• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.26 no.3 s.86
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• pp.407-410
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• 1998

The aphid-attacking fungus Pandora neoaphidis was collected during May and June, 1998 at various localities: two localities at Kyunggi, three at Kangwon, one at Kyungbuk and one at Chungnam Provinces. Occurrence of this fungus has never been recorded in Korea. The potential host aphids are Acyrthosiphon kondoi, Myzus persicae, Lipaphis erysimi, Sitobion avenae, Aphis rumicis, Dactynotus species and unknown species. Microscopic characters of the fungus are described and illustrated. Pandora neoaphidis studied in this study has an extremely broad range in conidial size and shape even within a single specimen. Such variable size and shape are typical characters of the fungus. During microscopic examination of specimens, the resting-spore phase was not observed.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1019-1030
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• 2003

Platycodi Radix, the root of Platycodon grandiflorum, commonly known as Doraji, is used as a traditional oriental medicine. Extracts from the roots of P. grandiflorum have been reported to have wide ranging health benefits. In the present study, we investigated the effects of an aqueous extract from the roots of P. grandiflorum (AEPG) on the growth of human lung carcinoma A549 cells. Results obtained are as fellow; AEPG treatment resulted in the inhibition of the cell viability of A549 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Upon treatment with AEPG, A549 cells developed many of the hallmark features of apoptosis, including condensation of chromatin. Flow cytometry analysis confirmed that AEPG increased populations of apoptotic-sub G1 phase. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses indicated that the expressions of Bcl-2 was down-regulated but Bax was up-regulated in AEPG-treated A549 cells. AEPG-induced apoptotis of A549 cells was associated with rroteolytic cleavage and activation of caspase-3, release of cytochrome c from mitochondria into cytosol and down-regulation of Akt and phospho-Akt proteins in a dose-dependent manner. Induction of apoptosis by AEPG treatment was associated with inhibition and/or degradation of apoptotic target proteins such as poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, β-catenin and phospholipase C-γ 1. AEPG treatment inhibited the levels of cyclooxygenases protein of A549 cells, which was associated with the inhibition of prostaglandin E2 accumulation in a concentration-dependent fashion. Taken together, these findings suggest that P. grandiflorum has strong potential for development as an agent for prevention against human lung cancer.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.209-216
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• 2012

The biological activity of particles is largely dependent on their size in biological systems. Dispersion in the aqueous phase has been both a critical impediment to and a prerequisite for particle studies. Carbon black has been used as a surrogate to investigate the biological effects of carbonaceous particles. Here, biocompatible methods were established to disperse carbon black into ultrafine and fine particles which are generally distinguished by the small size of 100 nm. Carbon black with a distinct particle size, N330 and N990 were suspended in blood plasma, cell culture media, Krebs-Ringer's solution (KR), or physiological salt solution (PSS). Large clumps were observed in all dispersion preparations; however, sonication improved dispersion - averaged particle sizes for N330 and N990 were $85.0{\pm}42.9$ and $112.4{\pm}67.9$ nm, respectively, in plasma; the corresponding sizes in culture media were $84.8{\pm}38.4$ and $164.1{\pm}77.8$ nm. However, sonication was not enough to disperse N330 less than 100 nm in either KR or PSS. Application of Tween 80 along with sonication reduced the size of N330 to less than 100 nm, and dispersed N990 larger than 100 nm ($73.6{\pm}28.8$ and $80.1{\pm}30.0$ nm for N330 and $349.5{\pm}161.8$ and $399.8{\pm}181.1$ nm for N990 in KR and PSS, respectively). In contrast, 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) exhibited little effect. Electron microscopy confirmed the typical aciniform structure of the carbon arrays; however, zeta potential measurement failed to explain the dispersibility of carbon black. The methods established in this study could disperse carbon black into ultrafine and fine particles, and may serve as a useful model for the study of particle toxicity, particularly size-related effects.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.313-321
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• 2002

Objectives : To identify the risk factors of dementia among the elderly in a large city. Methods : A cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2001, with potential participants selected by stratified two stage cluster sampling of the elderly population of Keumgog dong, Busan. A total of 452 elderly people aged 65 years and over, underwent a two phase diagnostic procedure. Mini-mental State Examination-Korean (MMSE-K) and Samsung Dementia Questionnaire were used for the 1st stage, and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR), the Bartel ADL, and IADL Index, the Korean Geriatric Depression Scale (KGDS), the Modified Hatchinski Ischemic Scale (MHIS), and other laboratory tests were used for the 2nd stage. Results : Of the 446 participants finally chosen, 45 were confirmed with dementia, and 363 as normal, with the rests not confirmed with dementia or as normal, were excluded from the analysis. According to the logistic regression analysis, the risk of dementia was significantly higher In: people aged 80 and above (OR=4.36, 95% CI=1.97-9.62), illiterate (OR=3.58, 95% CI=1.71-7.46), who had a history of strokes (OR=6.35, 95% CI=2.71-14.87), or who had 3 history of hyperlipidemia (OR=4.74, 95% CI=1.65-13.61), compared to their counterparts. Conclusions : These results suggest that efforts to prevent strokes and hyperlipidemia can significantly decrease the risk of dementia.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.338-344
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• 2008

The improvement of energy conservation is mandatory to decrease consumption of fossil fuels and to minimize negative impacts on the environment which originates from large cooling and heating demand. The absorption heat pump technology has a large potential for energy-saving in this respect. Absorption heat pump is a means to upgrade waste heat without the addition of extra thermal energy. The higher performance of absorber is of great importance for absorption heat pump cycle. In this study, in order to improve the performance of absorber, the absorber of tangential feed of a liquid phase with spiral tube has been investigated using methanol-glycerine as a working fluid. The spiral tube and tangential feeding generate the turbulence into the liquid flow while increasing the mass and heat transfer coefficients. The simultaneous heat and mass transfer were found to take place in a liquid turbulent film in the absorber with the spiral tube during the process of gas absorption. By calculating mass and heat transfer coefficients by measurement of the concentration and the temperature of each position in the absorber, the entrance was found to be more effective in enhancing mass and heat transfer.

• Korean Journal of Geomatics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 2002

Measuring the depth of water is very important in ensuring the protection and safety of seaside. There are many difficulties in making the contour bathymetric map, and contour line due to the limitation of continuous measurement of water depth and collimation with the conventional measuring and positioning methods. But the real-time kinematic GPS (RTK GPS) positioning using a carrier phase enables us to decide a precise position without breaking a signal even under the condition of a moving environment. It is also possible to obtain an accurate depth of water in real time with a fathometer through the measuring of time delay between sending and receiving epochs. This research aims at investigation of accuracy potential of RTK GPS in combination with Echo Sounder(E/S) for the coastal mapping. Apart from this purpose, the accuracy of ambiguity resolution with the OTF(On the Fly) method was tested with respect to the initialization time. The result shows that the accuracy is better than 1cm with 5-minute initialization in the distance of 10km baseline. The seaside topography was measured by the RTK GPS only, on the other hand the seafloor topography was surveyed in combination of RTK GPS and E/S. Comparing to the volume of seaside measured by RTK GPS and digital topographical map, the difference of only 2 % was achieved. This indicates that the coastal mapping with RTK GPS is successfully conducted. In addition it is also demonstrated that the 3-dimensional perspective model resulted from the undersea topography measured by RTK GPS and E/S is very close to that from the digital map. Through this study, it was verified that RTK GPS is to be very useful method in the analysis of coastal morphology owing to its capability of getting the precise DTM for the using of harbor reclamation, dredging, and the estimation of soil movement in a river.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.236-242
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• 2010

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of the application of kimchi LAB as starter culture in the production of fermented sausages. For this, the solid-state model media composed to simulate the substantial conditions of meat mixtures were fermented for 120 h after the treatment with different concentrations of kimchi (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 3.0, and 5.0%) and lyophilized kimchi-powder (0.2 % and 0.5%). During the fermentation period, the growth of total viable cells and LAB, and the changes of pH and titratable acidity were investigated. The initial LAB counts ranged from 7.18 to 8.34 Log CFU/ mL for kimchi media and from 6.93 to 6.94 Log CFU/mL for kimchi-powder media depending on the added concentrations. The kimchi LAB in this study were not influenced by the immobilized condition for their adaptation and growth by showing no lag phase and thus acted similar as in the submerged medium. The initially increased counts reached around 9 Log CFU/ mL in 12 h independent of the concentrations of a ded kimchi. However, the growth and metabolic activity of kimchi-powder LAB were influenced by the immobilized condition. Supposedly, as the nutrient supply in solid-state depended solely on diffusion, these differences in the souring properties were caused by the LAB topography in the medium matrix. Nevertheless, the differences in the numbers of LAB between two media were less than 0.5 Log units and the pH drop in the solidstate batches was quite rapid and reached low values. Therefore, it can be assumed that kimchi and kimchi-powder LAB showed the utility as the substitute of commercial starter culture even without a rehydrating pretreatment.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.187-191
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• 2013

Niobium nitride (NbN) films were deposited on AISI 304 stainless steels by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted dc magnetron sputtering method at different ICP powers, and the effects of ICP power on the phase formation, mechanical and chemical properties of the films were investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to analyze the crystal structure and micro-knoop hardness was used to measure the hardness of the films. Also, 3-D mechanical profiler and a ball-on-disk wear tester were used to measure the thickness of the films and to estimate wear characteristics, respectively. The thickness of the films decreased but their hardness increased with increasing ICP power, and it was confirmed that only cubic ${\delta}$-NbN(200) remained at high ICP power. At lower ICP powers, a mixture of the hexagonal ${\delta}^{\prime}$-NbN and cubic ${\delta}$-NbN phases was obtained in the films and the hardness decreased. The corrosion potential value increased gradually with increasing ICP power, but the changes of ICP power did not significantly influence the overall corrosion resistance.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.275-280
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• 2017

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Re-epithelialization has an important role in skin wound healing. Astaxanthin (ASX), a carotenoid found in crustaceans including shrimp, crab, and salmon, has been widely used for skin protection. Therefore, we investigated the effects of ASX on proliferation and migration of human skin keratinocyte cells and explored the mechanism associated with that migration. MATERIAL/METHOD: HaCaT keratinocyte cells were exposed to $0.25-1{\mu}g/mL$ of ASX. Proliferation of keratinocytes was analyzed by using MTT assays and flow cytometry. Keratinocyte migration was determined by using a scratch wound-healing assay. A mechanism for regulation of migration was explored via immunocytochemistry and western blot analysis. RESULTS: Our results suggest that ASX produces no significant toxicity in human keratinocyte cells. Cell-cycle analysis on ASX-treated keratinocytes demonstrated a significant increase in keratinocyte cell proliferation at the S phase. In addition, ASX increased keratinocyte motility across the wound space in a time-dependent manner. The mechanism by which ASX increased keratinocyte migration was associated with induction of filopodia and formation of lamellipodia, as well as with increased Cdc42 and Rac1 activation and decreased RhoA activation. CONCLUSIONS: ASX stimulates the migration of keratinocytes through Cdc42, Rac1 activation and RhoA inhibition. ASX has a positive role in the re-epithelialization of wounds. Our results may encourage further in vivo and clinical study into the development of ASX as a potential agent for wound repair.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.119-124
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• 2014

Physalis alkekengi var. francheti Hort. is known as an insecticide and traditional remedy for liver related diseases. Therefore, this study investigated the chemopreventive effects of extracts and several solvent fractions (n-hexane, dichloromethane, n-butanol, water) of Physalis alkekengi var. francheti Hort. First, their cytotoxicity and NQO1 activity were measured using an MTT assay, plus a quinone reductase [NAD(P)H dehydrogenase (quinone); NAD(P)H: (quinone acceptor) oxidoreductase, EC 1.6.99.2]-inducing activity assay was performed using cultured murine hepatoma cells (Hepa1c1c7) and its mutant cells(BpRc1). The reduction of electrophilic quinones by NQO1 is an important detoxification pathway and major mechanism of chemoprevention. When compared with the other solvent soluble fractions with different polarities, the dichloromethane fraction of Physalis alkekengi var. francheti Hort. showed a higher NQO1-inducing activity that was also dose-dependent. Moreover, the dichloromethane fraction of Physalis alkekengi var. francheti Hort. induced ARE-luciferase activities in HepG2-C8 cells that were generated by transfecting the ARE-luciferase gene construct, suggesting the Nrf2-ARE-mediated induction of anti-oxidative enzymes. In conclusion, the dichloromethane-soluble fraction of Physalis alkekengi var. francheti Hort. showed a relatively strong induction of detoxifying enzymes, thereby meriting further study to identify the active components and evaluate their potential as cancer preventive agents.