the secondary growth of storage roots. The histological paraffin sections were subjected to bright and polarized light microscopic analysis. Genome-wide RNA-seq and network analysis were carried out to dissect the molecular mechanism of nitrate-mediated promotion of ginseng storage root thickening. Results: Here, we report the positive effects of nitrate on storage root secondary growth in Panax ginseng. Exogenous nitrate supply to ginseng seedlings significantly increased the root secondary growth. Histological analysis indicated that the enhancement of root secondary growth could be attributed to the increase in cambium stem cell activity and the subsequent differentiation of cambium-derived storage parenchymal cells. RNA-seq and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) revealed that the formation of a transcriptional network comprising auxin, brassinosteroid (BR)-, ethylene-, and jasmonic acid (JA)-related genes mainly contributed to the secondary growth of ginseng storage roots. In addition, increased proliferation of cambium stem cells by a N-rich source inhibited the accumulation of starch granules in storage parenchymal cells. Conclusion: Thus, through the integration of bioinformatic and histological tissue analyses, we demonstrate that nitrate assimilation and signaling pathways are integrated into key biological processes that promote the secondary growth of P. ginseng storage roots.

• Journal of the Korean Graphic Arts Communication Society
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.77-88
• /
• 2012

In this report, we performed the measurements of physical properties of optical discs as a long term preservation electronic recording device and showed how to improve the preservation method of them. We collect the 1,993 optical discs from the archives of the National Archives of Korea and tested various measurements. We used DVDT-SD4 equipment to measure the quality of data, deformation of disc, the various writing strategy and manufacturer derives, which can be happened in optical discs by physical factors. We found that th quality of data are closely related with write strategy between discs and drives. This relation gives us information about data quality in optical discs for long term preservation that can be obtained from the state between empty discs and optical drives before recording. Thus, the initial selection of optimal discs and drives is critical for long term recording data preservation and the data quality after long time preservation will not be much different from that of the initial ones.